Microsoft Unveils Open Source NLWeb Project for Creating AI Chatbots

Microsoft has announced an open source project called NLWeb, which allows developers to add intelligent chatbots to their websites with just a few lines of code. The solution supports any AI models and enterprise data, opening up new opportunities for customer services in e-commerce, media, and other areas.

Tech May 21, 2025 0 25 Add to Reading List

Microsoft Unveils Open Source NLWeb Project for Creating AI Chatbots

Microsoft has unveiled NLWeb, a project designed to make it easier to build AI chatbots for websites. Announced at Build 2025, NLWeb lets you add a conversational interface — a text field and a submit button — with just a few lines of code. Developers can use any AI model and their own data.

Microsoft compares the project to HTML for the "agent network," emphasizing its role in enabling users to semantically interact with web content. "Just as the introduction of HTML made it easy for almost anyone to create a website, we want NLWeb to make it easy for any web publisher to create intelligent, natural language experiences for their site," the company said.

All necessary components are already available in the public domain on GitHub: lightweight code for processing requests with the possibility of expansion, ready-made connectors to popular AI models and vector databases with instructions on connecting your own solutions, tools for loading data in Schema.org, JSONL and RSS formats, as well as a web interface with a simple UI for user interaction with the chatbot.

Among the first to take advantage of the opportunity to make websites more interactive are Tripadvisor, Shopify, O'Reilly Media, Common Sense Media, and others.