S2E4 | Is context engineering the new RAG? — The Shift Podcast by Microsoft Azure

As retrieval augmented generation (RAG) matures, teams are asking a new question: Is context engineering becoming more important than RAG itself?

In this episode of The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition, members of the Microsoft Foundry team explore how context management, retrieval pipelines, and knowledge integration influence the quality of AI responses. The discussion doesn’t dismiss RAG—but examines how it’s evolving in more complex, enterprise scenarios.

Topics include:

· How context windows and retrieval strategies affect model behavior.

· The role of vector databases, knowledge bases, and hybrid search.

· Where reranking and filtering matter in practical systems.

· Why context engineering is often iterative and application‑specific.

Rather than promoting a replacement for RAG, the episode focuses on how teams are adapting retrieval approaches as applications and agents become more sophisticated.

This is a grounded look at how context is handled today—without overstating what current systems can do.

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Get to know the team:

· Allison Sparrow, Director Product Marketing https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonsparrow/

· Pamela Fox, Principal Cloud Advocate https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-s-fox/

· Matt Gotteiner, Senior Program Manager https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgotteiner/

The Shift Podcast: Agentic Edition is a place for experts to share their insights and opinions. As students of the future of technology, Microsoft values inputs from a diverse set of voices. That said, the opinions and findings of our guests are their own and they may not necessarily reflect Microsoft's positions as a company.

This episode of The Shift was recorded in February 2026. All information about products and offers is relevant to the time of recording.

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