Getting Started with AI Agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central

AI-powered agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central are reshaping how organizations automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and improve both customer and vendor interactions. These agents act as intelligent, role‑based assistants that carry out predefined business processes with accuracy, consistency, and built-in guardrails.

Business Central currently includes two ready-to-use, pre-built agents: the Payables Agent and the Sales Order Agent, along with the Agent Designer, which allows organizations to prototype and refine custom agents tailored to their unique processes.

This article explains what AI agents are, the problems they solve, and how organizations can begin applying them confidently inside Business Central.

Table of Contents:

• What Are AI Agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central?
• Payables Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Sales Order Agent in Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Agent Designer – Build Custom AI Agents

What Are AI Agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central?

AI agents in Business Central are fundamentally different from a general AI chat experience, like Copilot features in Dynamics 365 Business Central. Rather than answering open-ended questions, these agents are purpose-built automations designed to execute specific business processes. Think of them as virtual team members with narrowly defined roles.

Learn more about the distinction between Copilot and Microsoft’s Agents.

Each agent operates within strict permission boundaries. Just like a real employee, an agent is assigned its own user profile and permission set and cannot act outside of those boundaries. When the agent encounters something unusual, incomplete, or outside of its defined scope, it automatically brings in a human reviewer. This “human in the loop” model ensures the system remains safe, auditable, and highly reliable.

There are two types of Agents available in Business Central:

1. Pre-built agents: These agents are embedded directly into Business Central and operate automatically once triggered, streamlining common workflows. Examples include the Payables and Sales Order Agent.
2. Custom agents: Using Agent Designer in Dynamics 365 Business Central, organizations can securely prototype and test custom agents tailored to their specific processes and data.

Note: Organizations maintain full control over these agents and can activate, pause, or deactivate them at any time.

Payables Agent: Streamlining Invoice Processing

When Microsoft evaluated where agent-based automation could deliver the greatest impact inside Business Central, accounts payable quickly rose to the top. AP teams often manage large volumes of incoming invoices, each requiring interpretation, vendor matching, line classification, validation, and posting. Even highly efficient teams spend significant time on repetitive, manual tasks that are prone to data-entry errors.

The Payables Agent is designed to address these challenges while maintaining the precision required for financial accuracy.

How the Payables Agent Works in Business Central

The agent receives vendor invoices – typically PDFs or other attachments – and then performs the following steps:

Invoice Intake

Invoices are received through a dedicated email inbox from vendors or internal staff.

Document Interpretation

The agent extracts key invoice details, such as vendor information, dates, totals, item references, and purchase order numbers.

Matching and Validation

The agent:

• Identifies the vendor (or creates one, based on configuration).
• Matches vendor item references to internal item numbers.
• Matches invoices to purchase orders when applicable.
• Validates quantities, pricing, and totals.

Draft Vendor Invoice Creation

A draft vendor invoice is generated in Business Central, complete with line-level detail. Any fields the agent cannot confidently determine are clearly flagged for human review. Once reviewed and approved, the invoice is ready for posting and payment.

For a full demonstration of the Payables Agent in action, watch this short walkthrough:

In addition to processing invoices, the agent tracks operational metrics such as:

• Number of invoices processed.
• Number of emails reviewed.
• Estimated time saved for the AP team.
• Copilot Credit consumption.

This makes it easier for teams to understand both the cost of automation and the value it delivers.

Sales Order Agent: Turning Requests into Orders

While the Payables Agent works primarily with structured documents, the Sales Order Agent operates in one of the most unpredictable areas of the business: customer emails written in natural language.

Sales teams often receive requests that are conversational, incomplete, or spread across multiple messages. The Sales Order Agent interprets these messages, validates details, checks availability, generates quotes, prepares professional responses, and ultimately generates orders – while staying within defined permissions and controls.

This agent is especially valuable for organizations that handle high volumes of inbound requests or experience seasonal demand spikes. It significantly reduces sales teams’ manual workload while increasing accuracy and turnaround time.

Configure the Sales Order Agent

Organizations have full control over how the Sales Order Agent operates.

For example, you can:

• Assign a specific mailbox and user access.
• Define which customer emails the agent should act on.
• Decide how to handle unregistered senders.
• Control whether the agent quotes only in-stock items or also includes items available within a defined lead time.
• Set the level of autonomy, from draft-only responses to near-autonomous processing with human validation.

Even though the agent can operate independently, we recommend maintaining a level of human oversight – such as final approval – before quotes or responses are sent to customers.

How the Sales Order Agent Works in Business Central

Order Intake

The agent receives customer requests via email, with or without attachments. It verifies email validity and performs security checks before acting.

Interpretation of Requests

The agent identifies products, quantities, variants, attributes, and units of measure, even when information is incomplete or ambiguous, using contextual cues to infer intent.

Validation Against Business Central

The agent checks:

• Inventory availability and delivery dates.
• Customer-specific pricing and discounts.
• Product attributes and configurations.
• Capable-to-promise and available-to-promise logic.

Quote Creation and Customer Response

A quote is generated using Business Central data, along with a drafted customer response for review. Depending on the configuration, the agent can:

• Request human approval before sending.
• Send responses automatically.
• Convert confirmed quotes into sales orders.

Note: Agent permissions are further constrained by the permissions of the internal user managing the agent, adding multiple layers of security.

Customers receive faster, more accurate replies, while internal sales teams spend less time typing repetitive emails or manually updating records. Like the Payables Agent, the Sales Order Agent can be paused or resumed as needed, and tracks KPIs such as quotes generated, orders created, and total sales volume influenced.

For a full demonstration of the Sales Order Agent in action, watch this short walkthrough:

Agent Designer: Building Custom Agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central

One of the most transformative additions to Dynamics 365 Business Central is Agent Designer, which allows organizations to build custom agents directly inside the system.

Previously, creating this kind of functionality required external tools like Copilot Studio and specialized development skills. Agent Designer makes experimentation and iteration more accessible while remaining tightly integrated with Business Central data, security, and workflows.

How to Use Agent Designer Effectively

Assign Profiles and Permissions

Each agent is given its own security profile and inherits limitations from the user managing it, ensuring strong guardrails around data access. Best practice is to assign a dedicated permission set to each agent, in addition to inheriting the limitations from the managing user.

Write Clear, Role-Based Instructions

Microsoft recommends keeping instructions concise, structured, and hierarchical. In our experience, getting the instructions right matters more than anything else. Tasks and steps can be refined later, but instructions establish the foundation for reliable behavior.

It is also recommended that you prompt the agent and create it based on its role in your organization. Essentially, give your agent a job description.

Visit Microsoft Learn for a detailed guide on writing effective instructions for an agent.

Review, Test, and Improve 

As the agent runs:

• Each action is logged.
• Reasoning is visible through info icons.
• Users provide “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” feedback to fine-tune logic.
• Copilot Credit consumption is transparent.

As you test and refine the agent, it records what data it created and why. Providing consistent feedback helps the agent improve the quality of future outputs.

Real‑World Examples of Custom Agents

Sales Validation Agent

Given a shipment date, this agent reviews reserved inventory, releases eligible orders to the warehouse, and provides a detailed summary of its actions. Reviewers can see line-by-line reasoning, tools used, and memorized details behind each decision.

 Project Assistant Agent

When prompted to create a project (e.g., remodeling a boardroom), this agent builds a full project structure, assigns a project manager based on context, creates phases and tasks using historical patterns, and even introduces additional tasks when context suggests they’re needed.

 Manufacturing Consumption Agent

This agent interprets shop floor consumption sheets, analyzes materials and labor, creates assembly BOMs, assigns resources, and associates them with relevant sales orders after approval.

These examples show that agents extend beyond back-office automation into operational and production workflows.

You can watch our full discussion and demonstration of Agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central in this video:

Where to Get Started with Agents

The best way to begin is to start small. Identify a repetitive task, a data-heavy process, or a manual step that consumes time without adding strategic value. From there, gather feedback, refine the approach, and continue improving.

With deep expertise across the Microsoft ecosystem, Encore helps organizations determine where Dynamics 365 Business Central agents deliver the most value, when to extend with Power Platform or Copilot Studio, and how to prepare teams for change.

If you’re looking to identify your highest-impact next step, build automations, or connect AI across your Dynamics 365 Business Central environment, the Encore team is ready to guide you with clarity and integrity. Talk to an Encore expert today.

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