Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central AI features
Business Central bundles a growing set of Copilot suggestion features into its standard online subscription, covering chat, record summaries, field autofill, analysis, and several transaction-specific assistants. Alongside those, Microsoft ships three named autonomous agents — Payables Agent, Sales Order Agent, and Expense Agent — that run end-to-end workflows and draw on a separate metered Copilot Credit allowance rather than the base subscription. Most of the suggestion-style features are still labeled preview by Microsoft, while the two core order-processing agents have reached general availability. A buyer evaluating the platform should expect to budget and provision Copilot Credit capacity separately from Business Central licensing once agents are turned on.
What Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Microsoft Copilot) actually ships under “AI”, split by what each feature does rather than the marketing umbrella it ships under. Licensing detail below is qualitative — how a feature is packaged, not what it costs — because vendor AI pricing moves faster than any research pass can keep current; this page never states a price.
- Assistant7
- Agent4
- Predictive3
- Generative2
- Automation2
- Search1
Every AI feature, and what kind it is
Filter by what a feature actually does, whether it is generally available, and how it is licensed. An assistant that drafts text and a model that forecasts demand are both sold as AI and answer completely different questions.
Showing 19 of 19 features
Chat with Copilot
AssistantPreviewAn employee can type a plain-language question inside Business Central to pull up a specific customer, vendor, sales order, or item record instead of building filters manually, and can ask how a task or an installed add-on works without leaving the page.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Chat runs inside the standard subscription and is not billed through the metered Copilot Credit allowance that the named agents use.
Analysis assist
AssistantPreviewA controller working a list page can describe the grouping, pivot, or filter they want in a sentence and get a ready-to-use analysis view instead of building it field by field.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Analysis assist is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Summarize with Copilot
GenerativePreviewA salesperson opening a customer or order record gets two or three generated bullet points that flag what needs attention, with links back to the underlying data to verify each point.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Summarize is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Autofill with Copilot
AssistantPreviewA buyer entering a new vendor or item record can request suggested values for blank fields, drawn from existing company data, AI-generated, or pulled from public web sources, and accept or discard each suggestion individually.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Autofill is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Bank account reconciliation assist
AutomationPreviewAn accountant reconciling a bank statement gets proposed matches for transactions the standard automatch missed, plus a suggested general ledger account for whatever is left over.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Bank reconciliation assist is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Suggest substitute items with Copilot
AssistantPreviewA sales rep working an out-of-stock order can ask Copilot to propose similar items from the catalog instead of manually cross-checking item attributes, barcodes, and reference tables.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Item substitution suggestions are bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Sales line suggestions with Copilot
AssistantPreviewAn order taker can paste a customer's email or type a rough request and have Copilot propose matching item lines for a quote, or pull up a prior order by a remembered reference number.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Sales line suggestions are bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Marketing text suggestions with Copilot
GenerativeGenerally availableA merchandiser can generate a product description for an item card from its attributes and category, adjust the tone and length, and publish the result straight to a connected Shopify store.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Marketing text suggestions are bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Suggest number series with Copilot
AssistantPreviewAn administrator setting up a new company or module can describe the numbering pattern they want in a sentence and get proposed number series instead of configuring each series field by field.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Number series suggestions are bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Map e-documents to purchase order lines with Copilot
AutomationPreviewAn accounts payable clerk can let Copilot match incoming e-invoice lines to purchase order lines automatically, including invoices whose lines don't correspond exactly to the original order.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — E-document matching is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Payables Agent
AgentGenerally availableAn accounts payable team can have incoming vendor invoice emails turned into reviewable purchase invoice drafts automatically, with the agent identifying the vendor, extracting line details, and flagging anything it isn't confident about for a supervisor to resolve.
Licensing: Metered by consumption — Payables Agent is billed through the metered Copilot Credit allowance, at a published rate per invoice and per invoice line processed.
Sales Order Agent
AgentGenerally availableA sales team can have incoming customer email requests turned into quotes and, once confirmed, orders automatically, with the agent checking item availability and corresponding with the customer directly before a reviewer approves each outgoing message.
Licensing: Metered by consumption — Sales Order Agent is billed through the metered Copilot Credit allowance, at a published rate per step such as analyzing an email or creating a quote.
Expense Agent
AgentPreviewAn employee can photograph a receipt and have the merchant, amount, date, and category extracted automatically, get real-time policy feedback before submitting, and file an expense report without needing a Business Central seat.
Licensing: Metered by consumption — Expense Agent is billed through the metered Copilot Credit allowance rather than a Business Central seat, at a flat rate per uploaded receipt.
AI development toolkit for custom agents
AgentPreviewA partner or maker can prototype a purpose-built agent against Business Central's own screens and data in a sandbox environment before committing to a full extension build.
Licensing: Metered by consumption — The toolkit is listed among the billable agent capabilities that draw on the metered Copilot Credit allowance, though Microsoft has not yet published its specific billing rates.
Advanced Tell Me search
SearchPreviewA user who doesn't know the exact page or report name can describe what they're looking for in everyday language and get matched to the right page, report, or record by meaning rather than exact keywords.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Advanced Tell Me is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Late payment prediction
PredictiveGenerally availableA collections manager can see which open invoices are likely to be paid late, scored by confidence, so they can prioritize follow-up and adjust terms before the due date passes.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Access to the underlying predictive web service is included in the Business Central subscription.
Inventory forecasting
PredictiveGenerally availableAn inventory manager can view a projected three-month demand curve for each item and location, built from the prior six months of movement, to plan replenishment ahead of stockouts.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Inventory forecasting is a standard Power BI report bundled with the subscription, with no separate metered charge stated.
Cash flow forecast
PredictiveGenerally availableA finance lead can view a forward-looking cash position built from confirmed sales, purchases, and historical patterns, and recalculate it as assumptions change.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — Cash flow forecasting draws on the Azure AI allowance bundled into the Business Central subscription rather than the Copilot Credit allowance used by the agents.
Suggest greenhouse gas emissions in sustainability journals
AssistantPreviewA sustainability coordinator entering a journal line can have Copilot estimate the total emissions from the line's description and parameters, and refine its emission factors for future entries.
Licensing: Included in the base licence — This suggestion capability is bundled into the standard subscription with no separate metered charge stated.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s AI features by the module they touch — open a module hub for the full capability picture that surrounds each one.
Cash flow forecast · Late payment prediction · Payables Agent +2 more
Inventory forecasting
Marketing text suggestions with Copilot · Sales Order Agent · Sales line suggestions with Copilot
Inventory forecasting · Sales Order Agent · Suggest substitute items with Copilot
Payables Agent · Map e-documents to purchase order lines with Copilot
Marketing text suggestions with Copilot
Analysis assist
The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Evaluation Kit
An independent assessment of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central — strengths, gaps and real pricing — plus a requirements template you can score its finance & accounting against alongside every other system on your shortlist.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Evaluation Kit
2026 Edition · PDF guide + XLSX template
ERP Research
- Buyer's guide (PDF): Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central independently assessed — where it is strong, where it is not, and what it actually costs
- Requirements template (XLSX): weight your requirements and score vendors side by side
- Structured by module, so finance & accounting sits alongside the rest of your scope
- The questions to put to the vendor and to implementation partners
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Evaluation Kit
How this compares
Generally-available AI features per module, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central against the systems most often shortlisted alongside it.
| Module |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance & Accounting | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| Manufacturing | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Supply Chain | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Sales | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| HR & Payroll | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Project Management | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Inventory Management | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Procurement | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Warehouse Management | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ecommerce | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Business Intelligence | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Quality Management | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Field Service | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Asset Management | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 generally-available AI features0 researched, none GA yet— not tracked — we have not researched this product/module combination
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation partners
Most of these features need configuration and clean data before they do anything — these firms have delivered Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central before.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central AI FAQ
Is Copilot included in our Business Central subscription, or do we pay extra for it?
Most of the Copilot suggestion features, including chat, summaries, autofill, and analysis assist, are bundled into the standard subscription. Three named agents — Payables Agent, Sales Order Agent, and Expense Agent — instead draw on a separate metered Copilot Credit allowance that a company provisions and tops up on its own.
Which Business Central AI features are ready for daily use today, and which are still being tested?
Payables Agent and Sales Order Agent have reached general availability. Chat, analysis assist, summarize, autofill, bank reconciliation assist, item substitution suggestions, sales line suggestions, number series suggestions, e-document matching, Expense Agent, and the custom agent design toolkit are all still labeled preview by Microsoft.
Can our finance team run out of AI capacity partway through the month?
Yes. Payables Agent and Sales Order Agent stop taking on new work once the allotted Copilot Credits for the period are used up, then resume automatically once more capacity is purchased or reallocated.
Can employees use the expense-tracking agent without a Business Central seat?
Yes. Expense Agent can be used through its web app, email intake, or Copilot chat without a Business Central license, billed instead through Copilot Credits.
Do these AI features work if we run Business Central on-premises?
No. Copilot and the agents are exclusive to Business Central online and are not available on-premises or in private cloud deployments.
Related Resources
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Pricing & Costs
Compare Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing, licensing, and implementation costs.
Comparison