Manufacturing leaders today are under constant pressure: volatile demand, fragile supply networks, inventory risk, and zero tolerance for missed customer commitments. Plants must protect margins and maintain uptime while responding to disruption with incomplete or delayed information. 

To lead in this environment, manufacturers need decision-making that surfaces risk earlier, absorb supply shocks faster, and replans quickly, so production stays aligned to demand and customer commitments. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is your agentic enterprise resource planning (ERP) foundation

Dynamics 365 gives manufacturers a connected foundation where signals from demand, supply, capacity, and cost can drive action. As part of the Microsoft platform, it brings together data, analytics, automation, and collaboration across the business. 

Imagine a manufacturing stack where every part of the business is connected, where data isn’t fragmented across systems but unified into a shared understanding of operations, and where insights don’t sit in dashboards but show up in context, in the flow of work. Where your teams can build AI agents and adapt processes in real time rather than reengineering them months later. Where every person operates with the full context of the business, demand, supply, capacity, and commitments, every decision drives aligned action across the company. This is what it means to close the gap between knowing and doing. 

At Hannover Messe 2026, Microsoft is showcasing how agentic ERP with Copilot, agents and Dynamics 365 supports these operational decisions amid constant change, helping manufacturers replan faster, make better production tradeoffs, and meet or exceed customer service SLAs.   

From sensing demand shifts to mitigating supplier delays, production constraints, and equipment downtime, these signals must translate into real-time fulfillment and order promise decisions. Agentic ERP can connect planning, sourcing, production, fulfillment and service commerce to execute these decisions across the manufacturing value chain. 

Agentic demand planning can sense shifts earlier  

Demand planning can help you forecast demand, applying a structured phase in/phase out with external signals to account for market dynamics. Copilot accelerates this data analysis, scenario modeling, and incorporates market intelligence. For structured planning, Demand Planning in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides an agentic collaborative demand planning solution, powered by best-in-class forecasting algorithms and models, an immersive user experience with AI, intelligent segmentation and signal analysis, and analytics.  

“Now, we can see the item-level details and the solution populates Dynamics 365 with that information for master planning. That’s a big step forward because now we essentially have a planned budget and we can easily produce the next production cycle’s budget without manually exporting the data.” 

Patrick Keller, Head of ERP, Poloplast | Read more about how Poloplast modernizes manufacturing and streamlines forecasting and planning with Dynamics 365

Agent evaluates supplier disruption impact enabling operational resilience 

A delayed component or supplier exception is not a paperwork problem. It is a production and operational risk. Today, Microsoft announced the Procurement Agent in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is available in public preview. The Procurement Agent helps teams respond faster to supply disruption by decoding supplier communications and identifying which production orders, inventory positions, and customer commitments are at risk, while keeping humans in control. Beyond triaging supplier communications, the Procurement Agent performs impact analysis so teams can assess downstream effects and act before a supplier issue turns into an on time, in full (OTIF) failure.

“Across the team, Dynamics 365 will save us a total of 20 hours weekly. The big benefit in time savings is that the agent has read the email, found the order, found the lines affected, decoded what the vendor is trying to say, and recommended actions.”

Sean Barrett, Inventory and Analytics Manager, Farmlands Cooperative | Read more about Farmlands Cooperative: Sowing the seeds of innovation with autonomous agents in Dynamics 365

Agent mitigates production constraints 

For the shop floor, Copilot, connected to Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management via Dynamics 365 MCP Server (Model Context Protocol), can provide AI-generated insights to schedules, inventory, and orders. Copilot can also surface quality-related alerts and can suggest targeted inspections to prevent recurring recalibration issues enabling supervisors to proactively mitigate resource constraints and shortages before they impact production schedules, triggering downstream inventory repositioning and order promise adjustments across fulfillment and customer commitments. 

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management provides near real-time visibility to the production floor; with agentic experiences, supervisors can spend less time gathering data and more time on proactive exception management. This translates to higher Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), fewer unplanned stops, and better on-time delivery to customers. 

Agent protects production uptime 

Equipment uptime and asset health are critical inputs to manufacturing performance. Unplanned downtime, delayed service, or poorly coordinated technician schedules can quickly cascade into constrained capacity and missed production targets. The Scheduling Operations Agent in Dynamics 365 Field Service can help maintain equipment availability for constrained production schedules by dynamically coordinating technician assignments based on geography, skills, certification requirements, capacity, travel time, and SLA commitments.  

Today, Microsoft announced Researcher in Microsoft 365 Copilot is available in public preview within Dynamics 365 Field Service. With Microsoft 365 Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service, manufacturers can use Researcher to quickly view operational information across work orders, asset and service history, and parts availability. Researcher surfaces relevant context from Field Service data and Microsoft 365 signals to help teams understand situations as they arise.

“The field technicians understand that AI can be a benefit for them. It’s really about trying to improve their overall experience as well as the customer’s”

Matthew Hashenberger, Head of Service Excellence, Siemens Smart Infrastructure (U.S.) | Learn how Siemens elevates field service operations with Microsoft Dynamics 365

Agentic warehouse management can fulfill demand faster  

As finished goods hit the warehouse, intelligent inventory on-hand balancing in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management warehouse management updates slotting to align demand with pick zones. When inbound put-away happens, workers are directed to the best locations based on the intelligent inventory balancing, keeping the warehouse organized dynamically. On the outbound side, optimized pick routes shorten travel distance. The combined outcome is higher throughput with the same labor—faster fulfillment, lower picking cost.  

With Dynamics 365, we trust the system. It’s easy to retrieve information and know it’s correct; people can just drive the forklift over. All the considerations we have for our picking, packing, and customer details, the system is doing it for us. 

Niclas Strand, Warehouse Manager, KåKå, Orkla Food | Read more about why Orkla Food Ingredients’ Dynamics 365 transformation is a sweet upgrade

Agentic B2B Commerce aligns customer orders to production reality 

As manufacturers and industrial distributors modernize how they sell, serve, and scale, digital ordering is becoming a core capability of the ERP rather than a standalone channel. Dynamics 365 Commerce enables manufacturers to support complex buying and selling models including business-to-business (B2B), business-to-business-to-business (B2B2B), and multioutlet ordering across direct customers, distributors, and dealer networks. 

Agentic B2B commerce can help automate routine ordering, replenishment, and quote-to-order processes while remaining tightly connected to pricing, inventory, warehousing, and production planning. This can allow manufacturers and distributors to accelerate order cycles, strengthen partner collaboration, and scale indirect growth with accuracy and control. 

Partner agents to empower manufacturers and solve unmet needs 

Frontier Manufacturing Firms can extend ERP embedded‑operational decisioning using Copilot and agents built with the Dynamics 365 ERP MCP Server. Microsoft’s partners are building agents to solve high friction manufacturing workflows, including engineering change impact analysis, product recalls, and configure-price‑quote‑ processes, enabling manufacturers to execute operational decisions across sourcing, production, and fulfillment within the systems they use to run their business. 

“With the Experlogix CPQ MCP Server and Dynamics 365 ERP manufacturers can turn Copilot into a revenue agent that understands complex configurations, validates engineering rules and constraints, and generates accurate quotes instantly. This accelerates sales cycles, with many customers reducing time to quote by well over 90%.”

Louis-Philippe Perras, CTO, Experlogix 

“Cegeka’s Quality Impact Recall Agent turns disruptive recall events into a controlled, orchestrated process for manufacturers reliant on end-to-end traceability. Running inside Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, companies handling batch- or serial-controlled products can identify affected materials across plants and distribution channels in minutes, trigger automated communication flows, and accelerate quality-investigation cycles. This approach supports manufacturers in maintaining continuity, reducing risk, and protecting both customers and brand reputation.” 

Stijn Geeroms, VP Business Solutions, Cegeka

“The most expensive moment in manufacturing isn’t when something breaks. It’s when an engineering change gets approved without anyone understanding the impact. Manufacturers don’t need another disconnected AI tool to fix that. They need intelligence embedded where they already work. That’s why we built the Staedean ECM+ Impact Agent natively on Copilot inside Dynamics 365 – your rules, your data, your answer – without asking teams to leave the system they run their business in.”

Michiel Toppers, Chief Product Officer, Staedean

These agents extend ERP-embedded decision execution into engineering, quality, and configure-to-order workflows that directly impact production scheduling and customer commitments. 

Become a Frontier Manufacturing Firm 

The manufacturers that lead this next era will be the ones who can respond to demand shifts, supplier delays, and equipment constraints by coordinating planning, production, fulfillment, and customer commitments across the value chain in real time. 

Microsoft is committed to helping manufacturers make that transition, combining a connected Dynamics 365 foundation with Copilot and agents embedded in everyday workflows plus a partner ecosystem that brings manufacturing expertise to the front line. Join us and become Frontier.  

Join us in person at Hannover Messe 2026: 

• Return on Intelligence: The Next Frontier of Manufacturing, Dev Cupp, Yitshak Kesselman, Monday, April 20, 2026, 2:00 – 2:30, Hall 25, Center Stage
• From Insight to Action: The Rise of Agentic Supply Chains in Manufacturing, Sam Schotte, Monday, April 20, 2026, 3:30 – 3:50, Hall 17, Stand G06 

Register to watch a series of executive conversations recorded at Hannover Messe 2026: Executive Insights: Unlock the Future of Industrial Intelligence 

The post Becoming a Frontier Manufacturing Firm: Agentic decisions across the manufacturing value chain appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Growth is exciting—but it introduces complexity. 

As small and midsize businesses scale, finance and operations become harder to manage. Transactions increase, reporting requirements expand, and disconnected systems start to strain visibility and margins. What once worked becomes a constraint. 

A newly published Forrester Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study helps quantify what many organizations are already experiencing: modernizing on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central delivers measurable financial impact.

Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the potential return on investment organizations may realize by deploying Business Central. Based on interviews with four business decision makers, which were aggregated to model a fictitious composite organization¹, the study projected that the composite organization could potentially realize: 

• More than 200% return on investment (ROI) over three years 

• An estimated $460K net present value (NPV) over three years 

• Potential payback in six months 

Across finance productivity, enterprise resource planning (ERP) consolidation, improved profitability, and reporting efficiency, the composite organization modeled by Forrester realized more than $680K in three‑year, risk‑adjusted present value benefits. 

These outcomes reflect the potential impact of modernizing finance and operations on a single, integrated cloud ERP platform—while also establishing the foundation for AI‑powered experiences like Microsoft 365 Copilot and intelligent agents. 

Where the value comes from 

The Forrester TEI study highlights several areas where organizations can potentially realize tangible, risk‑adjusted benefits when using Business Central. 

Support faster, more efficient finance operations 

Manual processes often slow growing organizations. Interviewed customers reported meaningful efficiency gains across accounts payable (AP), accounts receivable (AR), billing, and financial close. 

By year three, the composite organization was projected to potentially achieve: 

• Up to 30% reduction in monthly close time 

• Up to 50% time savings for AP, AR, and billing activities 

These improvements translated to more than $215K in present value over three years in finance productivity alone for the composite organization—allowing teams to shift focus from reconciliation to higher‑value analysis. 

Standardizing data and workflows in Business Central also creates the conditions necessary for AI‑enabled automation. While AI benefits were not independently quantified in this study, interviewees noted that unified processes accelerate the adoption of Copilot‑supported approvals, variance analysis, and exception handling. 

Lower total cost of ownership through ERP consolidation 

Interviewees reported operating aging on‑premises ERP systems alongside spreadsheets and disconnected point solutions. Consolidating onto Business Central reduced infrastructure complexity and IT overhead. 

The study projected the following potential benefits for the composite organization over three years: 

• More than 10% reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) 

• More than $170K in present value savings from retired systems and reduced maintenance 

Beyond direct savings, simplification can reduce operational risk and improved scalability—allowing organizations to grow without layering on new systems to compensate for gaps. 

Enable improved profitability through better visibility 

Unified, real‑time visibility across finance and operations enables faster, more informed decisions. 

By year three, the composite organization was modeled to potentially experience: 

• Up to 3% improvement in net profit margins 

• More than $245K in present value from improved profitability 

Better insight into costs, projects, and performance enables earlier course correction. AI‑powered experiences such as Copilot can further assist by surfacing cost variances, project overruns, or unbilled work sooner. While AI alone does not drive margin improvement, modern ERP data and standardized processes strengthen an organization’s ability to act with precision. 

Fast reporting and audit readiness 

Business Central’s integrated data model and native Microsoft Power BI capabilities streamlined reporting and audit preparation. 

Based on modeling by Forrester, by year three, the composite organization was projected to potentially reduce: 

• Audit preparation time by up to 30% 

• Time spent creating internal and executive reports 

These projected improvements were valued at nearly $50K in present value, while also enabling increased confidence in data accuracy and consistency. 

Beyond the numbers: Building an AI-ready foundation

In addition to quantified financial outcomes, interviewees highlighted broader operational improvements, including enhanced customer experience, reduced days sales outstanding (DSO), better warehouse management, and a more intuitive user experience. 

Just as importantly, Business Central provides an AI‑ready ERP foundation. 

By unifying finance and operations data and aligning processes to best practices, organizations are better positioned to leverage Copilot, Power BI, and intelligent agents to: 

• Help reduce time-to-insight—not just report creation
• Surface anomalies and trends quickly 
• Enable more proactive, data‑driven decision‑making 

While AI‑driven outcomes were not directly measured in this TEI, the study reinforces a critical principle: realizing AI value at scale depends on clean data, integrated systems, and standardized processes. Business Central delivers that foundation. 

Read the full study 

For SMB‑focused organizations and partners evaluating ERP modernization, the full Forrester TEI study provides a detailed financial framework to help quantify potential projected value—grounded in customer interviews and risk‑adjusted modeling. 

Join us at Directions North America 2026 

The Forrester TEI study highlights the potential value organizations may realize with Business Central—from faster financial processes to improved profitability and lower total cost of ownership. 

We’ll continue these conversations at Directions North America 2026, where partners, Microsoft engineering, and product leaders come together to discuss what’s next for the Business Central ecosystem and the future of AI-powered ERP. 

Join me for the keynote, where I’ll explore how Business Central is evolving into an AI-powered system of action with Copilot and intelligent agents. 

Attendees will: 

• Gain insight into the Business Central roadmap 
• Prepare for upcoming AI-powered capabilities 
• Connect directly with Microsoft engineering and product experts 
• Engage with partners across the Business Central community 

1. Composite organization assumption: Results are based on a Forrester modeled composite organization derived from customer interviews, with $50M in annual revenue, 300 employees, 15 core finance and accounting users, and 100 light users, using Dynamics 365 Business Central in a cloud deployment. All quantified benefits represent the three-year, risk-adjusted present value for the composite organization.

The post Enable accelerated growth with confidence: A Forrester TEI study projects more than 200% ROI over three years and six-month payback using Dynamics 365 Business Central appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As organizations continue to seek ways to differentiate through exceptional customer service, many are turning to emerging agentic AI capabilities as a catalyst for transformation. However, the promise of agentic service—better experiences, greater efficiency, and continuous improvement—can only be realized when AI is deeply embedded and seamlessly orchestrated across every workflow and channel. This requires more than just automation; it demands a unified context and intelligence layer that travels with the work.

At Microsoft, we believe the future of customer service is one where Microsoft Dynamics 365 becomes the context and intelligence platform for Copilot and AI agents, grounding every interaction in rich customer data and business processes. With Dynamics 365 providing composable skills across the tools people already use every day, we enable intelligent, proactive self-service and augment human capabilities. This empowers service reps, supervisors, and leaders to amplify their impact, delivering more consistent, personalized, and effective service at scale.

The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2026

Microsoft has been recognized as a Leader

Read the report

With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service, we’re already delivering on this vision, helping our customers achieve tangible business outcomes with agentic service. Dynamics 365 Customer Service combines our latest AI advances with robust core capabilities, all deeply integrated with the entire Microsoft portfolio across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft Azure, and the Microsoft Fabric data platform.

​Today, we’re excited to announce that Microsoft has been named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2026.

Delivering measurable outcomes with agentic service

Our customers and the industry at large recognize we’re leading the way in agentic service innovation and enterprise adoption.

In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, AI agents orchestrate context and automate workflows in simple and complex inquiries across voice and digital channels. Agents can handle routine interactions and execute actions autonomously within robust governance and compliance guardrails. Customer Intent Agent continuously discovers new intents from conversations across channels, enabling evergreen self-service.

Agents like Case Management Agent automate repetitive tasks and integrate with Copilot to surface next-best actions during human-assisted interactions, helping reps offer rapid resolutions.

Importantly, these service agents create self-learning loops, helping improve resolution accuracy and speed. This continuous improvement extends to service reps as well. Quality Evaluation Agent monitors service quality in AI-powered and human-assisted interactions to enhance agent performance and recommend coaching opportunities for reps. Meanwhile, Customer Knowledge Management Agent adapts knowledge bases, updating content and generating new articles based on fresh insights or recurring issues.

This powerful combination of agentic and human service is orchestrated through Agent Hub, which routes tasks to the most appropriate AI agent or service rep and optimizes task distribution based on real-time KPI results.

Customers like Visa are saving time by using the Customer Knowledge Management Agent to turn customer conversation data into knowledge articles.

Auto-knowledge generation reduces article creation time by 88%, from four hours down to 30 minutes per article. And by mining 7,000 cases, we’ve been able to produce 700 knowledge articles, just for one line of business and we continue to accelerate knowledge creation at scale.

Lidia Daldoss, Vice President, Service Digitization & AI Acceleration, Visa

Accelerating successful AI adoption

Despite the numerous benefits on offer, navigating the AI adoption journey can be extremely complex for many organizations. Sometimes there’s uncertainty about where to start, or a lack of clarity about how to get a measurable return on AI investments.

Microsoft simplifies AI adoption, enabling organizations to quickly realize significant efficiency and productivity gains in customer service operations. We offer structured guidance and proven methodologies to help accelerate adoption success for organizations at every level of AI maturity.

Our customers particularly value the FastTrack for Dynamics 365 program, which is built on our Success By Design framework that paves the way for effective solution design, deployment, and operation. With proactive, expert guidance, organizations can confidently implement an agentic service platform based on advanced technologies that are already delivering tangible business outcomes for enterprises worldwide.

Enhancing core customer service capabilities

While AI agents automate and orchestrate workflows, and Copilot provides contextual guidance for reps, Dynamics 365 Customer Service also offers a strong set of core capabilities.

Intelligent, omnichannel routing, for example, is a cornerstone of effective service, directing inquiries to wherever customers will find the fastest path to resolution. Similarly, Microsoft’s longstanding strengths in business intelligence, process management, and forecasting and scheduling provide an essential foundation for efficient operations.

Integration with Microsoft Teams also enables seamless collaboration across service, sales, and marketing, streamlining issue resolution and highlighting opportunities to enhance the end-to-end customer experience.

Another notable strength of Dynamics 365 Customer Service is its extensibility, both within Microsoft’s suite of business applications and productivity tools, and across our extensive partner ecosystem and third-party marketplace.

The biggest impact of Dynamics 365 is that the customer information is more centralized, which saves time and gives us a 360-degree view of the customer.

Petra Velten, Business Expert Customer Service, Lufthansa Cargo

With Dynamics 365, our team has a single pane of glass with all customer information and tasks in one place. The Rheem knowledge base within Dynamics 365 Customer Service also gives [reps] fast, easy access to specific product information during customer calls.

Jordan Bond, Senior Manager, Product Owner, Dynamics Service, Rheem

Amplify your impact with Dynamics 365 Customer Service

We’re delighted to be recognized as a Leader in The Forrester Wave™, but this is just the beginning of the agentic service era that Microsoft and our partners are shaping. We’ll continue to make significant R&D investments that help accelerate AI breakthroughs and work alongside our pioneering customers to define the future of service.

Explore how you can boost efficiency and enhance service in every channel:

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service
• Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.

The post Microsoft named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Service Solutions, Q1 2026 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

We’re entering a new era of AI-powered business applications, and today we’re excited to publish the 2026 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and role-based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, outlining a broad set of capabilities slated for release between April 2026 and September 2026. These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to making AI an essential partner in how organizations operate, innovate, and grow.

Dynamics 365 leads this wave with AI-powered, agentic innovations across sales, service, finance, supply chain, human resources (HR), and commerce—helping organizations unify data, automate processes, and elevate customer and employee experiences. Microsoft Power Platform continues to expand modern app development, intelligent automation, and enterprise-grade governance to empower makers and developers to innovate with confidence. Role-based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot further evolve into intelligent daily command centers, helping to deliver richer, data-grounded insights and extensibility that help teams work smarter across every role.

To help you stay current on the most important and innovative capabilities, we’re moving beyond bi-annual launch events to lighter, more frequent business applications updates, featuring expert insights and demonstrations from Microsoft product leaders and engineers.

• Watch on demand: Dynamics 365 Business Applications Update
• Register for the Power Platform and Copilot Studio update April 15 at 9 AM PDT

Be sure to stay updated on the latest features and create your personalized release plan using the release planner.

Highlights from Dynamics 365

2026 release wave 1 updates for Dynamics 365 deliver AI-powered, agentic experiences across sales, service, finance, supply chain, commerce, HR, projects, sustainability, and enterprise resource planning (ERP)—bringing deeper Copilot integration, intelligent automation, unified customer and operational data, and enhanced cross-app capabilities to help organizations drive efficiency, elevate customer and employee experiences, and operate with greater agility and confidence.

Dynamics 365 Sales

Dynamics 365 Sales brings the power of AI to help sellers build their pipeline, enrich opportunities, and accelerate deal closure, while helping sellers easily access accurate, up-to-date information and recommending high-impact actions that sellers can take. Copilot experiences in Dynamics 365 Sales can draw on data spanning customer relationship management (CRM) and Microsoft 365 signals, like email and meeting recaps, to deliver actionable insights across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 experiences.

Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Dynamics 365 Customer Service will continue to enhance agentic capabilities across case management, email, customer intent, quality evaluation, and knowledge management. AI-infused admin and supervisor help to provide more transparency and quicker time-to-value. These investments strengthen end-to-end service orchestration, from helping identify customer intent to driving autonomous workflows that elevate service quality and responsiveness.

Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Dynamics 365 Contact Center advances the agentic contact center in 2026 release wave 1 with new AI-powered capabilities that improve self-service, support accelerate assisted service, and help organizations run contact center operations more intelligently in 2026 release wave 1. It expands to include emerging channels, supervisor insights, and extensibility, giving organizations a unified, AI-powered system to elevate the customer experience.

Dynamics 365 Field Service

Dynamics 365 Field Service strengthens service execution across technician productivity, resource scheduling, and work order management. Investments focus on mobile usability and reliability, intelligent scheduling through the Scheduling Operations Agent, and end‑to‑end execution across assets, projects, and financial operations in this release wave. Together, these updates help organizations manage service complexity and deliver consistent service outcomes.

Dynamics 365 Sustainability

Dynamics 365 Sustainability introduces more intuitive reporting navigation, advanced calculation versioning, and granular data‑locking to reinforce governance and regulatory confidence in this wave. Expanded finance integration, streamlined workflows, and updated templates and factor libraries will further empower organizations to make informed decisions and support progress toward their sustainability goals.

Dynamics 365 Finance

Dynamics 365 Finance delivers continued global scale enhancements that drive greater financial automation, strengthen global regulatory compliance posture, and enhance financial planning and analytics—helping organizations operate more efficiently and achieve their financial and operational goals with confidence.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management’s 2026 wave 1 enhances supply and demand planning with price-demand correlation and capacity-to-promise (CTP) date protection. Supplier communication and engagement are streamlined, while warehousing gains AI-powered picking, inventory rebalancing, and hands-free scanning—driving supply chain efficiency.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Dynamics 365 Project Operations brings rich capabilities in 2026 release wave 1—from change order support and smarter project planning to smoother quoting, budgeting, and contract workflows. New enhancements streamline item consumption, mobile expense management, subscription billing, and modern-architecture migration—delivering connected project experience.

Dynamics 365 Commerce

Dynamics 365 Commerce strengthens business-to-business (B2B) with multi-outlet ordering, unified sign-in, outlet-specific catalogs, and built-in credit management to help reduce friction and protect cash flow. It modernizes order management and assisted-selling workflows in retail stores, helping to improve associate productivity, and customer experiences across channels. It also enables cross-legal-entity inventory lookup and flexible, attribute-based pricing to help accelerate mass updates and help drive higher sales.

Dynamics 365 Human Resources

Dynamics 365 Human Resources continues to advance in areas such as recruitment, onboarding, reporting, and integrated workforce management. By merging enhanced user experiences with broader ecosystem integration and expanding regional payroll collaborations, the platform enables organizations to optimize employee engagement, support operational accuracy, and confidently achieve their workforce objectives.

Finance and operations cross-app capabilities

Finance and operations cross-app capabilities will introduce new enhancements that strengthen the foundation for AI experiences across Dynamics 365. These updates include improvements to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, as well as the general availability of immersive home, which is an AI-powered workspace designed to help users stay focused and prioritize what matters most.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Data acts as the grounding layer for CRM copilots and AI agents, delivering real‑time, unified customer profiles that help power accurate decisions. With enriched data, teams can act on insights directly in their workflow to deliver timely, personalized experiences that deepen engagement and drive better outcomes. The result is an AI-ready data core that elevates agents and helps deliver more connected, intelligent CRM experiences.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys empowers end-to-end, agentic customer engagements across sales, marketing, and service, allowing businesses to proactively react to customer behavior using Copilot and AI agents. With smarter orchestration tools, teams can deliver impactful campaigns at scale to drive stronger relationships, higher efficiency, and revenue growth. Part of Dynamics 365, every interaction within your organization benefits from shared data and consistent intelligence across Microsoft CRM applications.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central accelerates the move to agentic ERP with enhancements to our AI‑powered agents that automate sales and purchase scenarios in 2026 release wave 1. Alongside new business capabilities, we invest heavily in developer productivity to support extensibility—improving advanced language (AL) testing, debugging, Copilot extensibility, and agent design.

Highlights from Microsoft Power Platform and Microsoft Copilot Studio

2026 release wave 1 updates for Microsoft Power Platform deliver modernized app experiences across Power Apps and Power Pages, AI-powered automation and agent innovation in Power Automate and Copilot Studio, enhanced Dataverse intelligence and programmability, and strengthened governance, security, and cost management capabilities to help organizations build, scale, and manage intelligent solutions with confidence.

Power Apps

Power Apps continues to modernize app experiences with a refreshed model-driven user interface (UI), improved mobile and offline capabilities, streamlined search, and expanded AI features. This release brings standardized modern theming to everyone, real-time Dataverse access for offline-first canvas apps, enhanced search in grids and lookups, and broader availability and extensibility of generative pages to help teams build and scale intelligent apps faster.

Power Pages

Power Pages will further empower pro-developers and low-code makers to build intelligent business portals for your employees, customers, citizens, and partners through better integration with market leading AI tools. Additionally, enhanced security agent features will further support low-code makers, pro-developers, and admins with actionable insights and abilities for securing their websites.

Power Automate

Power Automate is Microsoft’s comprehensive automation platform for cloud flows, desktop flows, and process mining. This release introduces AI agent authoring, optimization, and self-healing capabilities for desktop flows, Copilot Studio-powered actions in cloud flows, enhanced maker and collaboration tools across both, general availability of object-centric process mining, and consolidated governance reporting.

Microsoft Copilot Studio

Microsoft Copilot Studio continues its journey to make agent and agentic workflows even easier to build and more powerful. Now you can further customize agents built with Agent Builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot, and power your automation with high value AI actions. Deeper governance, multi-agent orchestration, and evaluations enable further scaling. With connections to Microsoft Foundry and Work IQ, your agents can use the latest AI technology in coordination with your organizational data.

Microsoft Dataverse

Microsoft Dataverse continues to invest in enterprise-ready agentic and low-code data platform capabilities. The spotlight is on Work IQ and Copilot integration, delivering organization-specific decisions with adaptive learning and full auditability. We’re also enhancing agent programmability with Dataverse APIs, MCP servers, and Python SDK, plus new storage management tools for enterprise-grade compliance at scale.

Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration

Microsoft Power Platform governance and administration introduces admin controls for agent security, real-time risk assessment in Copilot Studio, and AI-powered governance agents that automate tenant monitoring and remediation in this release. Enhanced visibility into usage patterns, granular Copilot credit consumption with pay-as-you-go (PAYG) caps, and connector dependencies help you optimize costs, demonstrate return on investment (ROI), and enforce compliance with organizational policies using features within the Power Platform Admin Center. GitHub integration and deploy from Git mature your application lifecycle management (ALM) practices with full audit trails.

Business Applications Update

Power Platform &

Copilot Studio edition

Register now

Updates to role-based agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot

2026 release wave 1 updates for Microsoft role-based agents transform Sales Agent and Finance Agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot into intelligent daily command centers, helping to deliver richer, data-grounded insights, enhanced chat and mobile experiences, contextual support across Outlook and Teams, and strengthened governance and extensibility to help organizations drive productivity and scale AI responsibly.

Sales Agent

Sales Agent becomes the seller’s daily command center with richer Sales Chat and Sales Home experiences across desktop and mobile in 2026 release wave 1. Sellers will gain streamlined access to deal and account insights through configurable record summaries, contextual support in Outlook and Teams, and improved email and meeting intelligence. New governance and extensibility controls will also help organizations scale AI responsibly.

Finance Agent

Finance Agent helps finance professionals and their stakeholders interact with financial information from their ERP within the flow of work. In 2026 release wave 1, we continue expanding how this financial assistant supports common finance tasks such as reconciliation, variance analysis, and data preparation in Excel, as well as customer communications in Outlook. By bringing financial insights and assistance directly into familiar productivity tools, the Finance Agent helps teams investigate issues faster, respond to stakeholders more efficiently, and spend less time manually preparing or reconciling data so they can focus more on financial analysis and decision support.

For a complete list of new capabilities, please refer to the Dynamics 365 2026 release wave 1 plan, the Microsoft Power Platform 2026 release wave 1 plan, and role-based agents 2026 release wave 1. We also encourage you to share your feedback in the community forums for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

Business Applications Update

The Business Applications Update offers an early preview of new capabilities coming in the months ahead. This refreshed structure is designed to reflect the reality of our time: innovation does not happen twice a year; it is constant. Whether you are a strategic leader or a hands-on practitioner, this new cadence is built to get you quickly up to speed.

• Watch on demand: Dynamics 365 Business Applications Update
• Watch on demand: Power Platform and Copilot Studio Business Applications Update

The post 2026 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot Studio offerings appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Work is changing at a structural level.

Three forces are converging. The interface layer is shifting to AI assistants. Agents handle workflow orchestration. And an intelligence layer is consolidating information across structured and unstructured sources. Together, these forces mark Frontier Transformation, where AI moves beyond basic efficiency to open new opportunities for creativity, innovation and growth.

This transformation also creates a new kind of business application: one that is integrated with the AI assistant people use every day, accessible to agents and grounded in the unique intelligence of each organization.

We call these agentic business applications. The applications themselves still reflect real business processes. But how people interact with them, how work moves through them and how they connect to the rest of the business is fundamentally different.

Today, we’re taking a significant step forward in bringing agentic business applications to life across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform.

Interact with business applications inside Copilot

Microsoft 365 Copilot is becoming an interactive workspace for business applications. Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and custom apps built with Power Apps will surface directly as agents with rich UX inside chat in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Agents using Apps SDK and MCP Apps can also bring Microsoft partner apps into the conversation, including tools teams already use, like Adobe Express, Figma, and Wix. This is the interface layer shift in practice. Instead of switching between applications, users state what they need in Copilot and the system responds. You can review data and take action without leaving the conversation. Copilot becomes the place where work gets done.

As an example, a human resources (HR) employee can now call on their custom HR app, built with Power Apps, right within Copilot to compile a list of office locations with the highest new hire counts this quarter, viewing the results in an organized table with filter options. Additionally, they can prompt the application to show the results in a map view, all without leaving their Copilot interface.

Or a customer service representative can begin their day in Microsoft 365 Copilot by reviewing a summary of priority cases they need to focus on, easily viewing and updating their data from Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Public preview for this capability will be available later this month for Power Apps, with availability for Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Service launching in early April 2026. Throughout the next month, we’ll also introduce support for this capability across a handful of Microsoft partner apps, including Adobe Express, Adobe Acrobat, Base44, Box, Canva, Coursera, Figma, Miro, Monday.com, Optimizely, and Wix. All pre-built partner app experiences will be accessible via the Microsoft 365 Agent Store for users with Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Bring Copilot and agents into Dynamics 365 and Power Apps

The experience works in both directions. Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents like Researcher and Analyst will be accessible directly within Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and custom apps built with Power Apps. Employees get the same Copilot capabilities they trust across Microsoft 365 while staying grounded in their operational systems.

Customers can continue to benefit from pre-built agents in Dynamics 365, including Sales Qualification Agent, Case Management Agent, and Account Reconciliation Agent, which help teams automate routine work and focus on higher value decisions.

Consider a seller working in Dynamics 365 Sales who asks Researcher to generate a full account overview: customer relationship management (CRM) context, internal knowledge, and external research combined in one response, surfaced in place. The unit of value shifts from “find the right screen” to “get the answer and act.” This creates a more consistent experience across productivity tools and business applications. Work moves from insight to execution with less friction between systems.

Microsoft 365 Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and canvas apps in Power Apps will be available in public preview by early April 2026. Microsoft 365 Copilot in model-driven apps built with Power Apps will reach general availability by early April 2026. A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required. This experience with Power Apps also requires a Power Apps premium license.

Microsoft 365 Copilot in Power Apps allows us to ask questions and make decisions directly against our Dataverse data, while also combining insights from Microsoft 365 when needed. The experience now feels truly unified, allowing our users to summarize complex operational data, trigger actions, and seamlessly access insights. We’ve seen significant increases in the value provided to both our internal solutions and customer-facing products.

Peter Kestenholz, Founder & Head of Innovation, Context&

Grounded in your organization’s intelligence with Work IQ

Underpinning all of this is Work IQ. Work IQ connects signals from Microsoft 365 with operational data from Dynamics 365 and Power Apps. It follows work as it happens across documents, meetings, chats, and business processes. This is the intelligence layer: the thing that resolves entities and relationships across structured and unstructured sources, so agents and Copilot share a common understanding of what is happening across the business.

Decisions discussed in a meeting or email can connect to live data in a business application. Changes in one place surface where attention is needed elsewhere. And because this intelligence is grounded in Dataverse and your organization’s own data, actions stay aligned to real processes and real context.

For example, when a pricing change is discussed in a meeting, Work IQ understands how that decision impacts active opportunities in Dynamics 365 Sales, surfacing the affected opportunities within Copilot for review.

Work IQ plays an important role in making business applications agentic. Without it, agents operate on partial information. With it, they act on the full context of the business.

Users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license can experience Work IQ with Dataverse integration directly inside Power Apps, Dynamics 365 Sales, and Dynamics 365 Customer Service in public preview by early April 2026.

See how it all comes together

Copilot, agents, and Work IQ come together as a system of work. Within that system lies a new generation of business applications: applications that understand context, respond to intent, and support execution where work actually happens. The business application stack is entering a significant architectural shift. What we’re announcing today is one step in that larger transition. We are building a platform where applications, intelligence and execution converge so teams operate with more clarity and less overhead.

You’ll see this foundation expand across Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Microsoft 365 as we bring more agentic capabilities into the flow of work. Agentic business applications are already taking shape.

• Tune in to the Microsoft Frontier Transformation digital event on March 9, 2026 at 8:00 AM PT.
• Register for the Business Applications Update event streaming on March 18, 2026 at 9:00 AM PT.

The post A new way of working is taking shape: Frontier Transformation appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) decisions are among the most consequential investments a business can make; shaping how organizations operate, scale, and compete for years to come. Yet many ERP transformations have historically carried risk: high costs, long timelines, heavy customization, and uncertain returns.

To bring clarity to these decisions, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct two independent Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) studies examining the business value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP on enterprises and midmarket organizations.

• The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP for Enterprises
• The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP for Midmarket Organizations

From fragmentation to integration: Why ERP modernization matters

Across both 2026 studies, Forrester’s projections showed organizations from a similar place: fragmented ERP landscapes, siloed data, manual processes, and highly customized legacy systems that were difficult to upgrade or scale. These environments could limit real-time visibility, slow decision-making, and increased operational risk; particularly as organizations grew, expanded into new markets, or managed increasingly complex supply chains. These constraints didn’t just slow operations; they could limit a leader’s ability to respond to volatility, growth, and supply chain disruption with confidence.

In response, organizations turned to Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP to consolidate finance and supply chain operations with a unified, cloud-based platform. By centralizing data and standardizing processes, organizations can improve operational efficiency and gain timely, actionable insights across the business.

Importantly, this shift reframed ERP from a back-office system of record to a platform for informed, faster decision-making that connects data, people, and processes across the enterprise.

Quantifying business value with Forrester’s TEI methodology

The strength of the TEI studies lies in their focus on quantifiable business impact. Forrester evaluated benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks over a multi‑year period, modeling a composite organization based on real customer interviews and survey responses. This approach allows leaders to evaluate ERP investments using a transparent financial framework rather than vendor claims alone.

Enterprise ERP: Financial impact at scale

In the enterprise TEI study, Forrester modeled a composite organization representing large, complex businesses using Dynamics 365 ERP. The analysis projects that over three years, the organization achieved:

• 101% return on investment (ROI)
• Net present value (NPV) of $12.9 million

These results were driven by a combination of operational efficiency gains, productivity improvements, and cost reductions, particularly from consolidating legacy systems and reducing infrastructure and IT operations spend.

The study highlights that value did not come from isolated features, but from standardizing processes, unifying data across finance and supply chain functions, and reducing reliance on heavily customized, on-premises ERP environments.

Key enterprise findings business leaders should note

For business decision makers evaluating ERP at scale, several findings stand out:

• Improved operational efficiency and productivity can be enabled through streamlined workflows and better access to real-time insights
• Reduced infrastructure and IT operations costs can be enabled by retiring multiple legacy systems and shifting to a cloud-based ERP model
• Faster, more confident decision making enabled by unified financial and supply-chain data

Together, these benefits contributed directly to the projected positive NPV and ROI modeled in the study, reinforcing ERP modernization as a business investment, not just an IT upgrade.

Midmarket ERP: Enterprise-grade value without enterprise complexity

While enterprises face complexity at scale, midmarket organizations often face a different challenge: how to grow without adding disproportionate cost or operational overhead. Forrester’s Total Economic Impact™ study of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP for midmarket organizations examined how modern ERP can support expansion, improve visibility, and standardize operations without the burden of traditional enterprise‑scale implementations.

In the study, Forrester modeled a composite midmarket organization based on customer interviews and survey data. The analysis projects that the organization would achieve:

• Payback in 16 months
• Net present value (NPV) of $3.3 million over three years

These outcomes were driven by streamlined finance and supply chain operations, automation of manual processes, and the replacement of disconnected legacy systems with a single, cloud‑based ERP platform. By consolidating systems and standardizing processes, organizations can reduce operational friction while supporting improved visibility and control across the business.

Key midmarket findings business leaders should note

For midmarket decision-makers, the study highlights several critical outcomes:

• Enabled faster time-to-value, with measurable financial returns realized in just over a year
• Enabled improvements to operational efficiency and productivity through streamlined finance and supply chain processes and automation of manual tasks
• Potentially reduced complexity and IT overhead by replacing disconnected legacy systems with a unified cloud ERP platform

These benefits contributed directly to the projected positive NPV and rapid payback modeled in the study, reinforcing ERP modernization as a financially disciplined investment for midmarket organizations focused on growth and resilience.

Why independent research matters for ERP decisions

ERP investments shape the future of an organization for years—sometimes decades. That’s why independent, third-party validation is critical. The Forrester TEI studies do not ask leaders to accept conclusions at face value; instead, they provide:

• A transparent financial model
• Explicit assumptions and risk adjustments
• Clear linkage between operational improvements and economic outcomes

For executives, CFOs, COOs, and IT leaders, these studies offer a common language for aligning stakeholders and setting realistic expectations for ERP transformation.

Go deeper: Explore the full Forrester TEI studies

This summary only scratches the surface. The full Forrester Total Economic Impact™ studies include detailed benefit breakdowns, cost considerations, and financial modeling that business leaders can adapt to their own organizations.

• The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP for Enterprises
• The Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP for Midmarket Organizations

For organizations considering ERP modernization, these studies provide a data-driven foundation to evaluate options, build a credible business case, and make informed decisions with confidence.

The post Forrester studies project more than 100% ROI for enterprises and 16-month payback for midmarket organizations using Dynamics 365 ERP appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

When customers place an order, they expect speed, accuracy, and reliability. Behind the scenes, inventory-to-deliver processes are what makes that promise possible, helping to ensure the right products are available at the right time to meet customer expectations while controlling costs. For operational professionals, inventory isn’t just a number on a spreadsheet, it’s the lifeline of the supply chain. It determines whether you can fulfill demand without delays, avoid costly stockouts, and keep working capital flowing. From procurement and production to fulfillment and customer satisfaction, inventory-to-deliver impacts every aspect of the supply chain.

In today’s fast-paced market, poor inventory visibility can lead to stockouts, excess holding costs, and missed revenue opportunities. Conversely, a well-orchestrated inventory strategy drives efficiency, reduces waste, and strengthens resilience against disruptions. It enables businesses to optimize working capital, improve cash flow, and deliver on promises consistently. So, how can an agent-ready enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform reinvent the inventory-to-deliver process?

Microsoft Cloud and agent platform enables inventory to deliver transformation

Microsoft Dynamics 365 can transform inventory management from a reactive task into a strategic advantage with an agent-ready foundation that spans across finance, supply chain, sales, and operations for a single source of truth that is both scalable and secure.

This same data foundation enables customers to buy, build, and customize agents to infuse across processes. For a refresher on understanding the agent landscape available today, visit Reinventing business process with AI: Agents in record to report where we explore the difference between first party, third party, and custom agents.

Automate vendor communication with a first party agent from Dynamics 365

The Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is designed to automate routine procurement communications between purchasing teams and vendors. Traditionally, these interactions—such as following up on purchase orders or confirming changes—are manual, repetitive, and often handled via email, even in organizations using electronic data interchange (EDI). The Supplier Communications Agent can streamline these low-complexity tasks by automating vendor outreach and updates, freeing procurement professionals to focus on strategic activities. This not only seeks to improve efficiency but also reduces overall procurement costs by minimizing time spent on administrative work.

Explore partner agents to support the inventory to deliver process

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers are configurable bridges between the business data within your line-of-business apps and the partner or custom-built agents you want to use. MCP serves as a universal intermediary, unlocking access to a unified platform and app data, modernizing how AI agents are interoperable with your apps. Let’s explore a few partner-built agents that will help you realize value across your supply chain today.

Warehouse Advisor Agent by MCA Connect

The Warehouse Advisor Agent leverages machine learning and predictive analytics to automate and improve key processes such as slotting, inventory consolidation, and cycle counting. By analyzing real-time data and historical trends, the agent delivers actionable insights that help warehouse teams make smarter, faster decisions.

This solution is ideal for warehouse managers, operations leaders, and supply chain professionals in distribution and manufacturing industries who are looking to reduce inefficiencies, improve inventory accuracy, and increase labor productivity. It integrates seamlessly with Dynamics 365’s Warehouse Management System (WMS), enabling users to deploy intelligent automation without disrupting existing workflows.

Inventory Acquisition and Re‑Balancing Agent from RSM

The Inventory Acquisition and Re‑Balancing Agent from RSM enables smarter inventory decisions by analyzing demand signals, supply availability, and stock imbalances in Dynamics 365. The agent can recommend rebalancing and acquisition actions to reduce stockouts, minimize excess inventory, and improve working capital efficiency.

Inbound Load Agent from Fellowmind

Fellowmind’s Inbound Load Agent can streamline inbound logistics by intelligently composing and optimizing loads based on demand, capacity, and operational constraints within Dynamics 365. The agent seeks to help logistics teams reduce transportation costs, improve warehouse utilization, and simplify complex inbound planning decisions.

Get started with agents for inventory-to-deliver processes

The Microsoft platform brings together secure, scalable cloud services with Dynamics 365’s unified ERP capabilities to streamline the entire inventory-to-delivery process. By leveraging real-time data and intelligent workflows, businesses gain supply chain agility to better meet customer expectations with precision. Partner-built agents, powered by MCP, amplify this value, enabling autonomous actions and predictive insights that transform operations from reactive to proactive. Together, these innovations create a resilient, future-ready foundation for delivering efficiency and growth at scale.

The post Agentic AI for inventory to deliver: From procurement to fulfillment appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Retail Frontier Firms are evolving their operating models to keep pace with increasingly dynamic markets, using AI to support more responsive and resilient decision-making and execution across commerce channels. Rather than improving individual functions in isolation, these organizations are rethinking how commerce operates end to end, enabling AI agents to work alongside people to support faster, more consistent outcomes across the business. This evolution is accelerating as retailers navigate rising customer expectations, sustained margin pressure, volatile demand, and ongoing labor constraints: conditions that benefit from decisions being made and executed more continuously.

In Retail Frontier Firms, AI capabilities are embedded where decisions and value are created: in stores, at the digital shelf, across merchandising, pricing, fulfillment, customer service, and checkout. AI agents interpret signals from customers, inventory, suppliers, and channels and help coordinate actions across the enterprise. This supports retailers as they respond to change with greater speed, consistency, and scale across touchpoints.

This operating model is enabled by agents that share context and operate cohesively across the retail ecosystem. At the core of agentic commerce is Model Context Protocol (MCP), which provides AI agents with access to a shared, enterprise-grade understanding of products, inventory, pricing, policies, and customer intent. By grounding agents in a common business context, MCP helps support aligned, governed, and consistent decision-making across channels and functions. The future of retail is increasingly shaped by a human and AI agent operating model, connected by shared context and open protocols.

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) unlocks hundreds of thousands of business functions for secure, real-time use by agents, developers, and applications. 
• Agent Communication Protocol (ACP) enables agents across merchandising, supply chain, store operations, and service to collaborate end to end, helping reduce fragmentation and align execution across functions.
• Payment and transaction agent protocols extend AI capabilities through checkout and settlement, supporting trusted, compliant transactions across in-store, online, and conversational commerce.

Together, these capabilities support a more outcome-driven operating model focused on availability, margin, conversion, service levels, and loyalty. Humans define strategy, priorities, and guardrails, while AI agents help orchestrate execution across day-to-day operations: supporting modern retail operations designed for Commerce Anywhere.

Emerging retail trends shaping the future of commerce

As consumer expectations continue to rise, shoppers increasingly demand seamless, continuous interactions where they move effortlessly from social-commerce discovery to mobile checkout, in-store pickup, curbside fulfillment, or voice-activated reordering. Frontier retail responds to this shift by dissolving the boundaries between channels and touchpoints, allowing commerce to adapt in real time to customer intent, location, and context. For brands, this means the ability to deliver frictionless, anticipatory commerce at scale by meeting customers wherever they are, with relevance and speed, without adding operational complexity.

The industry is rapidly shifting away from static, siloed channels toward autonomous, context-aware agents that orchestrate buying journeys seamlessly across stores, digital experiences, and conversational interfaces. Agents move beyond traditional personalization. They actively guide product discovery, shape contextual offers, negotiate availability, and coordinate fulfillment, helping to continuously optimize inventory, pricing, promotions, and supply-chain decisions behind the scenes. As personalization and automation become table stakes, agentic AI emerges as the strategic engine driving scalable growth and sustainable Commerce Anywhere.

Introducing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce MCP Server

Agentic commerce introduces a new operating model in which AI agents collaborate through MCP, enabling continuous decision-making and coordinated execution across the retail value chain. The new Dynamics 365 Commerce MCP Server exposes core retail business logic including catalog, pricing, promotions, inventory, carts, orders, and fulfillment as MCP-enabled capabilities. Expected to be in preview in February 2026, this will allow retailers to build agentic commerce experiences where AI agents can securely discover, decide, and execute retail workflows across digital, physical, and conversational channels.

By combining the ERP, Analytics, and Commerce MCP servers, Dynamics 365 supports a more agent-driven operating model in which front-office experiences and back-office operations are connected and optimized, helping retailers operate with greater agility and readiness for Commerce Anywhere.

How retailers can begin adopting agentic commerce today

Retail leaders can begin moving toward agentic commerce by adopting AI agents in three practical ways:

1. Starting with agents embedded in Dynamics 365
2. Extending capabilities through custom-built agents using MCP
3. Leveraging partner-built agents across the broader retail ecosystem

Together, these approaches allow retailers to progress at their own pace while aligning agent adoption to their operating model, business priorities, and maturity.

1. Start with agents embedded in Dynamics 365

Purpose-built agents are designed to address common retail challenges and operational friction points. Dynamics 365 agents and retail industry agents can be embedded directly into core business processes, allowing teams to realize value quickly.

Microsoft retail industry agents, like the Catalog Enrichment Agent and Personalized Shopping Agent are examples of vertical-specific agents designed around retail data models, workflows, and decision patterns that support scenarios like product discovery, assortment accuracy, and personalized engagement without requiring custom development.

Today, in Dynamics 365 the Supplier Communications Agent is a good example of embedded agents in action. Retailers can proactively monitor supply signals and engage suppliers in real time to confirm availability, align delivery timelines, and respond to changes earlier. This supports faster coordination, fewer surprises, and more reliable execution at scale.

2. Build custom agents using MCP

Retail operations are shaped by business logic that is unique to each organization: driven by merchandising strategies, store formats, service models, and supply-chain constraints. Microsoft Copilot Studio enables retailers to build custom AI agents that encode their own rules across replenishment, allocation, fulfillment, and store execution, aligning agent behavior directly to how the business operates.

These custom agents can operate across planning and selling in the flow of work using MCP-powered access to enterprise systems. Inside Microsoft Teams, Merchandising Managers and Planners can collaborate in real time with agents that access products, demand forecasts, supplier relationships, inventory, and pricing through Dynamics 365 ERP MCP.

On the selling side, through the Dynamics 365 Commerce MCP Server, your custom agents can extend intelligence into customer experiences. Agents can discover products, personalize offers, assess availability, reserve inventory, and complete transactions across digital, physical, and conversational channels while operating with a unified view of pricing, promotions, and fulfillment.

3. Extend agentic commerce through partners and the ecosystem

Retailers can further accelerate agent adoption by leveraging partner-built agents designed for specific retail scenarios and industries. Commerce MCP enables software development companies and system integrators to build agents more quickly by reducing integration overhead, standardizing access to retail data, and maintaining enterprise-grade trust and compliance.

Early partner solutions already demonstrate the breadth of what’s possible, from store associate productivity and clienteling to conversational commerce and business-to-business (B2B) buying experiences, including:

• Amicis: The Store Commerce Agent is a voice-first, screen-aware assistant designed for in-the-moment store execution. It can help associates complete high-friction tasks like returns, exchanges, order lookups, and policy checks in Dynamics 365 Commerce using natural voice commands, while adapting to what’s on the POS screen.
• Evenica: The B2B Licensee Product Request Agent uses conversational AI and image recognition to support licensees in finding beverage products. When a product is not available in the catalog, the agent can create a request case to support the product intake process.
• Argano: The Retail Clienteling Agent offers a conversational clienteling experience by bringing together customer insights, product data, and agentic AI into a single, governed workflow. It helps retail associates improve customer relationships by delivering personalized, brand-aligned interactions before, during, and after in-store appointments.
• Sunrise: The Commerce Companion is a suite of retail agents that help simplify everyday store operations across inventory and fulfillment to purchasing and store processes. Using natural language, it is designed to deliver fast, accurate answers and guided actions, which can enable associates to serve customers efficiently while keeping operations moving smoothly.
• Visionet: FashionGPT Agent can turn natural-language shopping intent into real-time retail execution across product, pricing, inventory, and promotions. It drives the end-to-end shopping journey and help turn conversations into measurable actions across channels.

Together, embedded agents, custom-built agents, and partner solutions give retailers flexible entry points into agentic commerce supporting near-term impact while laying the foundation for a more adaptive, AI-enabled operating model across Commerce Anywhere.

Agentic retail with Dynamics 365 in action at NRF 2026

At NRF, we will demonstrate how Dynamics 365 works with Copilot and agentic capabilities to support Commerce Anywhere and more efficient, end-to-end retail operations. We will share examples of how retailers are using Dynamics 365 to evolve their operating models and advance Frontier Firm capabilities.

Visit us during NRF expo hours at Level 3, Booth 4503, and join the related theater sessions at our booth:

• Beyond the Boutique: How Frette Uses AI to Transform Store Experience
  January 11, 2026 (Sunday), 2:00 PM ET
  Session led by Sunrise Technologies
• Reimagine retail business processes with Agentic ERP
  January 13, 2026 (Tuesday), 2:30 PM ET

The future of retail belongs to frontier organizations that can sense, decide, and act in real time. With agentic commerce enabled by Dynamics 365, retailers gain the foundation to move faster with confidence, aligning strategy, execution, and customer experience through intelligent agents that operate seamlessly across every channel. We look forward to connecting with you in New York and exploring how agentic business applications in Dynamics 365 can support your next step forward.

The post Agentic AI in retail: How Dynamics 365 powers Commerce Anywhere appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

In October 2025, we announced the general availability of the Sales Qualification Agent (SQA) in Dynamics 365 Sales—a breakthrough in autonomous lead qualification. Sales Qualification Agent empowers sellers by helping build higher quality opportunity while eliminating tedious, repetitive work. Sales Qualification Agent autonomously researches every lead, initiates personalized outreach, and engages prospects to understand purchase intent, ensuring that sellers spend their time meeting prospects who are ready to take the next step. With modes enabling both seller-driven and fully autonomous qualification, the agent supports a key goal for sales organizations—increasing revenue per seller.

Customers are using Sales Qualification Agent in two ways: 

1. Helping boost revenue beyond current sales capacity
   • Responding to inbound leads within minutes instead of days, increasing response rates and in turn, qualified opportunities.
   • Engaging leads that sellers are unable to follow up on due to capacity constraints, or those deemed economically unviable to pursue.
   • Increasing pipeline quality by focusing the seller’s time on a handful of high intent, engaged leads recommended by the agent.
2. Helping reduce sales costs
   • Reducing back-office costs related to lead research and validation, using Sales Qualification Agent in “Research only” mode to hand-off only the leads that meet the ideal customer profile criteria.
   • Automatically disqualifying low-quality leads, saving hours of seller time during the week.

Continuing benchmarking the quality of sales AI agents

Microsoft is building the future of agentic Sales technology with prebuilt AI agents, such as Sales Qualification Agent, the Sales Research Agent, and the Sales Close Agent available in Dynamics 365.

At Microsoft, we’re committed to delivering quality, trust, and transparency with our agents, and that requires rigorous evaluation. As we continue to build new agents and improve existing ones for critical sales workflows, evaluation benchmarks provide a structured and transparent way for our customers to measure quality for the jobs the agent does.

Today, we’re announcing the Microsoft Sales Bench—a new collection of evaluation benchmarks designed to assess the performance of AI-powered sales agents across real-world scenarios. This framework brings together purpose-built metrics, hundreds of sales-specific scenarios, and composite scoring validated by both human and AI judges.

The Sales Bench isn’t starting from scratch. It now formalizes and expands what began with the Sales Research Bench, published on October 21, 2025, which evaluates how AI solutions answer business research questions for sales leaders.

Today, we’re extending the Microsoft Sales Bench with a second benchmark: the Microsoft Sales Qualification Bench, focused on measuring how effectively AI agents qualify leads and generate high-quality pipeline.

Introducing the Sales Qualification Bench for lead qualification

This Microsoft Sales Qualification Bench evolved from rigorous evaluations we conducted since the Sales Qualification Agent’s public preview in April, with the goal of objectively measuring quality as we further developed the agent, partnering with customers from a diverse set of industries. Since the preview, we measured every update against these standards, ensuring improvements are real and repeatable.

We generated a synthetic dataset modeled after companies from three different industries, with 300 leads, with attributes such as name, company, and email ID—representative of what sales teams typically work with before any enrichment or hygiene is performed. In addition to these typical attributes, we also added key knowledge inputs such as value proposition of the products being sold, customer case studies, and documentation for answering customer questions.

In addition to Sales Qualification Agent, we used the evaluation framework to measure ChatGPT by OpenAI on the same dataset. Since we didn’t have access to an autonomous agent from OpenAI, we mimicked how a human seller would use ChatGPT to recreate the three key jobs SQA performs. We provided each system—Sales Qualification Agent and ChatGPT—the exact same lead inputs, knowledge sources, and contextual signals under controlled evaluation configurations. We used a ChatGPT Pro license with GPT-4.1. This model is the closest match (and slightly better) to Sales Qualification Agent’s GPT-4.1 mini, which we intentionally chose to deliver optimal quality at lower cost per lead than newer models. Additionally, Pro license was chosen to optimize for quality: ChatGPT’s pricing page describes Pro as “full access to the best of ChatGPT.”¹

The framework evaluates outputs from the three jobs across Sales Qualification Agent and ChatGPT:

• Research: Company research for the lead—background, strategic priorities, financial health, and latest news.
• Outreach: A personalized email generated based on research, to make initial contact with the lead.
• Engagement: The agent’s conversation with a lead until it’s qualified or dispositioned.

Our scoring metrics span core quality (accuracy, relevance, completeness), trustworthiness (grounding and citations), and business-specific success criteria (e.g., relevancy of company research to highlight interest in the seller’s offerings, personalization of the initial outreach emails sent to catch the lead’s attention, accuracy of responses to the lead’s questions to drive purchase intent, and the timing of handoff to a seller when the lead is ready to engage).

Outputs were scored independently by both human reviewers and an LLM judge built with GPT-5.1, using a 1–10 scale for each metric. These metric-specific scores were then rolled up using a simple average to produce a composite quality score. The result is a rigorous benchmark presenting a composite score and dimension-specific scores to reveal where agents excel or need improvement. Our methodology, metrics, and their definitions are described in this technical blog.

Results

In evaluations completed on December 4, 2025, using the Sales Qualification Bench, Sales Qualification Agent outperformed ChatGPT on each of the three jobs required for sales qualification:

1. Research: The Sales Qualification Agent outperformed ChatGPT with 6% higher aggregate scores, leading on relevancy and completeness in research results that highlighted the lead company’s interest in the seller’s offerings.
2. Outreach: Sales Qualification Agent demonstrated 20% better results compared to ChatGPT, generating email drafts with accurate personalization and mentions of relevant recent events that will resonate with the lead.
3. Engagement: Sales Qualification Agent’s email responses to engage a lead over a multi-turn conversation scored 16% higher than ChatGPT’s. SQA generated emails that responded to the lead’s questions with accurate answers that develop their purchase interest and with precise discovery questions that qualify the lead before handing off to a seller.

In addition to performing better on these metrics, Sales Qualification Agent has the ability to run autonomously, which can help significantly reduce the time spent generating pipeline while helping sales teams build better quality pipeline.

Sales Qualification Agent scores well on these three jobs as its optimized for sales-specific scenarios and uses the following techniques to get great results:

1. It uses agentic Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) to relentlessly research each lead, ensuring greater completeness. More on this in the following section.
2. With knowledge of what the company sells, it can contextualize every workflow to increase relevancy for both the seller and the lead.
3. It can retrieve organizational knowledge from attached documents and internal repositories like SharePoint with greater precision, boosting accuracy of its responses when engaging with the lead.

The technical blog details which metrics SQA excels at relative to ChatGPT, where it falls short, and why.

Translating evals to real-world impact

Running evals led to major Sales Qualification Agent improvements during its six-month preview. Early results prompted us to try agentic AI design patterns, especially agentic RAG, which improved our company research by allowing iterative web searches and real-time reasoning. They also led us to enhance data coverage by auto-linking existing CRM records to each lead and inferring company names from lead emails. These updates provided sellers with deeper insights, revealing strategic opportunities and risks beyond basic facts.

For instance, when researching leads for a security company, Sales Qualification Agent can link news on recent cyberattacks to increased demand for its software. As highlighted in the technical blog, research synthesized by the agent makes such inferences more consistently than ChatGPT. Enhancing the agent’s research also improved the relevance and personalization of outreach emails, helping agents better engage leads and clarify their ability and intent to purchase before handing them off to sellers.

Sandvik Coromant, a leader in precision cutting tools, partnered with us to pilot Sales Qualification Agent for their Digital Commerce program. After the updates, Pia Cedendahl, Global Sales Manager for Strategic Channels/Partners and Online Sales, noted, “Sales Qualification Agent’s answers became far more on-point to our business—it’s like having a research assistant that already understands what we care about.” Sandvik Coromant saw improved lead conversion and higher engagement from their Digital Account Managers, validating the impact of our evaluation-driven approach. Pia joined Microsoft leaders at the Microsoft Ignite 2025 session, “Accelerate revenue and seller productivity with agentic CRM,” where she shared how the team saved more than 120 hours and $19,000 in just the first three weeks since launching a pilot, and forecasted a 5% increase in revenue with full rollout.

Better insights, more personalization, proven value

Equipped with agentic AI design and backed by data-driven evaluation, customers can confidently use the Sales Qualification Agents so that:

• Sellers receive comprehensive company overviews, timely news highlights, and actionable recommendations that are consistently delivered with high quality—drawing a clear line from insight to action.
• Sales leaders can expand their qualified pipeline cost efficiently, with the agent ensuring high lead quality.
• Prospects benefit from more personalized outreach, enhancing their experience and supporting increased conversion rates.

What’s next

We’ll continue to refine Sales Qualification Agent using agentic design patterns, aiming to make every improvement measurable and meaningful. Stay tuned for the full evaluation results and methodology for the Sales Qualification Bench, which will be published for transparency and reproducibility. We also intend to add more evaluation frameworks and benchmarks to the Microsoft Sales Bench collection including benchmarks that cover future sales agent capabilities.

¹ChatGPT pricing page, accessed November 24, 2025

The post Dynamics 365 sets the bar for agentic sales qualification on new benchmark appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

The way we work is transforming. Generative AI and agentic business applications are catalysts for a profound shift in how we create, collaborate, and make decisions. What once took hours now happens in moments. Ideas move faster, insights surface sooner, and the boundaries between human creativity and machine capability are blurring. This isn’t the future—it’s unfolding now, and it’s changing the very fabric of how businesses operate.

It’s a move from systems of record to systems of action. In this new era, AI agents go beyond support—they help interpret signals, uncover patterns, and initiate actions and continuously optimize processes on your behalf. At Convergence 2025, December 9–12, we’ll explore how organizations can build an AI-first autonomous enterprise powered by data, copilots, and agents working together across Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Microsoft Cloud.

From automation to autonomy: The AI-first organization

Businesses have long pursued automation to streamline operations. The next leap is autonomy—systems that interpret signals across the business, adapt workflows in real time, and anticipate decisions. Autonomous enterprises go beyond efficiency—they are driven, adaptive, and human-centered, with intelligent systems that understand context, collaborate across processes, and deliver measurable outcomes.

We believe the recognition of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Leader placement in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ and IDC MarketScape reports reinforces our ability to connect front-end and back-end operations into one intelligent ecosystem. Our leadership is grounded in the breadth of the Microsoft Cloud, the depth of our data estate, and our ability to bring AI, analytics, and business applications together as a unified platform to accelerate end-to-end AI transformation.

Agentic business applications are built on three connected pillars: data, Copilot, and agents—working together to change how work gets done.

1. Data: The foundation of agent autonomy

Most business processes begin with data. Finance close, order-to-cash, customer insights, case resolution, supply chain planning, field service, HR workflows—each depends on complete, connected, trusted information. When this data is fragmented across systems, agents can’t act with autonomy, and AI can only answer questions instead of accelerating outcomes.

Dynamics 365 spans both front-office and back-office operations—customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP)—providing a continuous, end-to-end view of customers, employees, finances, supply chain, and operations. This structured, governed, and auditable data is the backbone of business processes—how work flows, how controls are enforced, and how organizations maintain compliance at scale.

As business model innovation becomes even more important, we continue to invest deeply in these core applications. We’re expanding capabilities across ERP and CRM, investing in bringing Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft Copilot Studio, and Microsoft Power Platform closer to Dynamics 365 than ever before. From connected frontlines to adaptive supply chains, business applications are becoming composable, intelligent, and outcome-driven—helping customers innovate more quickly while maintaining trust, security, and governance, adapt faster, redesign workflows, and build the operational integrity required for agent-powered processes. At Convergence 2025, you’ll see how Dynamics 365 continues to evolve as the operational engine of AI-first organizations.

At Microsoft Ignite 2025, we announced major advances in how agents connect with ERP systems. The Dynamics 365 ERP Model Context Protocol (MCP) server is evolving from static actions to a dynamic, configurable framework that adapts as business needs evolve. A new analytics MCP server extends this capability to structured metrics and insights, supporting agents to reason over governed operational and financial data—not snapshots or exports, but live business signals. Together, these updates unify data, logic, and actions into a common protocol that can simplify integration and accelerate automation.

And with MCP designed for massive scale—including support of millions of ERP actions—organizations gain the performance and extensibility required for agent-powered business processes at enterprise scale.

The entire Microsoft data and application stack—Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM, Dataverse, Fabric, and more—forms the operational engine of agentic transformation. It provides the structure, governance, and adaptability required to support AI-powered business models and next-generation workflows.

2. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Your strategic productivity partner

Copilot continues to help transform productivity across many roles. It helps sales teams move deals forward, finance teams accelerate reconciliation, and service teams resolve issues before they escalate. But Copilot is more than an assistant—it’s the connective layer that links people, data, and systems, understanding intent, orchestrating workflows, and guiding decisions across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365.

3. Agents: Plan, decide, and act

We expect AI agents will be core to how businesses operate—planning, deciding, and acting across systems to accelerate outcomes. These agents will interpret signals, identify patterns, and initiate actions to keep the business in motion.

Microsoft’s strategy spans the full agent ecosystem: first-party embedded agents inside Dynamics 365, agents for specialized industries that can be customized and extended by partners, specific partner-built agents, and custom agents created by organizations through Microsoft Copilot Studio. All share the same security, governance, and identity foundation.

For small to mid-sized businesses, Dynamics 365 Business Central brings agents directly into everyday finance and operations. The Sales Order Agent creates, validates, and updates sales orders which can help improve accuracy and speed by reducing manual entry and exception management. The Payables Agent automates vendor invoices and reconciliations, improving control while freeing finance teams from repetitive tasks. Together, these agents help Business Central customers modernize core processes with governed, AI-powered actions that keep work flowing across purchasing, sales, and accounting.

Across Dynamics 365 finance and operations, embedded agents are transforming core processes—from time and expense entry in Project Operations, to supplier outreach in Supply Chain Management, to reconciliations in Finance and technician scheduling in Field Service. These agents help reduce manual effort and bring greater precision and autonomy to everyday operations.

At Convergence 2025, we’re also thrilled to announce the public preview of the Product Change Management Agent Template—an AI-powered solution that transforms how manufacturers manage the process of change across equipment, products, and processes changes. Built on Copilot Studio, the agent automates workflows and connects critical systems, helping teams cut approval times from weeks to days, reduce errors, and bring innovations to market, faster. Learn how customers like Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) are using this agent template to optimize their manufacturing operations.

Partner-built agents that extend industry workflows

Partners are building agents that extend domain workflows and connect directly to Dynamics 365 through the MCP. These solutions show how agent-to-agent coordination and cross-system reasoning will define the next era of enterprise automation.

Shop Floor by RSM helps manufacturers gain real-time visibility across production by bringing job details, quality checks, and operational signals into one experience. It can surface issues as they occur and support teams in resolving them quickly, helping to reduce disruptions and maintain consistent output. By connecting workers, data, and actions on the floor, the agent can support more resilient, adaptive manufacturing operations.

The PayFlow Agent by HSO helps finance teams manage vendor payment inquiries with greater speed and accuracy. It analyzes incoming emails, retrieves live payment data from Dynamics 365, and responds with up-to-date status information—which can reduce manual effort and help vendors receive clear, timely communication. The agent streamlines payment cycles and can improve transparency across accounts payable.

The Quality Impact Recall Agent by Cegeka helps organizations identify product quality issues and trace their impact across inventory and customer shipments. It coordinates notifications, guides corrective steps, and streamlines recall preparedness, which can help teams act quickly when risks emerge and maintain trust in the products they deliver.

Factorial connects to the Dynamics 365 Business Central MCP Server to deliver a new agent-to-agent experience. You can use a single Copilot interface to pull, exchange, and act on data across the systems. For example, within expense workflows, Factorial’s agent can request, validate, and reconcile financial data directly with Business Central.

Zensai’s agent integrates with Dynamics 365 Business Central to transform an organization’s operational signals into aligned goals and check-ins inside Microsoft 365. Built in Copilot Studio and connected through MCP for Dynamics 365, the agent converts finance, compliance, HR, and sales insights into structured, cascaded goals within Perform 365. At Convergence 2025, you’ll see how these first-party, partner, and custom-built agents form a connected ecosystem—and how organizations are already using them to move from automation to autonomy.

Convergence 2025

Convergence has always been where our community comes together to learn, connect, and imagine what’s next—and this year we’re reigniting that tradition at a moment of extraordinary change.

Throughout the event you’ll see how organizations are moving from systems of record to systems of agency, and how you can apply these ideas to accelerate your own AI transformation. I’m excited for you to experience everything we’ve been building.

• Learn more about Convergence
• Explore agentic business applications and agentic ERP solutions
• Sign up to receive 2026 Convergence updates

The post The era of agentic business applications arrives at Convergence 2025 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.