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.

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.

Frontier Firms put Copilot, agents, and agentic business applications at the core of their operating model to enrich employee experiences, reinvent customer engagement, reshape business processes, and bend the curve on innovation. Today, we’re announcing several new agentic capabilities to help customers move to the Frontier—read on to learn more.

Transforming sales with Sales Development Agent

Earlier in 2025, we introduced our vision for how AI agents will transform critical sales processes like building pipeline and qualifying leads. Today marks the next milestone in that journey with the Microsoft Sales Development Agent, available through the Frontier Program in December 2025. Many sales organizations are under pressure to deliver more revenue with limited resources, and the Sales Development Agent helps sales teams scale their impact. This allows sellers to focus on nurturing customer relationships and closing deals.

Features include:

• Revenue and pipeline growth: The agent continuously researches prospects, crafts personalized outreach, and automatically follows up to ensure no lead is left behind.
• Scalability: Fully independent, yet collaborative, the agent acts as a teammate, with the ability to hand off leads to human sellers when needed.
• Security and governance: Built on Microsoft’s trusted security and compliance foundation and when enabled with Agent 365, the agent adheres to robust policies and access controls to ensure user data and workflows are protected.

Sales Development Agent connects with leading CRM systems like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365, and the Microsoft 365 apps your teams already use like Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams.

The Microsoft sales team is among the first to use Sales Development Agent to reinvent the sales engagement process. With the use of Sales Development Agent, there was a 15.1% increase in the lead-to-opportunity conversation rate. ¹

Sales leaders want to help sellers act on more leads, reach more customers, grow faster, and improve revenue per seller. Microsoft Sales Development Agent can make that possible by creating an infinitely scalable sales organization, so no lead is left behind. Accenture plans to pilot Sales Development Agent across our global inside sales-as-a-service business—which helps clients sell to customers around the world—to boost their reach and revenue while maintaining cost to serve. We’ll use what we learn to help clients leverage Sales Development Agent, scale their teams, and unlock new growth.

—Chris Hergesell, Sales Reinvention Lead, Accenture Song

Learn more about Sales Development Agent with Accenture

From System of Record to System of Action

In October 2025, we shared our vision for agentic business applications—built on agents, Copilot, and unified data. These components are what define Dynamics 365 as a system of action.

Today, we’re taking that vision further with updates to Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers across Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform, strengthening the foundation for agentic capabilities across your entire business. MCP servers are configurable bridges between the business data within your line-of-business (LOB) apps, and the agents you build using tools like Microsoft Copilot Studio. It serves as a universal intermediary, unlocking a unified platform agnostic access to app data, modernizing how AI agents are interoperable with your apps.

For customers of Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service, we’ve used MCP to simplify integration between agents in Dynamics 365 and the platforms used by sellers and service reps to execute complementary workflows, like lead research, engagement, and qualification, as well as case management and case resolution, available in public preview on November 21, 2025.

For customers of Dynamics 365 ERP, we are announcing the public preview of the MCP server that unlocks hundreds of thousands of ERP functions for real-time use. We are also introducing a new analytics MCP server in public preview starting in December 2025. These two servers provide a secure, standardized foundation to connect ERP data with AI-powered analytics, helping customers make faster, more accurate decisions and innovate without sacrificing governance.

We are also announcing the Power Apps MCP server in public preview that enables agents to seamlessly trigger app capabilities such as approvals, form submissions, and data retrieval. This makes every Power App a composable, reusable building block in your organization’s AI ecosystem empowering both citizen and professional developers to expose app functionality to agents with confidence and control.

Lastly, the Dataverse MCP server, now generally available, allows people to benefit from natural language interactions, receiving real-time answers grounded in Dataverse data, while makers and admins gain powerful, built-in tools for data operations, search, and prompt execution.

We see tremendous excitement from customers and partners for agentic Dynamics 365 applications. Take Ramp, a financial operations platform designed to save companies time and money. Ramp built an agentic solution, currently in preview, using Microsoft Foundry that integrates with Dynamics 365 Business Central and Teams to streamline employee expense management.

Join the movement to the Frontier with Copilot, agents, and agentic business applications

We know that moving to the Frontier isn’t just about technology. That’s why we’re partnering with Harvard Business School to collaborate on research and executive education to help you put this into practice at your own company. We’re also sharing new resources for leaders on their journey to the Frontier Firm with Frontier Function Guides for Sales, HR, and IT and a look inside our learnings at Microsoft–including three ways to turn insight into action. We’re committed to helping you transform—we’ll see you at the Frontier!

If you’re interested in learning more:

• Explore the Microsoft Ignite 2025 sessions to see agents and agentic business applications in action.
• Register for our year-end webinar to learn about more agents in Dynamics 365 (December 2, 2025)
• Join us at the Convergence ERP Conference (December 9-11, 2025).

¹ Internal Microsoft sales team data based on time period January 1 to November 7, 2025. Total customers outreach by the agent: 61,734. Lead-to-opportunity ratio (sales qualification): 15.1%.

The post Microsoft Ignite 2025: Powering Frontier Firms with agentic business applications appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Tariffs change at lightning speed, threatening profits and forecasts. But for companies that stay ahead, volatility can become an edge—unlocking smarter sourcing decisions and resilience competitors can’t match. The 4,400-page Harmonized Tariff Schedule alone changes dozens of times a year.¹ One week, your steel imports have a 15% tariff. The next week? Maybe 25%. Or maybe zero if a new trade agreement sneaks through.

Every shift in the 4,400-page Harmonized Tariff Schedule puts supply chains at risk. A single misclassification can mean six-figure fines, delayed shipments, or missed revenue targets. Compliance teams burn endless hours chasing updates, while procurement and operations scramble to adjust forecasts and supplier contracts. And despite all that effort, if there is an unexpected policy change, most companies pay the price in lost time, money, and customer trust. The reality is that no human team can easily keep pace with this level of volatility and should instead look to agents and AI to help reduce the busy work and stay ahead of disruptions.

Tariffs are a textbook example of where agents have the potential to excel. No team can realistically monitor 4,400 pages of classifications that shift as chaotically as they do today. Agents take on the repetitive monitoring and data tracking that overwhelm even the best compliance team. When these kinds of tasks are handled by agents, leaders and teams can focus on decisions that move business forward. Microsoft offers multiple ways to make that real, whether you want to start small or transform your entire approach to tariff intelligence.

The Microsoft advantage: 3 ways to build tariff intelligence

Microsoft offers three distinct paths for tackling tariff changes, whether you’re ready for a complete transformation or need to start small and scale up.

1. Use first-party agents in Dynamics 365

Dynamics 365 offers a built-in supplier communication agent that automatically researches supplier information and generates outreach so you can quickly navigate tariff changes and supply chain disruptions. It pulls data from your procurement history, current inventory levels, and supplier performance metrics to identify suppliers that can answer questions about capacity, lead times, and alternative shipping routes.

When tariff changes threaten your delivery schedules, you can quickly compose communications that include relevant data from multiple systems. You no longer need to hunt through spreadsheets to find supplier contact information or manually request alternative sourcing options.

2. Build custom agents in Copilot Studio

With Copilot Studio, you can build custom agents that can calculate the impact of tariff changes on your products and contracts when asked, surface sourcing alternatives, and flag agreements that may need renegotiation.

These agents can connect to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and Outlook as knowledge sources, and monitor supplier communications for mentions of tariffs, delivery delays, or capacity constraints. Document scanning capabilities mean contracts, shipping manifests, and regulatory updates become searchable, contextual data that informs agent recommendations. Behind the scenes, Microsoft Dataverse maintains data integrity and security with its unified structure and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). You can deploy quickly without sacrificing governance.

These agents can also connect with your Dynamics 365 and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, whether that’s SAP, Oracle, or another platform, alongside your product data, supplier information, and procurement contracts through the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

MCP is an open standard that enhances the relevance of agent responses. It facilitates the connection of AI agents to various data systems and standardizes how applications provide context to large language models (LLMs). With integration between LLM applications and external data sources, the protocol is useful for building AI-powered tools and workflows like customized tariff agents.

Security and compliance controls are built into the platform, so you can deploy agents rapidly while maintaining governance over what data they can access and what actions they can take. Want an agent that can read tariff schedules but not modify procurement contracts? Copilot Studio makes those boundaries clear and enforceable.

3. Explore partner solutions through the agent ecosystem

Microsoft’s partner ecosystem extends your capabilities with specialized agents tailored for industry-specific needs. Partners like Avanade are already building tariff and trade solutions that plug directly into Dynamics 365, so you can scale faster with proven expertise.

Avanade’s Tariff Navigator provides a single, intelligent agent experience to assess tariff exposure, model “what-if” scenarios, and proactively adjust purchasing, sourcing, and pricing decisions. The cost of inaction is steep and includes margin erosion, unexpected cost spikes, and reactive decisions that weaken competitiveness. And trying to tackle these challenges alone often leads to fragmented efforts and limited impact. Avanade is a trusted advisor with deep technical expertise and experienced industry specialists. Its consultative approach means Tariff Navigator is built around your people, tailored to how they work and the unique business challenges they face.

Using Microsoft’s low-code technologies, Avanade also allows for fast deployment of customized approaches that integrate with your existing systems and empower your teams to act quickly. The result is a practical, business-first application designed for measurable impact.

The Tariff Navigator solution by Avanade doesn’t just manage tariffs—it strengthens your organization’s ability to compete in a volatile global market. It’s about protecting profitability today while building the agility to seize opportunities tomorrow.

Beyond tariffs: Building resilience for what’s next

Tariff management offers you the opportunity to reimagine how supply chain operations handle complexity and uncertainty. The same agent architecture that helps you navigate trade policy changes can tackle other operational challenges, such as supply chain disruptions and vendor performance monitoring.

Agents you build in Copilot Studio or access from Microsoft Marketplace and the partner ecosystem have the potential to help organizations prepare trade agreements, navigate natural disasters, accidents, and other events that reshape supply chains temporarily or permanently. From a Suez Canal blockage to a geopolitical shift that reroutes global trade overnight, agents help you adapt fast.

Ready to take on changing tariffs?

Tariff volatility isn’t slowing down, and the next policy shift could hit tomorrow. The question is whether to react after the fact or build resilience now to better navigate future disruptions. Microsoft empowers customers to get started today, with custom or prebuilt agent options, depending on your needs. Dynamics 365 gives you the intelligent foundation and embedded supplier communications features. Copilot Studio lets customers build custom agents that track schedules, calculate impacts, and surface risks. Or you can use our partner solutions, like Avanade, to extend and customize agents. Either path puts AI agents to work for you, protecting margins, safeguarding compliance, and addressing volatility before it disrupts your supply chain.

Next steps

• Explore updates from the Copilot Studio and Power Platform teams to learn about Power Platform Community Conference 2025.
• Visit Avanade Tariff Navigator.
• Visit Dynamics 365 ERP solution page.
• Watch part 1 and part 2 of the day-in-the-life of a procurement manager videos on YouTube

¹Harmonized Tariff Schedule, United States International Trade Commission.

The post 3 ways to navigate changing tariffs with AI agents appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As innovation speeds up, staying agile is essential. To keep your business ahead of the curve with innovation across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot Studio, join us for the Business Applications Launch Event, debuting live on the Dynamics 365 YouTube channel on Thursday, October 23, 2025 at 9 AM Pacific Daylight Time. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get notified when the update is live.

The Business Applications Launch Event offers an exclusive first look at new capabilities launching over the next few months.

With a newly streamlined presentation format, you can quickly get up to speed on the most important and innovative capabilities—with expert insights and demonstrations from Microsoft product leaders and engineers. It’s our way of helping you stay current, make informed decisions, and move faster in the era of Copilot and AI agents.

The update is your opportunity to:

• Get insights about the latest low-code and AI innovation transforming business from Charles Lamanna, President, Business and Industry Copilot.
• Get a sneak preview of upcoming capabilities across Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot Studio with live demonstrations from Microsoft product leaders and engineers.
• Discover where to access materials to learn about and plan for new and upcoming capabilities.
• All in a new presentation format designed to quickly get you up to speed on the latest updates, so you can get the most from them.

During this update, you’ll hear from the product leaders and engineers behind the technology, including new Copilot and AI agent innovation for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. Demo highlights will include:

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Learn about updates to the Sales qualification agent. It autonomously researches and engages with leads, helping sales teams quickly identify those with real purchase intent. In this wave, the agent goes further—moving the lead closer to full qualification and boosting the team’s opportunity pipeline with greater precision and impact.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Dynamics 365 Contact Center

The latest release wave of Dynamics 365 Contact Center helps service reps better understand customer needs and deliver what they need—quickly, efficiently, and with a human touch. Dynamics 365 Customer Service will continue to enhance agentic and Copilot capabilities for case and knowledge management, as well as AI-based routing. Dynamics 365 Contact Center will also focus on expanding agentic and Copilot capabilities to automate service journeys across digital and voice channels, along with introducing new omnichannel and supervisor features in the 2025 release wave 2.

Dynamics 365 ERP products and solution in Microsoft 365 Copilot

Dynamics 365 Finance expands the capabilities of the Account Reconciliation Agent. Today, it supports your team in effortlessly resolving voucher amount mismatches. In this wave, it extends support to include ledger not in subledger and subledger not in ledger exceptions. Instead of relying on manual exception handling and static reports, the solution reviews all transactions on an ongoing basis, services exceptions, and presents them to you. The agent then suggests the most appropriate action for resolution, and you have the freedom to accept it or choose another path. Core updates to Dynamics 365 Finance also include the automation of remittance advice processing.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management introduces capabilities that make AI-led demand planning more flexible. You can now bring in multiple external signals like inflation, weather, and industry indexes right into your forecast.

And new autonomous and intelligent productivity capabilities for finance solution in Microsoft 365 Copilot will reshape the finance process, from reconciliation to collections to advanced analytics help reduce repetitive work and surface actionable insights.

Explore our updates in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Finance agents for Microsoft 365:

• Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management—Improve customer impacting predictions with the Data Quality Agent
• Finance agents for Microsoft 365—Automate finance tasks to improve accuracy and efficiency

Microsoft Power Platform

Microsoft Power Platform is getting a major boost with AI and collaboration features. Power Apps now lets people and agents work together—agents can help with tasks like data entry, visualization, and app creation just by describing what you need or sharing an image. Power Automate is evolving with smarter automation tools, including generative AI actions, intelligent document processing, and new human-in-the-loop experiences like advanced approvals. It’s also, it’s adding stronger governance and security controls to help manage automation at scale. Power Pages is making it easier than ever to build secure, data-driven websites, with new tools for low-code makers and developers, and enhanced security insights to keep everything protected.

See wave two highlights for Power Automate—Proactively spot and resolve automation issues

Copilot Studio

Copilot Studio continues to make agent creation and operation even easier and more powerful with autonomous agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, the ability to build complete teams of agents that work seamlessly together, and improved governance for enterprise scalability. Copilot Studio will offer even deeper integration with Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft Graph, helping ensure your agents can use the latest AI technology alongside your data in the Microsoft Graph.

Catch the wave—Mark your calendar for BALE

The Business Applications Launch Event will be live on the Dynamics 365 YouTube channel on Thursday, October 23, 2025, starting at 9 AM Pacific Daylight Time. We’ll see you there!

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2025’s Gartner® CFO & Finance Executive Conference featured sessions and hands-on product demonstrations from finance and operations providers covering growth strategies, cost management tools, and of course, AI in finance. I’ve had the pleasure of attending for a few years now, and what struck me this year was the excitement and enthusiasm for not just learning about but applying agents and generative AI to financial processes. Based on the conversations I had with customers at the event, here are the three things finance leaders should know about getting started with agents and AI.

Automate high-impact processes first

The journey to AI-powered finance doesn’t require a complete overhaul—it can start with targeted, high-impact steps that build momentum and deliver measurable value. Start with areas that are ripe for automation and deliver immediate impact to your team and bottom line. Financial close, account reconciliation, and supplier communications are ideal entry points using prebuilt agents available from Microsoft, like the Supplier Communications Agent in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, which can automatically respond to vendor emails, assess supply chain disruptions, and update purchase orders—helping to ensure continuity without manual intervention.

The breadth of agent possibility doesn’t stop with what’s available today as a prebuilt solution. Microsoft empowers finance professionals to build custom agents for ERP processes, applying automation and intelligence to critical processes, like the process at the heart of finance: record to report. Imagine the impact agents can have helping your team update tax strategies in a complex macroeconomic environment or surfacing real-time financial audits. Microsoft Copilot Studio agent builder provides a simple interface to quickly and easily build agents like the Financial Insights Agent, a tool designed internally for Microsoft to help finance professionals quickly surface and analyze key financial metrics. By using Azure OpenAI and semantic search, this agent allows users to ask natural language questions like “What’s my total operational expenditure (OPEX) as a percentage of expenses?” and receive instant, contextual answers. It can significantly reduce time spent on manual data retrieval and analysis while enhancing decision making with real-time insights. This agent exemplifies how AI can transform planning and analysis workflows, helping make finance teams more agile and strategic. Build your own agent here.

Establish a Center of Innovation to upskill your finance team

Create a dedicated team or initiative to explore, test, and scale AI use cases across finance. This “Center of Innovation” can serve as a hub for experimentation, governance, and best practices—helping ensure that AI adoption is intentional, secure, and aligned with business goals. Creating space for experimentation and testing means giving finance teams the freedom to test new tools, workflows, and ideas without the pressure of immediate perfection. It involves setting up low-risk environments, like sandboxes or pilot programs, where teams can trial AI agents, automate processes, and iterate quickly. This approach fosters a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement, allowing teams to scale what works and learn from what doesn’t.

Establishing a Center of Innovation was central to the growth and success of Microsoft’s own AI adoption. Microsoft Director of Modern Finance, Cory Hrncirik, joined the Microsoft session to share tangible examples of both AI adoption and the structures put in place to get us there.

As team members begin to shift from transactional to strategic roles, it’s imperative to equip your team with the skills required to work alongside AI. This could include training on prompt engineering for your function, data literacy, and how to manage and monitor AI agents.

Microsoft Copilot Studio offers a low-code environment where finance professionals can build and customize agents without needing deep technical expertise.

Work with IT to define your human-agent operating models to scale what works

As agents take on more operational tasks, CFOs must define how humans and AI will collaborate. This includes setting clear roles, responsibilities, and oversight mechanisms. Think of your team as a hybrid workforce—where agents handle the repetitive and analytical, and humans focus on judgment, strategy, and innovation. Due to the sensitive nature of financial material, early collaboration on security and permissions with IT will be crucial to implementation and driving outcomes.

Getting started with Microsoft and Microsoft Dynamics 365

If you’re ready to start reimagining ERP processes with agents, learn more about the pre-built agents announced in April 2025, explore how the new Model Context Protocol servers for Dynamics 365 will accelerate the ability for customers to build agents, and visit “AI-Powered ERP Solutions” for more product information.

Want to dig deeper? Learn how your organization can benefit from using Dynamics 365 Finance and Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management in a three-year projection window¹:

• 106% return on investment (ROI).
• USD8.9 million in productivity gains from unified data access, streamlined processes, and automated workflows.
• USD1.2 million in profitability improvements from real-time visibility and enhanced decision making.
• USD3.9 million in infrastructure savings by moving from legacy on-premises systems to the cloud.

These benefits are grounded in real-world outcomes and are explored deeper in a Forrester Total Economic Impact study, commissioned by Microsoft. The study’s composite organization is modeled after interviews with Dynamics 365 customers, and the report explores how teams reported significant improvements in operations.

Source:

¹The Total Economic Impact™ Of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP, Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Dynamics 365 ERP, a Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Study commissioned By Microsoft, April 2024

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The post Get started with agents for finance: Learnings from 2025 Gartner® CFO & Finance Executive Conference appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

As finance leaders scale to meet growing business complexity—spanning global entities, evolving regulations, and rising business performance demands—the pressure is on to do more than close the books. Today’s finance organizations must move faster, manage risk more proactively, and adapt dynamically.

That requires more than automation, it demands a new era of ERP. One where systems don’t just record and report, but act, learn, and adapt—where AI agents, embedded in everyday workflows, help finance teams manage complexity, reduce manual effort, and accelerate decision-making.

At Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2025—taking place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center—we’re showcasing how Microsoft is enabling this shift. Visit our team of technical specialists at Booth #313 and attend our keynote to see how Microsoft is helping finance teams develop and implement AI strategies that align with business goals—without compromising on governance, compliance, or security.

Global-scale financial operations for the modern CFO

As organizations adapt to shifting markets—whether by entering new regions, adjusting product strategies, or responding to evolving regulations—financial operations become more complex. Finance teams are tasked with managing activity across multiple legal entities, currencies, and accounting standards, all while ensuring accuracy, compliance, and transparency. What was once the domain of large multinational companies is now a day-to-day reality for businesses of all sizes. As a result, global-scale financial operations have shifted from being a specialized need within your business systems to a core capability.

This evolving reality is creating a new baseline for finance transformation. Global-scale financial operations are no longer a niche requirement—they’re an operational necessity. Finance teams must support complex processes like consolidation, allocations, revaluation, and compliance across geographies and systems, while maintaining accuracy and transparency.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance provides this foundation with capabilities that include:

• Multi-entity journal processing from a single experience.
• Multi-ledger automation to support International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), and local standards.
• Cross-entity allocations, revaluations, and close activities.
• Shared hierarchies for business units, customers, vendors, and financial dimensions.
• Integrated consolidation and reporting across systems and geographies.

These features help finance organizations simplify complexity and operate with greater agility and precision—without increasing overhead.

Investing in the future of global-scale finance and agentic operations

As business models continue to evolve and financial complexity deepens, Microsoft is making foundational investments to support the next generation of finance operations. Our roadmap for Dynamics 365 Finance focuses on deepening multi-entity and multi-ledger capabilities, accelerating period-end close, and enabling flexible data hierarchies across legal entities, currencies, and accounting standards. Here are a few things we’re investing in:

• Multi-entity and intercompany operations are often constrained by fragmented processes and manual handoffs across legal entities. A new approach is needed to streamline activity across the organization, reduce duplication, and increase control—all without scaling up effort or cost.
• Multi-ledger accounting is becoming essential as more companies operate in jurisdictions that require parallel accounting standards. Traditional methods often rely on offline reconciliation or separate systems. We’re investing in ways to maintain compliance and transparency while reducing complexity.
• Accelerating period-end close remains one of the most persistent challenges for finance teams. Time-consuming reconciliations, disconnected systems, and limited visibility into task status slow down the close. We’re focusing on integrated task orchestration, automation, and embedded intelligence to improve agility and confidence.
• Flexible data hierarchies are increasingly essential as organizations grow and restructure—they help introduce new business units, financial dimensions, and operational models. We’re evolving to provide more support for shared, adaptable hierarchies across entities and dimensions to improve enterprise-wide reporting, planning agility, and compliance alignment.

At the center of this is a new vision for ERP—one that supports your organization’s shift to a more autonomous enterprise. This model brings together adaptive user experiences, AI agents, and a set of modular, extensible capabilities that can be accessed across applications and workflows. Finance professionals can interact with the system in natural language, receive guided recommendations, and delegate tasks to AI-powered agents embedded directly within their daily workflows. At the same time, these systems are becoming more interoperable—able to connect data, coordinate actions, and deliver outcomes across complex organizational structures.

We’re building financial operations solutions that don’t just keep pace with change, they help you lead it.

From intelligent tools to more autonomous financial operations

While intelligent automation has improved efficiency across finance processes, the next phase of transformation will require more than assistance. This next phase calls for intelligent systems that act with autonomy and help finance teams stay ahead of increasing demands.

Microsoft is delivering both embedded and the ability to build AI agents to support this shift:

• The Account Reconciliation Agent, embedded in Dynamics 365 Finance, helps automate transaction matching, flag discrepancies, and reduces time spent on period-end close activities. Watch the Account Reconciliation Agent here.
• The Finance Reconciliation Agent, available in Excel, enables intelligent reconciliation of data sets from across the business using familiar tools. Watch the Finance Reconciliation Agent here.
• Custom finance agents, built with Microsoft Copilot Studio, allow organizations to design their own agent experiences—supporting processes like allocation modeling, compliance validation, or internal control workflows tailored to their unique operating model.

This approach to AI implementation represents a new layer of the finance IT stack—one that not only reduces manual workload but allows you to use and create agents that work for you to enhances accuracy, accountability, and insight.

Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2025

Learn how Microsoft helps finance teams develop and implement AI strategies.

Register today

Visit Microsoft at Booth #313

If you’re attending Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2025, we invite you to connect with us in person.

At Booth #313, you can:

• See Microsoft’s first-party finance agents in action.
• Explore how Dynamics 365 is powering global-scale financial operations today.
• Learn how to build custom agents with Copilot Studio.
• Hear how Microsoft’s own finance organization is applying these tools to modernize operations.

Join us for our featured session on May 20 at 3:15 PM Eastern Time (UTC – 4) in Potomac B, available on-demand to attendees only:

• Session title: Unlocking Business Value with AI-Enabled Outcomes
• Speakers: April Olson (Dynamics 365 Finance), Cory Hrncirik (Modern Finance), Stephanie Dart (Product Marketing)
• What to expect: Learn how Microsoft is applying cutting-edge AI to transform finance operations—from reconciliation and forecasting to policy guidance and close review. We’ll share practical examples from our own finance organization, highlight new agent capabilities, and offer guidance on how to begin implementing agent-based automation in your own enterprise.

Whether your finance team supports 10 legal entities or hundreds, the tools to manage complexity, enhance insight, and drive transformation are available now.

Let us show you what’s next in financial and agentic operations, and how Microsoft can help you lead the way.

The post See what’s next in financial operations from Microsoft Dynamics 365 at Gartner CFO & Finance Executive Conference 2025 appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

Adaptation and change are the only constants in business—and the pace is accelerating. To thrive, your business needs the right tools, from AI-powered insights to low-code solutions, designed to help you adapt faster, enhance customer experiences, and boost efficiency.

Join us on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, for the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event, an exclusive first look at groundbreaking innovations coming to Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Microsoft Copilot Studio. See firsthand how these new technologies empower your organization to proactively navigate changes and seize new opportunities.

Event highlights include:

• Live demonstrations of the latest updates in Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Copilot Studio.
• Insights from Microsoft leaders on transforming CRM and ERP systems with agents to drive customer experiences and operational agility.
• Real-world success stories from organizations using Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.
• Interactive Q&A session with product experts.

During the event you will gain in-depth insights into how customers are adopting what’s new in Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales:

• AI-powered Microsoft Copilot and agents to boost seller productivity
• Automated research, proactive follow-ups, and prioritized actions
• Streamlined, intuitive user experiences designed to help sellers close deals faster

See Dynamics 365 Sales 2025 release wave 1 in action for more.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service:

• AI-enhanced case and knowledge management with intelligent routing
• Extended Copilot capabilities for improved productivity
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center enhancements for effortless self-service and faster issue resolution

See Dynamics 365 Contact Center 2025 release wave 1 in action for more.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance:

• Copilot-first experiences streamlining complex tax and compliance management
• Automated account and bank reconciliations using intelligent agents
• Advanced analytics and planning tools to drive smarter financial decisions

See Dynamics 365 Finance 2025 release wave 1 in action for more.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management:

• Integrated AI, analytics, and automation for improved operational efficiency
• Enhanced supplier communication and demand planning accuracy
• Intelligent manufacturing features aligning production data to real-world processes

See Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management release wave 1 2025 in action for more.

Copilot Studio:

• Create custom autonomous agents tailored to your specific business needs
• Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with new embedded capabilities
• Connect with new conversational channels, including WhatsApp and SharePoint

See Microsoft Copilot Studio 2025 release wave 1 in action for more.

Microsoft Power Apps:

• Innovative plan designer for building software solutions from simple problem descriptions
• Out-of-the-box, extensible agents for data management, exploration, and summarization

See Power Apps 2025 release wave 1 in action for more.

Microsoft Power Automate:

• Enhanced capabilities for automating complex business processes
• New human-in-the-loop experiences, generative AI actions, and intelligent document processing
• Comprehensive governance, observability, and security controls in automation center

See Power Automate 2025 release wave 1 in action for more.

Catch the wave—Register today

The Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event streams live on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, starting at 9 AM PST and will also be available on-demand. Register now to stay updated and get helpful resources ahead of the event.

Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event

Join us on Wednesday, April 30, 2025.

Register here

The post Preview upcoming Dynamics 365 features at the Microsoft Business Applications Launch Event appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

This week, thousands of manufacturers will gather at Hannover Messe 2025 for insights into solutions to unprecedented challenges, from rising energy costs to supply chain disruptions, workforce shortages to geopolitical conflicts. Top of mind for many attendees is how AI agent-led automation, production, and supply chain processes can help empower a high-performance and sustainable industry.

To help answer these questions, Microsoft leaders and industry partners will showcase the very latest AI innovation for manufacturers designed to help address today’s most critical challenges.

Dynamics 365 ERP solutions

Infuse AI across business processes and workflows.

Contact us to learn more

AI agents will transform manufacturing in 2025 and beyond

Moving forward, four transformative trends will set the pace of growth and success in the evolving manufacturing landscape:

• Improving supply chain operations
• Driving operational excellence with operational technology data from siloed sources
• Delivering great customer experience
• Increasing energy efficiency and employee productivity

At the Microsoft expo booth, manufacturers will learn how they can achieve these trends by using agents across critical business processes and workflows with Microsoft Dynamics 365 autonomous ERP solutions.

Improving supply chain operations with AI agents

Manufacturers face increasing supply chain challenges, from fluctuating customer demand to geopolitical uncertainties that can pressure organizations to restructure supply chains or reshore operations to unaffected regions. It’s imperative to have the agility to adapt to rapid demand shifts while operating profitably and keeping costs in check.

AI agents can play a crucial role in manufacturing operations, autonomously monitoring processes for potential disruptions, with the ability to proactively mitigate potential issues before they’re serious issues.

The Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365 autonomously manages interactions with vendors and suppliers to help ensure on-time delivery of purchase orders helping to avoid downstream delays to customers. The agent provides visibility into the supplier’s supply chain and allows teams to spend more time improving supplier relationships and negotiating better contracts, rather than firefighting shortages.

Lifetime Products—a global manufacturer of products ranging from basketball hoops to picnic tables, sheds, and kayaks—depends on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to optimize operational capabilities. In addition to handling logistics and supply chain management more effectively, the manufacturer is implementing AI agents to “rebalance” its knowledge workforce to do more with same and be more efficient rather than reduce labor.

“One of our biggest learnings has been to let the autonomous agent run its own calculations. You’ll get a more comprehensive, better result.”

—Sinahi Lopez, Global IT Functional Manager at Lifetime Products

The company is now preparing to deploy the Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365, to autonomously communicate with suppliers to proactively mitigate order delays and supply chain disruptions.

Based on study with IDC, $3.5 million in annual inventory-related cost savings, using Dynamics 365, optimizing working capital​.¹

Achieving operational excellence with operational technology data from various silos

To stay competitive, manufacturers need to optimize operations by reducing costs, minimizing downtime, improving agility, and ensuring efficient production. This requires data-driven decision making that takes advantage of the industrial Internet of Things (IoT), AI-driven automation, integrated data clouds, and edge-to-cloud architectures to enable real-time insights, predictive maintenance, and quality control. Microsoft Dynamics 365 includes applications to manage finance, supply chain, sales, and customer relationships, designed to unify business data, improve efficiency, and simplify decision-making. The applications work seamlessly with Microsoft 365, which enhances productivity and collaboration with leading applications like Word, Excel, and Microsoft Teams, while Azure provides cloud infrastructure and IoT capabilities.

A key innovation is the AI agent, powered by Microsoft Copilot Studio, that automates tasks and streamlines workflows, securely grounded on data sourced from various systems by using Microsoft Dataverse as a central hub. Microsoft Fabric enhances analytics, helping businesses turn data into insights. For customization, Microsoft Power Platform offers low-code tools to build apps and automate processes, while Microsoft AppSource provides industry-specific solutions from Microsoft partners.

Together, these technologies create a connected ecosystem, reducing data silos and enabling businesses to operate more efficiently. With everything working seamlessly, organizations can focus on growth, innovation, and smarter decision-making.

Enerjisa Üretim, Türkiye’s largest private electricity generation company, replaced its legacy asset management system with Dynamics 365—a modern, user-friendly solution that provides end-to-end lifecycle management of all 312,500 assets across 29 power plants.

The organization is also transforming operations with Dynamics 365 and Azure, achieving efficiency, cost reduction, and workforce empowerment. Integration of asset management, IoT, and Microsoft Azure Digital Twins provides real-time insights for predictive maintenance. Unified systems improve data consistency, streamline workflows, and enhance collaboration, setting new standards for operational excellence in energy.

“Our equipment data is the key to operational efficiency. The Asset Management [capabilities] in Dynamics 365 extends the lifespan of critical infrastructure. By leveraging real-time data and advanced analytics, we can predict equipment failures before they happen.”

—Alper Serçe, Deputy General Manager, Enerjisa Üretim

Dynamics 365 integrates seamlessly with Enerjisa Üretim’s external systems like SAP, streamlining operations and enhancing efficiency. Real-time inventory updates from SAP into Dynamics 365 helps ensures that technicians have the right materials. And integration with HRweb and Yüklenici Entegre Sistemi (YES) optimizes resource allocation, matching skills and qualifications to work orders.

Based on study with IDC, 85% reduction in unplanned asset downtime, using Dynamics 365, ensuring smoother operations​.¹

Deliver better customer experiences

Manufacturers are facing intense global competition, making customer experience essential to maintain relevance. To differentiate and retain customer trust, they must reconsider traditional business models and explore new revenue streams like product-as-a-service and aftermarket services.

Dynamics 365 assists manufacturers in transitioning to a product-as-a-service (PaaS) model by integrating IoT, AI, automation, and flexible financial frameworks.

• Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Microsoft Azure IoT enable real-time product performance monitoring and predictive maintenance, reducing downtime, helping to ensure timely spare parts delivery and streamlined logistics, which are important for service-based models.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service uses AI and IoT data for a predictive service model, enhancing efficiency and optimizing service contracts to improve customer satisfaction.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance supports flexible pricing, pay-per-use, and subscription models, converting products into ongoing services.

Hobart Corporation, a provider of commercial food equipment, needed to modernize its field operations to better support nearly 400,000 customers across the United States and Canada and solve inefficiencies in service delivery.

By adopting Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Field Service, Hobart standardized processes, improved dispatch accuracy, and provided field technicians with mobile access to real-time inventory and customer data. This transformation enabled quicker response times, improved first-time fix rates, and better parts availability. The solution also facilitated predictive maintenance, ensuring proactive issue resolution before failures occurred.

As a result, Hobart significantly enhanced operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and workforce productivity, reinforcing its reputation for high-quality service.

Organizations facing similar issues can also use the recently announced Scheduling Operations Agent (SOA) for Dynamics 365 Field Service, now in preview. This AI agent creates optimized schedules for technicians, even as conditions change throughout the workday. Whether it’s traffic delays, double bookings, or last-minute cancellations, the SOA helps ensure that schedules remain efficient.

The SOA uses advanced algorithms to address common scheduling challenges. By considering factors such as technician skill sets, territories, and promised time windows, the SOA maximizes technician utilization and prioritizes work orders effectively. This enhances productivity and helps ensure that customer commitments are met accurately.

Based on study with IDC, 40% faster order and product delivery times, using Dynamics 365, increasing customer satisfaction.¹

Operating sustainably by driving energy and employee efficiencies

Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to improve energy efficiency and reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining productivity. By integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP solutions and Sustainability Manager in Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, manufacturers can gain real-time visibility, AI-driven insights, and automated tracking to drive sustainability at scale.

Dynamics 365 ERP collects energy consumption data from IoT sensors, smart meters, and production systems, offering a comprehensive view of energy usage across facilities. This data flows into Microsoft Sustainability Manager, where AI-powered analytics identify inefficiencies, benchmark performance, and recommend optimizations. Manufacturers can track carbon emissions in real time, ensuring they meet sustainability targets.

With predictive analytics and AI-driven workload balancing, manufacturers can optimize machine usage, reduce energy waste, and lower costs. Additionally, optimized supply chain operations help minimize environmental impact through smarter logistics and material sourcing.

Camfil, a leading manufacturer of premium clean air filtration solutions, is using Dynamics 365 to enhance sustainability and profitability. By implementing Dynamics 365 with a standardized data model, Camfil has harmonized its processes across more than 30 production facilities and nearly 6,000 employees.

The integration of Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, and Dynamics 365 Sales has improved operations such as ordering, manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, and invoicing. This harmonization enabled by Dynamics 365 has led to better resource utilization, improved energy efficiency, a more connected and collaborative culture, and enhanced customer satisfaction through continuous innovation in air filtration systems—all contributing to a more sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing operation.

A well-empowered workforce can better manage inventory, demand planning, and supplier interactions, reducing waste and inefficiencies.

Based on study with IDC, 27% more manufacturing processes automated, 20% improvement of productivity across supply chain, procurement, and inventory management teams by using Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP solutions.¹

Future-proof your manufacturing operations in 2025 

AI-powered solutions for ERP and service systems are more than a technological upgrade. They’re a strategic imperative for manufacturers aiming to improve the supply chain, drive operational excellence on the factory floor, deliver great customer experience, and operate sustainably and efficiently.

If you’re registered for Hannover Messe, we invite you to visit the Microsoft booth (#G06, hall 17) and join Sameer Verma, Microsoft’s GM, Dynamics 365 AI ERP, to learn how Dynamics 365 drives manufacturing excellence with AI agents. The session will take place on Monday, March 31, 2025, at 12 PM Central European Time (UTC +1).

Also, continue to visit the Dynamics 365 blog to learn more about how Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform are helping retailers reimagine the road ahead; and feel free to contact us to learn more about the Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP system solutions. 

Source

¹ IDC White Paper, sponsored by Microsoft, The Business Value of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Manufacturers, doc #US53226425

The post The future of manufacturing with Microsoft Dynamics 365 is here—are you ready? appeared first on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog.

This week, thousands of professionals will gather at the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2025: Retail’s Big Show, for insights into the changing retail landscape. Top of mind for many attendees is how AI will impact the retail industry. What retail-specific AI innovation is on the horizon, and can those solutions solve the myriad of challenges retailers face, from improving customer experiences to meeting customer demand on time? 

To help answer these questions, Microsoft leaders and industry partners will be on hand to showcase the very latest AI innovation for retailers—including how agents can open doors to unprecedented customer experiences, help meet customer demand on time, and drive ethical sourcing and sustainability.   

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Learn more about the Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP solutions.

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AI and agents will transform retail in 2025 

In 2025, the retail industry will be shaped by three transformative trends that will set the pace of growth and success in the evolving retail landscape:  

• delivering hyper-personalized customer experiences across physical and digital channels.

• redefining convenience through innovative fulfillment and flexible shopping options.

• embedding sustainability and ethical sourcing at the heart of business strategies.

At the Microsoft expo booth and our featured session, NRF attendees will learn how organizations can achieve these priorities by infusing AI across every business process and workflow—within both customer-facing and backend operations. 

By integrating AI solutions like Microsoft Copilot and agents within ERP systems—the traditional foundation for managing critical business processes—retailers can scale the delivery of personalized customer experiences and flexible shopping options. 

In addition, Microsoft will demonstrate at NRF how agents in Dynamics 365 ERP system solutions autonomously manage workflows and orchestrate processes across various domains, including customer journey, procurement, service and operations. These agents make data-driven decisions, optimize operations in real-time, and enhance productivity by automating routine tasks. This allows employees to concentrate on strategic priorities, thereby improving efficiency, cost savings, and relationships with customers and suppliers.  

Delivering better customer experience

Dynamics 365 delivers AI capabilities that enable retailers to hyper-personalize customer experiences across physical and digital channels.  

Transforming the shopper’s journey

With Dynamics 365, retailers can analyze vast amounts of customer data to better understand customer preferences and behaviors. This will enable them to deliver personalized shopping experience. Based on a 2025 CIO and Technology Executive survey by Gartner®, there will be an increase of retail respondents by 67% in 2025 to invest in in-store generative AI technology for associates and an increase of 60% to invest in in-store generative AI technology for customers.¹ 

Retailers like Venchi are piloting the Personalized Shopping Agent in Dynamics 365 to enable their in-store associates to quickly surface product recommendations based on the customer’s preferences at checkout. With instant, tailored suggestions, it could not only enhance the overall shopping experience but also increase the basket value while improving brand loyalty. 

Seamless omnichannel experience

Today’s customers expect a seamless shopping experience across all channels. Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP systems integrate inventory and customer data from physical stores, online platforms, and mobile apps into a unified system. This integration ensures that customers receive consistent service and accurate information, regardless of how they choose to shop.

Lighting retailer Visual Comfort & Co. created a unified platform across 53 showrooms, a robust online store, manufacturing, and shipping with Dynamics 365 ERP system solutions; helping them to streamline operations and improve visibility across the complex supply chain. With real-time inventory visibility, their showroom associates can promise order availability and delivery accurately.

Turning fulfilment into a competitive advantage

With agents and Dynamics 365, retailers can redefine convenience through innovative fulfillment and flexible shopping options.  

Proactively mitigate supply chain disruptions

It is paramount for retailers to prevent stock out and ensure on-time delivery to their customers to improve retention and loyalty. With frequent supply chain disruptions globally, retailers need to constantly stay in touch with their suppliers or contract manufacturers to proactively identify delays. The Supplier Communications Agent in Dynamics 365 autonomously processes supplier confirmations, flags potential delays, and suggests corrective actions to help ensure that customer orders are delivered on time.  

With the agent automating these critical tasks, supply chain teams can focus on improving supplier relationships and contract negotiations resulting in reduced costs and more efficient procurement processes. 

Flexible and fast fulfilment

Retailers like Build-A-Bear use Dynamics 365 to optimize fulfillment and offer a seamless shopping experience. They use stores as mini warehouses to fulfil orders faster, and with enhanced inventory visibility they can help ensure that their products are available when and where customers need them. They are able to offer flexible shopping options like Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS) and Buy Online, Ship From Store (BOSFS) to their customers for more convenience. Additionally, the implementation of Dynamics 365 has led to a 28% reduction in processing days, significantly boosting warehouse productivity and enabling faster order fulfillment. These innovations allow Build-A-Bear to meet the evolving needs of today’s consumers, providing a more efficient, reliable, and flexible shopping experience.

Ethical sourcing and sustainability 

In 2025, retailers are increasingly committed to embedding sustainability and ethical sourcing at the heart of business strategies. Sustainability features in Dynamics 365 solutions can help retailers comply with the latest standards and best practices, as well as drive positive changes for the business and the environment.

Enable recommerce and drive sustainable practices

AI-powered Dynamics 365 ERP systems help retailers to monitor and implement sustainable practices such as circularity. This enables them to run take-back programs for reselling, reusing, or recycling products to extend their lifecycle and reduce waste. Additionally, the order orchestration engine in Dynamics 365 helps retailers like ONLY, one of BESTSELLER’s largest fashion brands, to support sustainability goals by choosing fulfillment options that minimize carbon emissions while also helping to ensure orders are delivered on time and profitably. Along with the ability to buy online and return in-store, ONLY customers have the most environmentally friendly shipping options available.  

Ethical supplier management

AI capabilities in Dynamics 365 ERP systems can help enhance ethical sourcing by managing vendor compliance, enforcing procurement policies, and supporting multisource strategies. One of our partners, Columbus, implemented Dynamics 365 ERP solutions at their customer Devold of Norway to help them deliver premium quality woolen products to their consumers. They now have a modernized cloud platform and are looking for ways to further improve traceability of their products so that their consumers know where the products come from. These solutions offer transparency and traceability for product origins and provides sustainability reporting to monitor and improve practices—ensuring your procurement aligns with ethical standards. 

Future-proof your retail operations in 2025 

AI-powered solutions for ERP and service systems are more than a technological upgrade. They are a strategic imperative for retailers aiming to deliver exceptional customer experiences, build lasting brand loyalty, and achieve sustainable profitability. In today’s business landscape, you need autonomous systems that can anticipate market changes, customer needs, or operational risks. The risk of clinging to legacy systems extends beyond inefficiency. It leads to missed opportunities, slower time-to-market, and the inability to remain competitive. Companies using AI-first processes through AI-powered solutions for ERP systems gain the foresight and agility necessary to not just react to changes but to lead through them.  

Join us at NRF ‘25 

If you are registered for NRF, we invite you to visit the Microsoft booth (#4503) and join Kathleen Mitford, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President, Global Industry Marketing, as well as leaders at Bath & Body Works, Venchi and Sitecore as they share their perspectives on transforming the shopper journey with AI. The session will take place on Monday, January 13, 2025 at 11AM EST.

Also, continue to visit the Dynamics 365 blog to learn more about how Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform are helping retailers reimagine the road ahead; and feel free to contact us to learn more about the Dynamics 365 AI-powered ERP system solutions. 

Source

¹Gartner, 2025 CIO Agenda: Top Priorities and Technology Plans for Retail, 16 September 2024 By Kelsie Marian, Sandeep Unni. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. 

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