What will Copilot bring to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central?

How will Copilot revolutionise the way we use Dynamics 365 Business Central?

As we know, Copilot is awash with brilliant functionality. But where will we see Copilot within Dynamics 365 Business Central? 

• Copilot for banking reconciliations: With the help of AI you can match payments and receipts in seconds, improving accuracy and saving time. Using Dynamics 365 Business Central’s standard matching process first, Copilot can then take care of the rest! Our quick demonstration shows how easily you can reconcile your accounts with Copilot.
• Copilot for analysis: Let Copilot do the hard work when you need to analyse your data. Using natural language, you can tell Copilot exactly what you want to see and it’ll create an analysis view for you (without you needing to understand the ins and outs of a pivot table). Watch our demo to see how you can ask Copilot to analyse your data in a simple and easy-to-understand view.
• Copilot chat: Forget trawling through all the documents and information you have access to in Dynamics 365 Business Central, ask Copilot to find what you need for you and get the results in seconds. See it for yourself in our demo. Please note, this feature isn’t yet available in the UK tenant, but we’re hoping to see it arrive soon!
• Copilot for marketing texts: Get your item descriptions written in a flash directly within Dynamics 365 Business Central all while hitting the tone, focus and length you want. A real time saver when you need to produce descriptions for many items. Watch our demo to see it in action! 

All these features (with the exception of Copilot Chat) will be available in the Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 1 Release, coming in the next few months. 

How can I make Copilot work for me?

As the old saying goes, you can’t run before you can walk and using Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central is no different. It’s best to manage expectations when using it for the first few weeks but you can speed up the process of your AI helper adopting best practices by providing Copilot with feedback when it asks for it.  

Rather than closing the page when Copilot gets something wrong, make sure to give Copilot feedback and let it know whether it did the right or wrong thing. It looks at this and uses what you’ve deemed as correct or incorrect to guide future actions.

But is Copilot secure?

Security is at the core of Dynamics 365 Business Central and user permissions are upheld even as Copilot is implemented. To not bore you with loads of technical security stuff just remember this - if you can’t access it, neither can Copilot. 

Rest assured that Copilot can only learn from the documentation that you personally have access to, making it a super secure system to use and allowing you to embrace AI without the worry of your important documents and data being wrongfully accessed within your organisation (or anyone else for that matter).  

Copilot is your AI tool, and that means that however you use it and how you “train it” cannot be used to train other people’s Copilots.

Will Microsoft provide financial support to third party apps for any Copilot features they configure?

As mentioned above, Microsoft might be including Copilot in the cost of your Dynamics 365 Business Central subscription, but does that mean we’ll see Copilot also introduced to Dynamics 365 Business Central apps without any additional charge too? At present Microsoft have not said that they will cover the cost for any Microsoft Copilot features used by ISVs to enhance their own products.

Before Copilot comes to Dynamics 365 Business Central comes to the UK tenant, why not consider trying it within your Microsoft Office apps first? Read our overview of what it can do in Microsoft Office here. 

Microsoft have also produced a short video showcasing some of Copilot’s functionality which is well worth a watch. Watch it here.

If you’d like to find out more about Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or have any burning questions, please get in touch.

Please note: Due to the Azure infrastructure needed, Copilot is only available on SaaS version of Dynamics 365 Business Central.