How Copilot AI is Extending the Capabilities of Business Central
Key takeaways: Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant built directly into Business Central, available at no extra cost with your existing licence. It handles tasks like drafting emails, summarising records, filtering data, and suggesting stock levels using the data already in your system. In Microsoft's own research, 70% of Copilot users reported improved productivity, with an average saving of 14 minutes per day. You don't need any technical skills to use it. It works out of the box on the cloud version of Business Central.
If you're already using Business Central, there's a good chance you haven't fully explored what Copilot can do yet. That's not unusual. Most teams are heads-down in the day-to-day and don't always have time to test new features as they roll out. But this one is worth a proper look.
Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant built straight into Dynamics 365 Business Central, and unlike a lot of AI tools that sit separately from your actual workflow, this one is right inside the system your team uses every day. No extra app, no switching between tools, no new login.
What is Copilot in Business Central?
Copilot is an AI assistant that works inside Business Central to handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks that tend to eat into your day. Things like chasing payments, writing emails, pulling records, or checking stock levels. It uses the same generative AI technology behind ChatGPT, but it's been built specifically for business users working inside an ERP.
The key difference from a general-purpose AI tool is that Copilot works with your actual business data. It's not giving you generic answers. It's pulling from the invoices, customers, inventory, and transactions already in your system.
Why Microsoft built it into Business Central
Microsoft has been adding Copilot across all its business tools, from Outlook to Excel to Teams, as part of a wider push to embed AI into everyday workflows rather than treating it as a separate product. Business Central is a natural fit for this because it already sits at the centre of how most SMBs run their operations.
The result is that Copilot can plug directly into your real processes, not just offer general suggestions. Microsoft describes Copilot in Business Central as the world's first AI-powered assistant across all lines of business, covering finance, sales, inventory, and service in one place.
What Copilot can actually do
Each feature is designed to be useful straight away, without any setup or configuration. Here's a breakdown of what it handles:
Draft customer emails automatically
Copilot can write payment reminders, quote follow-ups, and customer communications based on live data in your system. It pulls in the relevant details (invoice number, due date, contact name) so you're not starting from a blank page every time. You review it, tweak if needed, and send.
Summarise customer and vendor records
Before a call or meeting, you can ask Copilot to give you a quick overview of any customer or vendor. It pulls together recent orders, outstanding balances, and contact history into a clean summary without you having to click through multiple screens to piece it together yourself.
Search and filter using plain language
Instead of building queries or trying to remember the right field names, you can just ask. "Show me all overdue invoices over £1,000" or "customers with no orders this quarter." Copilot turns natural language into the right filters and gives you the results. It's a genuine time-saver if you're not a power user of Business Central's filtering tools.
Generate product descriptions
When you add new items to your catalogue, Copilot can suggest descriptions based on keywords, item specs, or similar existing products. For businesses selling online, this removes a lot of the manual copywriting work involved in keeping a catalogue up to date.
Inventory suggestions and alerts
Copilot looks at your historical sales data, seasonal patterns, and reorder points to suggest what stock levels to maintain. It can flag when you're at risk of running short or over-ordering, which helps you make smarter purchasing decisions without having to dig through reports manually.
In-line help and contextual guidance
If you're in a part of Business Central you don't use often, Copilot offers helpful prompts and explanations based on what you're doing. New team members especially find this useful. It reduces the learning curve and means they can get up to speed without constantly asking for help.
What the experts say
"The biggest shift Copilot brings isn't any single feature. It's that AI stops being something you go to separately and starts being something that's just there when you need it. For Business Central users, that means getting answers and drafting communications without ever leaving the system they're already working in. That kind of friction removal adds up quickly across a team."
Arvydas Milasius, Chief Technology Officer, Dynamics Connect
Does it actually save time?
The short answer is yes, and there's data to back it up. Microsoft's early-user research found that 70% of Copilot users said it made them more productive, with an average saving of 14 minutes per day. A UK government trial across 20,000 employees found savings of 26 minutes per day on average, with 82% saying they wouldn't want to go back to working without it.
For a small team of five to ten people, 14 minutes per person per day adds up to several hours a week, across tasks that tend to be low-value but unavoidable, like chasing invoices and writing the same email for the eighth time that month.
Copilot vs doing it manually: a quick comparison
| Task | Without Copilot | With Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Payment reminder email | Draft manually, check invoice details, send | Copilot drafts it using live data, you review and send |
| Pre-call customer overview | Click through multiple tabs to piece it together | Ask Copilot for a summary, get it in seconds |
| Finding overdue invoices | Build a filter or run a report manually | Ask in plain language, get the result immediately |
| New product description | Write from scratch or copy and edit an existing one | Copilot generates a draft based on your item data |
| Stock replenishment decisions | Check reports, look at history, make a judgement call | Copilot flags risks and suggests reorder quantities |
Do you need technical skills to use it?
No. Copilot doesn't require any coding or development knowledge. It's available directly in the Business Central interface. You either type into the search bar or trigger it from supported fields, depending on which feature you're using.
If you want to go further and customise what Copilot can do, that's possible through AL code or Azure OpenAI, but it's entirely optional. For the vast majority of users, everything works straight out of the box on the cloud version of Business Central. It's also worth noting that Copilot is included with your existing Business Central licence at no additional cost.
A few things worth knowing
Copilot is designed to assist, not replace your judgement. It's good practice to check what it suggests, especially for anything customer-facing, and to make sure your underlying data is accurate. The AI can only work with what's in your system.
Some Copilot features are cloud-only and won't be available on on-premise deployments. Language support is strongest in English, with other languages still being rolled out. And while the core features are included in your licence, Microsoft may introduce usage limits or pricing changes on certain capabilities in future updates, so it's worth keeping an eye on the release notes.
How to get started
If you're on the cloud version of Business Central and up to date on your releases, Copilot is already available to you. The easiest way to start is to try it on one specific task. A payment reminder, a customer summary before a call, or a stock query. See how it fits into your workflow.
If you're thinking about moving to Business Central and want to understand what the full setup looks like, get in touch and we can walk you through it.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Copilot included in Business Central or is it an add-on?
- Copilot is included with your existing Business Central licence at no extra cost. There's no separate subscription needed to start using the core features.
- Does Copilot work with on-premise Business Central?
- No. Copilot is only available on the cloud (online) version of Business Central. It's not currently supported for on-premise or private cloud deployments.
- Is my business data used to train the AI?
- No. According to Microsoft, your data is not used to train AI models without your explicit permission. Copilot inherits the data permissions of the user interacting with it, so it can only access what that user already has access to in Business Central.
- What languages does Copilot support in Business Central?
- Most Copilot features currently work best in English. Microsoft is rolling out support for additional languages over time, but availability varies by feature and region.
- Can Copilot be customised for our specific business processes?
- Yes, developers can extend and customise Copilot using AL code or Azure OpenAI. For most users, the out-of-the-box features cover the most common use cases, but more advanced customisation is possible if you need it.