Business Central AI Assistant: What Can an AI Agent Do in Your ERP?

AI assistants are everywhere — in your email, your browser, your phone. But inside your ERP? That's new territory. And it changes how teams interact with Business Central.

An AI assistant for Business Central is an agent that understands your ERP data and can take action on it. Not a chatbot that answers FAQ questions. Not a search bar. An agent that reads your invoices, creates purchase orders, generates financial reports, and processes documents — all through natural language.

What does an AI assistant actually do in Business Central?

There are three levels of what an AI agent can do inside an ERP:

Level 1: Read — ask questions, get answers

The most basic capability. You ask a question in plain language, and the AI queries your BC data and returns a formatted answer.

• “What's the balance for customer Adatum?”
• “List all open purchase orders for vendor 10000.”
• “How much of item 1896-S do we have in stock?”
• “Show me overdue invoices.”

This replaces the “navigate to the right page, apply filters, scroll through results” workflow. What takes 2-5 minutes in BC takes 10 seconds with an AI assistant.

Level 2: Analyze — dashboards, reports, and insights

Beyond simple lookups, the AI can aggregate data, compute totals, compare periods, and generate visual output.

• “Show me a financial dashboard for Q1.” → KPI cards with revenue, expenses, net income, receivables.
• “Compare sales Q1 vs Q4 last year.” → Side-by-side bar chart.
• “P&L for February.” → Formatted income statement from GL entries.
• “Top 10 customers this quarter.” → Ranked bar chart with amounts.
• “Vendor profile for Fabrikam.” → KPI cards + open invoices table + open PO list.

This replaces Excel exports, Power BI setups, and the “let me check 6 different BC pages” workflow.

Level 3: Write — create and modify records

The most advanced capability. The AI doesn't just read — it can create records in your ERP.

• “Create a purchase order for 500 units of item 1001 to vendor 10000.”
• “Post all open purchase invoices for vendor Fabrikam.”
• “Create a new customer from the domestic template: ABC Corp, Zurich.”

The key: every write action requires your explicit approval. The agent shows you what it will create, and you confirm. Nothing happens without your say-so.

AI assistant vs Microsoft Copilot for BC

Microsoft is building Copilot features directly into Business Central. How does a third-party AI assistant compare?

They're complementary. Copilot helps with in-page suggestions (product descriptions, bank reconciliation). A dedicated AI assistant like Zentriq handles cross-domain queries, analytics, write actions, and document processing.

Real examples: what teams actually ask

Here are real queries that BC teams run daily with an AI assistant:

Finance team

• “Financial dashboard for this month”
• “P&L for Q1”
• “Aged receivables over 60 days”
• “Cash flow last 6 months”
• “Post all ready purchase invoices”

Procurement team

• “Create a PO for 200 units of item 1928-S to vendor 20000”
• “Open POs for vendor Fabrikam”
• “Top vendors by purchase volume this quarter”
• “Upload this invoice” (attach PDF)

Sales team

• “Top 5 customers this quarter”
• “Customer profile for Adatum”
• “Sales trend last 12 months”
• “Compare Q1 vs Q2”

Operations

• “Items with stock below reorder point”
• “Stock level for item 1928-S”
• “Open sales shipments”

How it works technically

An AI assistant for BC works by connecting to the BC API v2.0 using your Microsoft Entra ID credentials (OAuth 2.0 delegated access). When you ask a question:

1. The AI interprets your intent and selects the right BC API endpoints.
2. It builds the appropriate OData queries with filters.
3. It calls your BC environment using your credentials — so it can only see what you can see.
4. It formats the response as text, tables, KPI cards, or charts.

For write actions, there's an additional confirmation step. The AI shows you exactly what it will create, and you approve before execution.

Security and permissions

• Your credentials — The agent uses your BC login. No separate admin account, no service principal with elevated access.
• Your permissions — If your BC user can't see Vendor Ledger Entries, neither can the agent.
• Approval required — Every write action requires explicit user confirmation.
• No data storage — BC data is queried in real-time and not persisted on the agent's servers.

Getting started

Zentriq Agent is available with a free plan — 20 credits per month, no credit card required.

1. Install the Zentriq AL extension in your BC environment
2. Sign in with your Microsoft account
3. Open the sidebar and ask your first question

Works inside BC, on the web, and on mobile. Same agent, same data, anywhere.