This page explains what an AI agent in Business Central actually is, walks through the native agents Microsoft ships with Dynamics 365, and shows where Zentriq fits. The goal is a clear, fair picture so you can decide what to enable and what to add.
A Business Central agent is an AI feature that interprets a goal you state in plain language, reasons over your live BC data, and then acts within your existing permissions. Unlike a fixed AL workflow or a template rule, it is not hard-coded to one path: it decides which pages, records and steps are needed to reach the outcome you asked for, and adapts when the data or the request changes.
Agents come in two flavours. Assistive Copilot features stay beside you, suggesting a bank reconciliation match or drafting a product description while you keep control. Autonomous agents run a full task on their own, such as turning a supplier email into a draft invoice. In both cases the work is permission-bound, every action is logged, and a human stays in the loop to review and approve before anything is posted.
Microsoft ships a growing set of pre-built, single-task agents and Copilot features inside Business Central, and adds to them with almost every release. The main ones today:
On top of these, the Agent Designer lets you build your own custom agents against BC data. The base Copilot experience is included in your Business Central license, but the autonomous agents are billed on consumption through Microsoft's AI metering, and several are online-only or still rolling out by region. It is a capable, fast-moving native offering, and worth enabling for the workflows it covers well.
Zentriq is a single conversational agent for Business Central. You ask in plain language and get charts and financial reports back, capture supplier invoices with AI, and create purchase and sales orders, all in one chat, in any language, and always inside your own BC permissions. Instead of switching between separate tools, you talk to one agent that reads and writes across the areas you work in.
The difference is scope. Microsoft's approach is one focused agent per task, each strong at its job and billed on AI consumption. Zentriq is one agent that spans those tasks, adds PunchOut cart capture from supplier web shops, and runs on simple per-message pricing with a free tier, available today through a single AppSource install. Microsoft's specialised agents are excellent at their narrow job; Zentriq trades that depth for breadth, unification and predictable cost.
See how the Zentriq Agent works inside Business Central.
You have two routes. You can enable Microsoft's native agents inside a Business Central online environment, which takes some configuration and runs on consumption billing, or you can add a third-party agent like Zentriq from AppSource, which installs in minutes and starts working in your own tenant.
You can also connect Claude or ChatGPT to Business Central through Zentriq, so your team keeps the assistant it already knows.
A Business Central agent is an AI feature that understands a request in plain language, reasons over your live BC data, and acts within your permissions to reach the outcome, for example drafting an invoice or building a report. It differs from a fixed AL workflow because it chooses the steps itself and keeps a human in the loop to approve the result.
Yes. Microsoft includes the general Copilot experience plus a growing set of agents: the Payables Agent for vendor invoices, the Sales Order Agent for customer orders, Bank Reconciliation and Analysis Assist Copilot features, and a new Expense Agent in 2026. You can also build your own with the Agent Designer, or use a third-party agent such as Zentriq that covers many of these tasks in one chat.
The base Copilot experience is included in your Business Central license at no extra charge. The autonomous native agents are billed on consumption through Microsoft's AI metering, so cost scales with usage. Zentriq uses simple per-message pricing with a free tier, so you can start at no cost and keep spend predictable as you grow.
Yes. Through Zentriq and its MCP connector you can point Claude or ChatGPT at your Business Central data and let it read records and draft actions within your permissions, so your team keeps the assistant it already uses while working directly against BC.
Try the Zentriq Agent for questions, reports, invoices and orders, in one chat and within your own permissions. Install from AppSource in minutes.
See the Zentriq AgentView pricing