Microsoft AI Agents in Dynamics 365 [Don’t Miss This New Updates]

Microsoft is making significant advancements with the introduction of new autonomous AI agents for Dynamics 365.

Unlike standalone large language models (LLMs) or traditional rule-based systems, Microsoft AI Agents bring dynamic features like advanced planning, tool usage, perception, and memory.

For instance, by integrating LLMs, AI agents in Azure Cosmos DB can plan and sequence actions, use external tools effectively, and process data from diverse environments.

Moreover, these autonomous AI agents promise to save companies up to $50 million annually or provide productivity equivalent to adding 187 full-time employees.

Here’s an in-depth look at these Microsoft Autonomous AI agents and how they’re set to rekey your business processes:

10 Microsoft AI Agents: A Closer Look

Sales Qualification Agent

As much as 17% of your sales reps' time is spent researching and prospecting leads. The Sales Qualification Agent in Dynamics 365 Sales takes the difficulty out of manually qualifying leads. It automates much of those work that usually eats up your time—like researching leads, figuring out who to prioritize, and writing those initial emails.

Here’s a comprehensive overview of how Dynamics 365 AI for sales and marketing helps you focus on what matters most:

Smarter Lead Research

One of the trickiest parts of sales is gathering enough information about a lead to decide if they’re worth pursuing. The Research Agent does this for you by pulling together details from your CRM and the web. It gives you:

• A snapshot of the lead’s background and company info.
• Confirmed contact details (like valid email addresses) so you’re not wasting time.
• Tips on potential connections within your company who might know the lead—making introductions easier.
• Insights into whether the company aligns financially and technically with your services.

Better Lead Prioritization

Once you’ve got a list of leads, figuring out who to contact first from the pool of contact can be tricky. The Prioritization Agent takes care of this by ranking leads based on factors like their decision-making authority, budget, and how well they fit with your offering. With this, you get:

Effortless Personalized Outreach

We all know a generic email rarely gets a response. The Engagement Agent solves this by creating personalized email drafts for each lead. These emails are based on the insights gathered by the Research Agent and tailored to the lead’s interests and needs.

Sales Order Agent

The Sales Order Agent in Microsoft Business Central can automate routine tasks like handling order requests, generating quotes, and converting them into sales orders. Moreover, businesses can track every action the agent takes via detailed logs and notifications.

Here’s how the autonomous agent helps businesses simplify their sales operations:

Automates Order Requests

It automates the handling of customer order inquiries, monitoring a shared company email account for incoming requests and initiating workflows promptly:

• The agent continuously tracks a shared inbox designated for customer order requests, eliminating the need for manual email checks. This automation ensures timely responses and reduces the risk of overlooked inquiries.
• Upon receiving a request, the agent matches the sender’s email address with existing customer records in Dynamics 365 Business Central. This ensures that orders are linked to verified accounts, maintaining security and accuracy throughout the process.

Simplifies Sales Quotes

Once a request is received, the Sales Order Agent drafts a sales quote based on the requested items. This includes:

• Inventory Check: Verifies item availability before generating quotes, reducing errors and delays.
• Professional Formatting: Creates quotes in a PDF format, complete with item details, quantities, prices, and applicable taxes (like VAT).
• Approval Process: Sends the quote to the customer for review and approval, streamlining communication and decision-making.

Converting Quotes to Orders

When a customer approves the quote, the agent takes care of the next step:

• Automatic Order Creation: Converts approved quotes into sales orders without any manual intervention.
• Order Confirmation: Shares the completed sales order with the customer via email, closing the loop efficiently.

Supplier Communications Agent

Supplier management can become complex when it involves tracking orders, managing shipping details, and ensuring accurate and timely communication. The Supplier Communications Agent in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management automates these interactions, reducing manual workloads and improving supply chain efficiency.

Let’s break down how this Supplier Communications agent works and why it’s a must-have for businesses.

Automates Supplier Interactions

The autonomous agent streamlines routine communication tasks with precision, ensuring the supply chain operates without any friction. Let’s see how it handles these tasks:

• Automatically verifies and logs supplier order receipts, removing the need for manual follow-ups. For example, when a purchase order is created, the agent sends a confirmation request to the supplier and updates the system once acknowledged.
• Automatically sends requests for tracking numbers, estimated delivery dates, and shipping updates, ensuring the supply chain team is always informed.
• Tracks pending deliveries and sends alerts if there are potential delays.

Simplifies Collaboration

Effective supplier relationships depend on clear and consistent communication. The Supplier Communications Agent enhances collaboration by:

• Automating the sharing of invoices, contracts, and shipping documents, and stores them in a centralized repository.
• Maintaining separate communication threads for each supplier, ensuring discussions and updates are organized and easy to retrieve.
• Automatically populating supplier portals with real-time updates, such as payment statuses or shipment approvals, reducing back-and-forth inquiries.

Improves Accuracy and Reducing Errors

The Supplier Communications Agent minimizes errors in supplier interactions by automating data handling and ensuring consistency. It achieves this through:

• Validated Data Entry: Cross-references supplier data, such as pricing, quantities, and item details, against the system to eliminate mismatches.
• Error Tracking and Resolution: Automatically identifies discrepancies in invoices or shipping details, flags them for review, and provides actionable recommendations.
• Compliance Assurance: Ensures communications and documentation align with regulatory and contractual obligations, such as tax codes or trade compliance rules.

Ensures Faster Response Times

Timely responses are essential for maintaining an efficient supply chain, and the Supplier Communications Agent ensures this through:

• Sending real-time notifications to suppliers about order changes, approval statuses, and urgent requests, ensuring no delays in communication.
• Using AI to prioritize and respond to supplier queries, such as clarifications on order quantities or delivery windows.
• Flagging critical issues, such as delayed shipments or incorrect orders, to the appropriate team member for immediate action.

Financial & Account Reconciliation Agent

Next time you chat with your finance team over coffee, ask what bothers them most—it’s often rekeying invoices, digging through digital cabinets for files, and juggling endless spreadsheets. The finance and reconciliation agent will eliminate these frustrations off their plate.

Let us explain how:

Saves Time by Automating Reconciliation Tasks

Manually reconciling accounts can take hours or even days, especially for organizations handling large volumes of transactions. The Account Reconciliation Agent speeds this up by automating repetitive tasks like:

• Importing Bank Transactions: The agent pulls in bank statements automatically, removing the need for manual uploads or data entry.
• Matching Entries: It compares bank transactions with ledger records, handling a task that would otherwise take significant time and effort.
• Alerting on Discrepancies: If something doesn’t match, the agent flags it immediately, so your team can address it without having to search manually.

Reduces Errors and Increases Accuracy

Financial reconciliation often involves juggling multiple data sources, and mistakes can easily slip through when done manually. The agent helps avoid these issues by:

• Using Smart Matching Algorithms: The agent carefully scans your transactions and matches them with your records using advanced logic. For example, it can instantly identify if a payment on your statement corresponds to an invoice in your system, saving you from manually cross-checking every entry.
• Customizable Matching Rules: You can set specific rules to handle different types of transactions based on your business needs. For example, you might require exact matches for payments over $10,000 but allow approximate matches for smaller amounts. The agent applies these rules consistently.
• Highlighting Anomalies: The agent doesn’t just match records; it identifies potential issues, like unusual amounts or duplicate entries, so you can resolve them before they escalate.

Time and Expense Agent

The Time and Expense Management Agent integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations automates repetitive tasks like time tracking and expense reporting, letting organizations focus on strategic goals while ensuring compliance and operational accuracy.

Here’s how it works and the benefits it brings:

Automated Time Tracking

Instead of employees having to remember every detail or fill out time sheets manually, the agent provides an intuitive interface where hours worked can be logged automatically. Whether it’s through their desktop or mobile device, employees simply input their hours, and the agent ensures everything is accurate and organized.

Simplified Expense Reporting

So, if you have a pile of receipts sitting on your desk, the AI agent steps in to simplify the process. All you need to do is scan them. The agent intelligently reads the details, categorizes each expense, and assigns it to the right project or account without you lifting a finger. It removes the guesswork of assigning categories and ensures everything is logged accurately, giving you a perfectly organized expense report in no time.

Customizable Approval Workflows

Managing approvals is one of the challenges most organizations face, especially when small, routine expenses or time logs pile up waiting for manual sign-offs.

That’s where you can make use of a Time and Expense management Agent. It helps you create tailored workflows that align perfectly with your company’s policies.

For instance, if your policy allows automatic approval for expenses under $50, the agent ensures those are processed instantly without human intervention.

And in the case of larger expenses or exceptions? They will be automatically routed to the right manager for review.

Customer Intent & Knowledge Management Agent

The Customer Intent & Knowledge Management Agent in Microsoft Dynamics 365 utilizes AI to continuously update and enhance the knowledge base. Here’s how it works and the tangible benefits it delivers:

Builds an Intent Library

The Customer Intent Agent analyzes customer conversations and interactions to identify trends and recurring issues. By scanning CRM records and historical interactions, it points out common inquiries and builds a centralized knowledge base of frequent customer needs and effective solutions.

Personalizes Responses

The agent uses customer interaction data to tailor responses. It offers follow-up suggestions and anticipates needs, making conversations feel natural and engaging.

Resolves Routine Queries

The agent automates responses to frequently asked questions, such as policy details or troubleshooting steps. This means customers get instant answers, reducing wait times and increasing efficiency in handling high volumes of inquiries.

Case Management Agent

The Case Management Agent leverages AI-driven capabilities to streamline the creation, management, and resolution of customer cases, ensuring efficiency and accuracy at every step.

Here's an in-depth look at its functionalities and benefits:

Streamlined Case Creation

It simplifies the process of creating cases by guiding users through a conversational interface. It prompts for necessary information, ensuring all critical details are captured.

For example, imagine a customer reporting an issue with a product through a chatbot. The agent might ask, "Can you describe the issue you're facing?" followed by, "Do you have the product's serial number?" and "When did you purchase the product?"

As the customer responds, the agent automatically validates the input and organizes it into a structured case file, validating critical details like the nature of the issue, product information, and purchase date—are accurately documented.

Centralized Case Management

The AI agent brings all customer cases into one unified platform. For instance, when a customer submits an inquiry, the agent uses predefined rules—such as the nature of the issue or the customer's location—to automatically assign the case to the best-suited support agent.

Additionally, the agent provides real-time updates on the case status, such as "Your case has been assigned to a specialist" or "Resolution is in progress." Thus, keeping customers informed and reassured, and helping support teams stay aligned, reducing manual follow-ups.

Preemptive Troubleshooting

Before escalating issues, the agent guides customers through troubleshooting steps, resolving common problems autonomously. When escalation is necessary, the agent provides detailed diagnostic data, giving support teams a clear understanding of the issue for faster resolutions.

Scheduling Operations Agent

The Dynamics 365 Scheduling Operations Agent is a feature built within Dynamics 365 Field Service module. Here’s how it works:

Saves Time with Automated Scheduling

Manually assigning technicians to jobs can take hours, especially when considering skills, availability, and location. The agent handles this automatically:

• Smart Matching: It matches technicians to work orders based on skills, proximity, and availability.
• Real-Time Adjustments: If a technician is unavailable, the agent immediately reallocates the job to the next best resource.

Ensures Real-Time Visibility with a Centralized Schedule Board

No one wants to juggle between multiple screens to get an instant overview of what’s happening. The centralized schedule board eliminates the chaos:

• Visual Management: See all assignments, technician statuses, and job progress in one place.
• Quick Adjustments: Drag-and-drop tools let you reschedule jobs or assign new ones instantly.

Improves Technician Efficiency with Mobile Access

Field technicians can save time with real-time mobile access, receiving instant notifications about schedule changes, customer requests, and job details. They can easily log updates, complete tasks, and access customer information directly from their phones. Additionally, they can pull up relevant fix guides on the go, ensuring they have everything they need to resolve issues efficiently.

Reduce Costs with Route Optimization

The Route Optimization feature powered by Microsoft AI agents helps cut down on fuel and travel time by analyzing technician locations, job priorities, and traffic conditions to calculate the most efficient routes.

The Bigger Picture

Microsoft’s announcement aligns with its broader vision of embedding AI-driven automation into enterprise workflows. As AI capabilities within Dynamics 365 continue to evolve, they are expected to move beyond automation and insights, foreseeing a paradigm where systems predict, adapt, and recommend actions based on the queries it receives.

If you’ve not explored the power of Microsoft AI Agents in Dynamics 365, you’re missing out opportunities to stand out in the crowd. Get in touch with us to learn how your business can streamline processes using AI in Dynamics 365.