Copilot in Business Central: What It Actually Does

Copilot in Business Central is the AI assistant built into Microsoft’s cloud ERP, and it comes with your Business Central licence at no extra cost. However, many finance and operations managers are still not sure what it really does on a normal working day, beyond the headlines.

In this guide, we explain each feature in plain English, what is free and what costs extra, how Microsoft handles your data, and what UAE and GCC businesses should check before they switch it on.

What is Copilot in Business Central?

Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant inside Dynamics 365 Business Central. It works alongside you: you start an action, and Copilot offers suggestions, analysis or a first draft so you finish faster. You open it from the Copilot button at the top of the page, or from the Copilot icon on pages where it can help with a specific task.

Agents are different. An agent is an AI worker that handles a whole process in the background, such as reading vendor invoices from a mailbox. Its work stays visible and reviewable, and it asks a person for help when it is unsure.

A simple way to picture it: Copilot is a sharp junior assistant sitting next to you. It finds a record, drafts a summary or suggests a match, but you sign off. An agent is more like a dedicated clerk who works through the inbox alone and brings you drafts and exceptions.

Copilot in Business Central features at a glance

Feature	What it does in plain words	Who it helps most
Chat	Ask questions in everyday language to find records or learn how to do a task	Everyone
Analysis assist	Turns a long list into a grouped, totalled view from a short request	Finance and sales analysts
Summarize	Shows a few key points about a record right next to the data	Managers and account owners
Autofill	Suggests values for blank fields on cards and documents	Data entry teams
Bank reconciliation assist	Proposes extra bank matches and suggests G/L accounts for leftovers	Accountants
Payables Agent	Reads vendor invoices from a mailbox and prepares draft purchase invoices	Accounts payable
Sales Order Agent	Turns customer emails into quotes and orders for review	Order desk and sales

In addition, starting with version 29 (2026 release wave 2), the new Microsoft Copilot experience replaces the older “Chat with Copilot” pane. It is a production-ready preview, so features may still change.

Why it matters for UAE & GCC businesses

Copilot works the same way across country versions. However, a few points matter more for businesses in the region:

• Cloud only. Copilot is available for Business Central online only, not on-premises or private cloud. If you still run NAV or an on-premises system, this is one more reason to plan your move to the cloud.
• Where the AI “thinks”. Microsoft stores Business Central data for UAE environments in the UAE North and West Azure regions. However, Microsoft currently routes Business Central’s own Copilot and agent requests from these regions to Azure OpenAI in the United States. The “Allow data movement” switch is on by default. If you turn it off, those features stop working. Microsoft says it may keep prompts and results for up to 24 hours for abuse monitoring and does not use them to train its foundation models.
• Language. Arabic is not currently on Microsoft’s validated language lists for features such as analysis assist, bank reconciliation assist and the agents. They may still respond in other languages, but Microsoft doesn’t guarantee the results, so English is the safer choice for business-critical work.
• Budget control. Agents consume Copilot Credits. As a result, finance teams should forecast and monitor usage like any other running cost.

How it works in Business Central: switching Copilot on safely

Copilot is part of the system, so you cannot remove it. However, an administrator has clear controls over each feature and each user:

1. Confirm you are on Business Central online. Copilot isn’t available for on-premises deployments.
2. Open the “Copilot & agent capabilities” page. Search for it with Alt+Q. It lists every feature as preview or generally available, and you can activate or deactivate each one for all users.
3. Review “Allow data movement”. This switch appears when your environment and the AI service sit in different geographies, as with UAE-hosted environments. Agree the decision with your compliance team.
4. Give access through permissions. For example, the Copilot Sys Features permission set covers chat, summaries, autofill and analysis assist. Bank reconciliation assist and the agents have their own permissions.
5. Set up billing before using agents. In the Business Central admin center, choose prepaid Copilot Credit packs, pay-as-you-go, or both. Agents also need a shared mailbox and named supervisors.
6. Pilot, then roll out. Start with a small group. Some changes only apply after users sign out and sign in again.

A practical example

The following scenario is illustrative, not a real client. Imagine a Dubai trading company with a three-person finance team.

Month-end bank reconciliation. The accountant opens the bank reconciliation and selects Reconcile with Copilot. First, the standard automatch runs. Then Copilot looks at the lines left over, using dates, amounts and descriptions. For example, it can match one lump-sum transfer from a customer to three invoices that the team recorded separately. For small items such as bank charges, it suggests the most likely G/L account. Copilot saves nothing until the accountant reviews the list and selects Keep it.

Supplier invoices. The Payables Agent watches the shared accounts payable mailbox. It reads each PDF invoice, matches it to purchase orders and receipts, and creates a draft purchase invoice. When it isn’t sure, for example about which vendor sent the invoice, it asks the AP clerk. Using Microsoft’s own pricing example, 100 invoices a month with three lines each would use about 6,500 Copilot Credits (50 per invoice plus 5 per line).

Quick answers for the CFO. On the sales order list, the CFO asks Copilot to group open orders by salesperson and show totals. Analysis assist builds the view in seconds, without exporting to Excel.

Best practices checklist for Copilot in Business Central

• Start with the included features such as chat, summaries and bank reconciliation assist before you add paid agents.
• Clean your master data. Clear G/L account names, correct customer contact emails and accurate vendor details give Copilot and the agents better results.
• Record your data movement decision and review it when Microsoft adds AI capacity closer to your region.
• Control access with permission sets and begin with a small pilot group.
• Watch your credits. Use the Payables Agent trial mode (the first 50 invoices are free), check the Cost section regularly, and deactivate agents you don’t need. Otherwise they resume and process the backlog when credits renew.
• Always review before posting. Microsoft itself advises checking AI output before relying on it for financial or regulatory decisions.

How Mohila can help

Mohila is a Microsoft partner in Dubai that implements and supports Dynamics 365 Business Central for businesses across the UAE and GCC. We can review which Copilot features fit your processes, set up permissions and agent billing, and help you move from NAV or on-premises to Business Central online so your team can use Copilot at all. After go-live, our support team helps you tune the setup as Microsoft releases new AI features.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Microsoft Learn: Business Central AI
• Microsoft Learn: Copilot FAQ
• Microsoft Learn: Configure Copilot and agent capabilities
• Microsoft Learn: Data movement across geographies for Copilot and agents
• Microsoft Learn: Copilot and agents country/region and language availability
• Microsoft Learn: Reconcile bank accounts with Copilot
• Microsoft Learn: Manage consumption-based billing for agent capabilities