Business Central AI agents are moving from demo-room talking point to delivery tool as Microsoft Partners look for more repeatable ways to manage larger ERP projects.
For Know Modern ERP founder and CEO Perry Prescott, that shift is already showing up in implementation work. In a PartnerTalks interview with Rick McCutcheon, Prescott described a delivery model that uses AI agents to standardize client intake, support template-driven setup, create mobile ERP workflows and surface shop-floor risks before they slow production.
The result is a more practical approach to AI adoption for Business Central Partners: less emphasis on sweeping transformation claims and more attention to the repetitive work that shapes project quality.
Business Central AI agents are entering delivery work
Prescott said Know Modern ERP has built a series of intake agents to help consultants collect setup information in a more consistent way. Instead of relying on a consultant to remember every question during discovery, the agent guides the process and pushes information into templates for import.
That matters because implementation quality often depends on basic consistency. The same questions need to be asked. The same data needs to be captured. The same setup logic needs to be applied. Business Central AI agents can help turn that work into a repeatable process.
Prescott said the company uses Rapid Start templates targeted around finance and finance-and-distribution scenarios for Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management. Know Modern ERP has also described its Encompass Fast Start templates as a way to combine best practices, deliverable templates and proven project structures for Microsoft Dynamics 365 implementations.
Those templates, combined with Kanban boards, intake agents and internal products, support Know Modern ERP’s Partner-to-Partner delivery model.
That model is aimed at Partners that have client relationships but may not have a full bench for every Microsoft business application. Prescott said Know Modern ERP can white-label its delivery work under another Partner, allowing that Partner to keep the client relationship while extending its delivery capacity.
For Business Central Partners, that is becoming more important. McCutcheon noted during the interview that Business Central projects are getting larger, with some reaching the $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 and $500,000 range, and one recent project approaching $1 million.
Larger projects bring more moving parts: project managers, ISV connectors, multiple locations and more complex requirements. That puts pressure on Partners to bring stronger delivery discipline to what was once seen mainly as a smaller-business ERP market.
AI in the workflow, not beside it
The more interesting part of Prescott’s comments is where AI sits in the work. Know Modern ERP is not describing AI as a separate advisory layer. It is placing AI inside the workflow.
One example is a headless ERP agent connected to Business Central. Prescott said a user could open an app on a phone and create a new sales order through a guided conversation. The agent checks role and permission context, asks for the customer, item and quantity, confirms price information and then saves or sends the order into the platform.
That is a practical change in user experience. The user does not need to stop, log in, open another screen and search through the system. The ERP function moves closer to the person doing the work.
Know Modern ERP is also applying agents to its Shop Floor Advisor product for Business Central. Prescott described agents that help users understand production-order status, including possible stockouts and resource problems.
That kind of workflow matters for manufacturers and distributors because ERP value is tied to action. A system that only records a problem after the fact is less useful than one that helps users see what needs attention while work is moving.
The same issue has been central to recent PartnerTalks coverage of AI agents for Business Central, where Partners have been examining how Copilot Studio, ERP data and Business Central workflows can come together in practical customer scenarios.
Small steps may be the stronger AI strategy
Prescott said he was skeptical of AI about a year and a half ago. That changed after the company began applying it to practical tasks such as contracts and delivery processes.
“Once you dip your toe in this water, it’s hard not to get pulled all the way under,” Prescott said.
Still, the most useful examples in the interview were narrow and operational.
“AI has made us smarter, it’s made us faster, and it’s made us so much more productive,” Prescott said.
That is likely where many Business Central AI agents will gain traction first. Partners do not need to reinvent delivery around AI in one move. They can apply agents to discovery, data collection, setup, order entry, production visibility and other repeatable workstreams.
For more coverage of how the Business Central channel is responding to AI, see PartnerTalks’ AI Business Solutions Partner Show.
The opportunity for Partners is clear. Business Central projects are expanding in scope, customers expect faster results and delivery teams need stronger ways to scale. AI agents will not remove the need for ERP expertise. They may make that expertise easier to apply consistently.
That makes Business Central AI agents less of a future concept and more of a delivery-layer decision Partners need to understand now.
