Business Central AI could change the nature of the work Microsoft Partners perform for customers, according to Krzysztof Białowąs, Microsoft MVP and co-founder and chief technology officer of bc4all, the company behind WrenchTime.
In a PartnerTalks preview of Directions EMEA 2026, Białowąs asked Rick McCutcheon the existential question, “Where will we as Partners be in a few years?”
Business Central AI beyond the traditional interface
At Directions EMEA 2025, Białowąs discussed “using Business Central without Business Central,” a concept in which people work with ERP data through AI assistants such as Claude or ChatGPT.
Rather than navigating pages and reports, users could ask an assistant for information or request an authorized action. Business Central would still hold the underlying data and business logic. However, the interaction point could become conversational.
In a February article, Białowąs described experimenting with Business Central’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server and Claude, noting that his workaround was not yet intended for production use.
During the interview, he considered whether Business Central might increasingly function as a data layer accessed by large language models.
What changes for Business Central Partners?
If customers begin working with ERP systems differently, Business Central AI could also change the services Partners provide.
Consultants may need to judge when traditional custom development makes sense and when an agent could better address a business process. Developers, meanwhile, may spend more time designing reusable frameworks that help teams build and manage agents consistently.
Białowąs will explore those issues at Directions EMEA in Paris. One session examines how consultants can identify AI opportunities rather than defaulting to conventional development. Another, with Companial’s Tine Starič, examines how developers can share a consistent approach to building agents.
“We don’t want every developer to build agents by themselves,” Białowąs said.
He also plans to address internal adoption. Giving employees AI licences is not enough, he argued. Partners need to figure out how consultants, developers, and other staff can benefit from the tools before advising customers.
An agent isn’t automatically a better solution, after all, and customers still need appropriate controls over data access and transactions. As PartnerTalks has reported, retrieval-focused AI projects can provide a starting point without giving agents authority to alter ERP records.
Why Partner conversations still matter
For Białowąs, Directions EMEA, scheduled for Oct. 27–29, also offers a chance to discuss what these developments mean with people facing similar decisions.
AI can answer technical questions quickly, he said. Still, conversations with peers give people access to others’ experiences, which are valuable as firms weigh competing approaches to AI-assisted ERP.
Those experiences will also help determine what expertise customers will need when the way they use Business Central begins to change.
