Business Central, AI Don Saito Business Central, AI Don Saito

Business Central and AI Future Imaginings

I usually write about existing features and functions, but I thought it might be fun and stimulating to stretch my imagination a bit and postulate future ideas for Copilot and Business Central.

 Margie, a sales order processor arrives to work in the morning and logs into BC. Copilot prioritizes her workload for the day and displays them on screen. Based on the ship date and inventory levels, all orders ready to ship today are listed. Margie reviews and only takes action on exceptions. She knows customer ACME has an urgent order and she wants to ensure the warehouse manager gets the order out today.

Margie speaks "Copilot, please let Earl know that order 5765 must go out today."

Copilot responds, "Earl has been notified that order 5765 must go out today." and is placed on Earl's to do list in BC and Outlook Calendar. 

Copilot knows that Margie sends out email notifications at the beginning of the week to her customers for upcoming shipments. Copilot prompts, "Margie, would you like me to send email notifications for this weeks' shipments?"

Margie responds "Yes."

Copilot responds, "Done."

Earl, Warehouse Manager. logs in to BC and Copilot lists the orders that are ready to ship for the day. The manager only deals with exceptions and flags a few shipments on hold as he just got a call about a problem about a particular product and accepts the rest.

Copilot prompts ,"Would you like me to create Shipments and Warehouse Picks?".

"Yes," says Earl. 

Copilot responds with, "Shipments and Picks have been created. Would you like to see them?"

Earl responds affirmatively. 

Copilot displays the list of shipments on screen. Copilot assigns the picks to the available pickers in the warehouse.

The pickers pick the product, registering them on their barcode scanners and physically move the product to the shipping stations. The shipper scans the barcode on the pick ticket and proceeds to scan the items ensuring all ordered items are verified. The shipper processes the shipment, calculating freight and posts the shipment. The packing list prints and the product is loaded onto a truck and shipped to the customer. 

Copilot automatically emails customers of their upcoming shipment along with the tracking number.

Copilot prompts Joyce in accounting, "Orders have been shipped, would you like to review them prior to posting?"

Joyce reviews the orders on screen and is satisfied and speaks, "Copilot, please invoice the orders". 

Copilot invoices the orders and emails them to the customers. 

Copilot ran the Requisition Worksheet early in the morning before anyone arrived.  When the purchaser, John, arrives, Copilot greets with, "Good morning John. Your requisition worksheet is ready.  Would you like to review?"

John reviews, makes a few edits and accepts the plan.  Purchase orders are created. 

Copilot displays purchase orders expected to be received today along with sales orders that could be fulfilled by the newly arriving inventory. This information is also shared with Margie in Sales and Earl, in the warehouse.

It's near the end of a very productive day and Copilot sends an end of day progress report to the operations manager and key executives summarizing sales, revenue and expenses. The executive team is very satisfied with the days results and go home with high morale. 

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Artificial Intelligence and Business Central

Copilot AI is now available within Business Central 24! This version of Copilot is specifically designed for Business Central. You will see a new Copilot icon in the top right portion of your screen directly to the left of the search (magnifying glass) icon.

What can you do with co-pilot now?

  1. You can chat with Copilot. There are currently three main categories:

    a. Find - use verbs such as “Look up”, “Show”, “Go to”, etc.

    Examples:

    1. Look up posted sales invoice 55666.

    2. Show invoices over 30 days past due.

    3. Go to Cash Receipts Journal.

    b. Explain

    Examples:

    1. Explain field “Due Date” on Sales Order

    2. Help me understand posting.

    c. How do I?

    Examples:

    1. How do I enter cash receipts?

    2. How do I print financial reports?

  2. Create marketing text

  3. Map e-documents to purchase orders

  4. Reconcile bank accounts

  5. Suggest Lines on sales orders

  6. Analyze data in lists

While Copilot is in its infancy with respect to Business Central and the outputs are not yet ideal, this is a great start and it will only get better as it improves.

You can find more details on the above here.



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