A new era in business processes: Autonomous agents for ERP
It’s not hyperbolic to say that today’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions have entered a new era: one where organizations are reimagining systems that are AI-operated but human led. This blended approach will take time to mature but with 81% of leaders expecting agents to be moderately or extensively integrated into their company’s AI strategy1, the time to act is now. In Microsoft Dynamics 365, these agents are redefining how finance, supply chain, and operations teams get their work done and how business operations run: intelligently, cost-effectively, and at scale. Building on the initial wave of agents announced, like the Financial Reconciliation Agent and Sales Order Agent, Microsoft is excited to announce that several new ERP agents are available and ready to start using today.
The rise of autonomous agents
How are agents different from AI-powered assistants? Building on the value of AI acting as an assistant, agents join teams as “digital colleagues”, or agents that take on specific tasks. AI-powered autonomous agents transform how business processes are orchestrated and executed—moving away from human-dependent tasks to intelligent, scalable automation. In Dynamics 365, these agents work on behalf of individuals, teams, and entire functions to streamline processes like lead generation, order management, and account reconciliation and close.
ERP systems in particular are rich with high-volume, rules-based activities that are ripe for transformation. By introducing agents into core ERP scenarios, organizations can reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and accelerate decision-making across finance, supply chain, and project operations. This shift marks a meaningful departure towards AI-first operations and the below agents, available today in Dynamics 365, are just a preview of what’s to come.
New agents for ERP entering production-ready public preview
Agents for ERP are designed to facilitate complex business processes, like source-to-pay and project-to-profit, to ultimately reduce manual effort, enhance your efficiency, and improve business performance. Some agents fully automate entire workflows, while others support specific steps, but all are built to augment how people work. Today, new ERP agents in Dynamics 365 are now available in public preview.
Account Reconciliation Agent
Reconciling ledger entries is a time-consuming, detailed task that countless professionals spend hours on. With the Account Reconciliation Agent, users can deliver timely, compliant financial statements with fewer manual fixes. The agent accelerates the period-end close by matching ledger entries, flagging discrepancies, and recommending resolution steps. With an agent managing the reconciliation process, users can reduce operational expenses and overall time spent manually reviewing and analyzing results.
Microsoft customer Lifetime Products deployed the Account Reconciliation Agent to automate the matching and clearing of transactions between subledgers and the general ledger and saw immediate process improvements.
“Using AI and autonomous agents are just the next level for us when it comes to realizing the full benefit of our Dynamics 365 environment.“
Ted Esplin, Lifetime Products, COO
Read more about Lifetime’s success here.
Supplier Communications Agent
If the past few years have shown us anything it’s that modern supply chains operate under relentless change—and staying ahead of supplier deliveries is critical to operational performance. The Supplier Communications Agent takes charge of supplier interactions, acting instantly on supplier emails, chasing missing order confirmations and delayed shipments. By closing the loop on every critical supplier touchpoint, the agent slashes rush charges, prevents costly disruptions, and protects your margins. Procurement specialists avoid last minute firefights and can focus on managing supplier relationships, driving resilience and efficiency across your entire source to pay process.
Expense Agent
Catching up with emails after a work trip is challenging enough; providing expense details adds another item on your to-do list. With the Expense Agent, users can streamline expense reporting with accuracy and policy compliance. The Expense Agent uses AI to extract key details from receipts—such as vendor, amount, date, and category—and intelligently suggests classifications aligned with company travel and expense policies. It helps ensure accurate, compliant submissions from the start, reducing manual errors, out-of-policy spending, and the need for rework. By improving data quality at the source, organizations can accelerate reimbursement, maintain policy compliance, and reduce the administrative burden on employees, managers, and finance teams alike. This allows more reliable cost tracking and enhances overall financial visibility into spend.
Time Entry Agent
Reduce time spent on entering details and tracking updates and spend more time using real-time insights into project performance. The Time Entry Agent helps to ensure timely, accurate capture of project hours by prompting employees to log time with smart reminders and context. This agent enhances billing accuracy, payroll, and visibility into project performance. Capturing time spent with an agent reduces the time spent on manual input and gives project planners better insight into resource utilization.
Activity Approvals Agent
Cut through the noise, reduce approval cycle times, and enforce cost controls with the Activity Approvals Agent. Streamline your work by only surfacing entries that need attention. This agent helps managers act faster, prevents unapproved costs, and speeds up downstream workflows. By automating the activity approvals process, project managers can improve project performance and increase visibility into time spent.
Transformative impact on business processes
ERP systems are often considered complex and dense with information, customizations, and requirements. This same complexity makes these processes ripe for automation and agents. By bringing in agents to automate steps across existing business processes and reduce any manual interventions required, agents help teams to achieve greater efficiency and freedom from processes while delivering optimal business outcomes. From finance and supply chain management to project operations and time tracking, these agents streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and enhance accuracy. With 82% of leaders confident that they’ll use digital labor to expand capacity in the next 12-18 months2, the breadth of what is possible with agents for ERP is vast. Get started using agents for ERP processes in Dynamics 365 today to achieve greater efficiency, cost savings, and improved visibility into your operations.
Review documentation of agents and join the public preview today!
Curious about licensing? Learn more about Microsoft Copilot Studio billing rates.
Sources:
1,22025: The Year the Frontier Firm Is Born
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