Sales Order Agents in Dynamics 365 Business Central: An AI-Powered Sales Automation Guide

Today's sales teams spend a significant amount of time on repetitive tasks such as reading customer emails, retrieving order details, checking inventory, and manually creating quotes. In fast-paced businesses, these steps can lead to delays in customer responses and increase the risk of errors.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central addresses this issue with Sale Order Agents an AI-powered capability designed to automate the handling of customer purchase requests via email. Instead of a typical chatbot, Business Central uses Intelligent Agents that can interact directly with sales data, inventory, and documents, making the sales process, from receiving a request to creating a draft purchase order, faster and more efficient.

What are Sale Order Agents?

Sale Order Agents is an AI-powered automated tool in Dynamics 365 Business Central that processes customer order requests sent via email.

The primary goal is to reduce the manual workload of the sales team while increasing the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of customer service.

When a customer sends an email to a designated inbox, the system automatically analyzes the message, identifies the desired products and quantities, checks inventory, and creates a draft Sales Quote or Sales Order for review by the sales team.

How do Sale Order Agents work?

The process begins when a customer sends an email to the designated shared mailbox for receiving orders, which is configured specifically in Business Central. The system then automatically starts processing the request.

1. Automatic email monitoring (Email Monitoring)

The agent will monitor the designated mailbox at all times.

As soon as a new email arrives, the system will immediately begin the automatic processing.

2. AI-Powered Data Analysis

Upon receiving an email, the system uses AI to understand customer needs and extract key information, such as:

• Product list or product code
• Quantity to order
• Shipping requirements
• Information from PDF or image attachments

3. Inventory and Delivery Checks

The agent will check the inventory levels in the system and use Business Central's Capable to Promise (CTP) function to calculate the actual delivery date that can be executed.

4. Automatic draft document creation

Based on the data retrieved and analyzed, the system will automatically generate a draft document, such as:

• Sales Quote
• Sales Order

These documents are then submitted for review and approval according to the organization's policy.

5. Human Review and Finalization

The salesperson can review the document generated by the system, make additional edits if necessary, and send the final confirmation to the customer.

Key features of Sale Order Agents

The table below shows the key capabilities that organizations can utilize. 

Benefits of Sales Order Agents

Increase work efficiency

The sales team no longer needs to waste time copying information from emails into the ERP system. Repetitive paperwork and administrative tasks can be automated, freeing up employees to focus on customer service and generating revenue for the business. 

Increase accuracy 

Manually recording orders often leads to errors, such as: 

• The quantity of goods is incorrect. 
• Forgot to add the item. 
• The data was calculated incorrectly. 

Sales Order Agents help mitigate these risks by regularly retrieving and processing data.

To provide faster customer service.

When customer requests are processed automatically, customers receive quotes and responses faster, leading to increased customer satisfaction and a higher chance of closing sales.

Support Business Growth

When the volume of orders increases, organizations can handle more work without needing to increase the number of administrative staff proportionally.

Preparation before use

Before activating Sale Order Agents, organizations should prepare in the following areas:

• Set up a Shared Mailbox
  Create a central mailbox that customers will use to submit purchase requests.
• Define user permissions
  Ensure that Business Central users and related services have access to the necessary inboxes and sales information.
• Establish approval policies
  Organizations should define the level of automation they wish to implement.

Some organizations may require all documents to be reviewed before approval, while others may allow more automated processing for highly trusted clients.

Credit-Based Pricing

Sales Order Agents use a service fee system based on the number of credits used.

Each type of operation uses a different number of credits, for example:

This model allows organizations to scale usage according to actual workload while effectively controlling costs.

Real-world usage examples

Suppose a customer sends an email like this:

Customer request

"Please prepare a quotation for 50 units of Item A and 20 units of Item B. I require delivery by next Friday."

Business Central can automate the following processes:

• Read emails automatically.
• Retrieve data for "Item A – 50 pieces" and "Item B – 20 pieces".
• Check stock availability and delivery possibilities.
• Create a draft sales quote with calculated delivery dates.
• Forward it to the sales representative for quick review and approval.

Tasks that might previously take several minutes or more during peak order volumes can be reduced to a quick and highly automated process. 

Summary

Sale Order Agents are a clear example of the tangible application of AI in an ERP system, creating immediate value. 

Instead of replacing the sales team, this technology reduces repetitive administrative tasks, allowing the team to respond to customers more quickly and accurately. 

For organizations using Dynamics 365 Business Central, implementing Sale Order Agents can help improve operational efficiency, reduce errors, and create a better customer experience, while still allowing human control and decision-making in critical stages of the sales process.