AI Steps Into the Spotlight in Poznań
Last week, Simon, Joe and I made our way to Poznań for Directions EMEA. It is one of those events that reminds you just how quickly our world is moving. Before we had even unpacked our bags, Microsoft had unveiled a new Business Central logo which was a nice moment, but the real excitement was everything happening underneath the surface. This year, AI didn’t just appear in the conversation, it dominated it.
Business Central itself is evolving at a pace that is hard to ignore. Some of the updates we saw felt genuinely transformative. The Sales Order Agent now supports attachments and brings a capable-to-promise feature that manages out-of-stock items intelligently. The Payables Agent has levelled up too and can finally apply deferral templates in a way that actually supports long-term planning rather than creating more admin. These agents no longer feel like prototypes, they feel like the real deal.
But it was the glimpse into what is coming next that really got us talking. There is a new Agent Playground in private preview which will let partners and businesses build, configure and deploy their own bespoke agents right inside Business Central. For teams dealing with periodic tasks, stock decisions, credit control or the classic “let me just do these thirty things every month” routines, this could rewrite the script completely. Add to that the new Expense Agent arriving soon which will take on both out-of-pocket and corporate card expenses, and suddenly BC starts to look like a genuinely intelligent operational core.
And then there is the big one, the MCP Server. This allows Copilot agents to call Business Central functions and data directly which opens the door to building your own intelligent agents that actually do things rather than simply advise. You are not getting that in any other ERP right now and it felt like a very clear signal of where Microsoft is heading.
For me, though, the biggest theme of the week was the shift in mindset that AI demands. It is not optional anymore, it is foundational. The Kodak example cropped up more than once and it landed every time. Disruption doesn’t always come from competitors, it often comes from standing still. Businesses that approach AI early and intentionally will simply outpace those who wait for perfect timing.
There is also a big misconception that AI means the end of projects, but that isn’t true. What it does mean is the end of “big go-live moments followed by silence.” Instead, we are moving into a world of continuous optimisation, where smaller improvements are delivered regularly and tied to real outcomes. It is not about giving anyone an open cheque, it is about working in a more flexible, iterative and sensible way that reflects how fast technology is moving.
This shift is changing roles too. Project managers are becoming change managers whether they intended to or not. They are the ones maintaining the customer relationship before, during and long after delivery and that requires new skills, new conversations and a clearer understanding of how people react to constant change.
One thing that became clear talking to other partners is that AI is still being treated as a gimmick in some corners of the industry. That is not where we are. We spent the last year building, testing and designing agentic solutions and customers are using them or about to. We are not experimenting for the sake of it, we are doing it so we can guide organisations properly rather than guessing from the sidelines. Our AI readiness assessments have become one of the easiest starting points for customers because they offer clarity instead of chaos, and Structure instead of overwhelm.
And beyond the tech, Poznań itself left an impression. We took time to visit the Old Garrison Cemetery around Armistice Day, the resting place of 48 servicemen connected to The Great Escape. It was a still, reflective moment at the end of a hectic week and it reminded us that progress and perspective can sit side by side.
If there is one thing to take from Directions this year, it is that AI isn’t coming, it is here. Business Central is positioning itself as the operational brain of modern organisations and early adopters will pull ahead quickly. For anyone unsure where to begin, that is exactly where we can help. We are already building what most partners are still only talking about and that puts our customers in a very strong position.