- Feature
- Enable Microsoft Copilot chat experience
- Availability
- Preview (from October 2026)
- Industry focus
- Construction and specialist contracting
Contractors run on information that lives in the ERP: committed costs, open purchase orders, retention balances and what a client has actually paid. The people who most need that information are often the least comfortable navigating an ERP. Business Central 29.0 starts to change that by bringing the familiar Microsoft Copilot chat experience into the product.
The industry challenge
A typical mid-sized contractor has a small finance team and a large group of project managers, estimators and site supervisors. The field team asks the same kinds of questions every day:
- Has the steel supplier's last invoice been approved?
- What have we committed on this job against budget?
- Is the client's stage payment overdue?
- Which purchase orders are still open on this site?
Each question becomes an email or a phone call to the office. The office stops what it is doing, looks up the answer in Business Central and replies. That cycle costs time on both sides, and answers often arrive after a decision has been made on site.
Training every project manager to be an ERP expert has never been realistic. Their job is building, not navigating list pages and filters.
What Microsoft delivered in Business Central 29.0
Microsoft has redesigned the Copilot chat panel in Business Central to match the wider Microsoft Copilot experience. According to Microsoft, the update:
- Modernizes the chat panel and makes navigation simpler
- Uses the same interaction patterns people already know from Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft 365
- Gives a more predictable experience as users move between Business Central and other Microsoft applications
Microsoft names operations managers, accountants, sales representatives and administrators as the main beneficiaries. It also says the consistent design should cut onboarding time and help organizations adopt AI more systematically.
The feature is in preview. That means it is ready to evaluate but shouldn't yet be the backbone of a critical process.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for a contractor |
|---|---|
| Project managers | Ask questions in plain language instead of learning menus and filters |
| Finance team | Fewer interruptions for routine look-ups |
| Training and onboarding | People who already use Copilot in Outlook, Teams or Word recognize the experience |
| Decision speed | Answers come back while the decision is still open, not after |
| AI adoption | One familiar pattern across Microsoft tools instead of a separate learning curve for each |
Consistency is the underrated part of this release. Many contractors already pay for Microsoft 365 and have staff who use Copilot in Teams or Outlook. When the ERP looks and behaves the same way, the barrier to trying it drops sharply. Adoption, not capability, is usually what limits the return on AI.
A worked scenario
Consider a mechanical and electrical contractor with 15 live projects (an illustrative example). A project manager is on site with a supplier who is asking why their invoice hasn't been paid. Previously, the project manager would phone accounts payable, wait for a call back and relay the answer.
With the Copilot chat panel, the project manager opens Business Central on a tablet and asks about the supplier's outstanding invoices. They see the status in the same conversation and can follow up with the supplier on the spot. The accounts payable clerk is never interrupted.
The same pattern applies to an estimator checking recent purchase prices for copper cable before finalizing a bid. It also helps a director who wants a quick view of overdue client receipts before a progress meeting.
Adoption considerations
- Treat preview as a pilot. Pick a small group, such as two project managers and one finance user, and give them clear goals.
- Check permissions first. Copilot works within each user's Business Central permissions. If project managers can't see certain data today, chat won't show it either, and that's how it should be.
- Agree on what "good" looks like. Measure how often the field team calls the office for look-ups before and after the pilot.
- Confirm administration settings. Copilot capabilities in Business Central are managed by administrators, so involve IT early.
- Keep a human check on numbers. For contractual or payment decisions, verify AI-assisted answers against the source records.
The bottom line
Construction has always had a gap between the people with the data and the people making decisions on site. The new Copilot chat experience in Business Central doesn't close that gap by itself. But it removes a familiar barrier, which is the need to learn a complex interface before getting a simple answer. Contractors that pilot it now, while it is in preview, will be ready to scale when it reaches general availability.
If you're thinking about how AI could support your project teams, a conversation with an experienced Business Central adviser is a good place to start.
Sources: Microsoft roadmap 573362 · Microsoft Learn: Chat with Copilot