If you are a Product Owner (PO) for a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) environment in 2026, you are likely living in a state of permanent whiplash.
On one side, leadership is enamored with the “Year of the Agent.” They’ve seen the keynotes; they want the magic. On the other side is the cold, hard reality of Copilot Credits, token consumption, and the absolute lack of a specific “Why.”
Here is the breakdown of the dilemma every BC Product Owner is currently facing.
The Vague Directive: “Just Give Us AI”
The most dangerous phrase a PO can hear from a manager is: “We need to be an AI-first company. Enable the agents in Business Central by Q3.”
When you ask, “To do what, exactly?”, the answer is often a shrug or a buzzword salad about “efficiency” and “transformation.” This leaves the PO in a “Feature Factory” trap—implementing high-cost tools without a target ROI.
The Risk: Without a specific use case (e.g., “Automate vendor invoice matching for the 20% of edge cases Copilot usually misses”), you aren’t implementing a solution; you’re just turning on a very expensive faucet.
The Credit Crunch: The End of “Flat Rate” ERP
For years, BC budgeting was predictable: you paid your $80 or $110 per user/month, and that was that. With Microsoft Agents and Copilot Studio, the game has changed to consumption-based billing.
| Cost Element | The Traditional ERP Model | The New “Agentic” Model |
| Pricing | Fixed monthly subscription. | Copilot Credits (Consumption-based). |
| Usage | Unlimited entries/postings. | Metered by “Conversations” or “Tokens.” |
| Predictability | High (Budget = Licenses). | Low (Budget = Activity level). |
| Overage | Non-existent. | Pay-as-you-go. |
The PO’s Pain Point: If an agent is poorly configured and gets stuck in a “logic loop” or processes a massive data set unnecessarily, it burns through your prepaid credits while you sleep. You are now a “Cloud Cost Manager” as much as a Product Owner.
Copilot vs. Agents: The Licensing Maze
There is a massive misconception among stakeholders that “Copilot is included.”
- Copilot (The Assistant): Yes, basic chat and field suggestions are often included in your BC seat.
- Microsoft Agents (The Doers): These live in Copilot Studio. They can trigger workflows, talk to external APIs, and “act” on behalf of the user. These require Credit Packs.
As of 2026, a standard capacity pack starts around $200/month for 25,000 credits. For a mid-sized company, one enthusiastic manager “testing” a multi-agent orchestration system can evaporate that budget in a week.
How to Navigate the Dilemma
If you’re a PO caught between a manager’s hype and a CFO’s budget, here is your survival guide:
- Demand the “Job Description”: Treat an AI Agent like a new hire. If a manager wants an agent, ask: “What is its Job Description? What specific BC table is it reading? What is the ‘Definition of Done’ for a single conversation?”
- The “Sandbox-First” Rule: Never enable Agentic workflows in Production without a week of telemetry in a Sandbox. Track the Credit Burn Rate before the company credit card is attached.
- Establish a “Credit Ceiling”: Use the Power Platform Admin Center to set hard limits on how many credits an environment can consume. When the AI stops working because the budget is hit, it forces a conversation about value.