How AI Agents are Reshaping Enterprise Technology and SaaS in 2025

Are AI agents really taking over enterprise tech or are these just buzzwords used by organizations to get on the AI bandwagon? Many organizations position existing features as "AI-powered" without providing any meaningful transformation for their customers.  

In our LinkedIn Live webinar Beyond SaaS: How AI Agents Are Taking Over Enterprise Tech, Sameer Verma, General Manager & Head of AI and ERP at Microsoft joined our in-house expert Michiel Toppers, Senior Director of Products at STAEDEAN to share glimpses of real, tangible AI-driven solutions that create measurable value.  

When we think about tech innovation, we seldom think of the ERP being at the forefront. However, it is an exciting time for ERP leaders such as Microsoft, as they drive innovation by revolutionizing their tech stack using Copilot and Artificial Intelligence-powered agents to move toward autonomous ERP. In fact, this comes as great news for 75% of global businesses planning to replace monolithic systems piece by piece with modular, API-driven solutions by 2027 (Source: IDC). So, whether you use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management (D365 F&SCM) or are planning your move, this blog explains how AI is redefining the technology shift for Microsoft and its partners and the steps you need to take to maximize the potential of AI-powered enterprise tech. 

What is Microsoft’s AI strategy for its enterprise tech? 

As Sameer and I discussed, AI agents are no longer a distant vision—they are actively transforming the way businesses operate. Unlike traditional ERP solutions, which often require manual intervention and rule-based automation, there are 3 key criteria that differentiate Microsoft’s AI-powered autonomous ERP from other players in the segment.  

💠Copilots and AI agents: In Microsoft’s ERP, Copilot acts as an interaction layer with AI agents while the logic is delegated to AI agents introduced by Microsoft. This round-the-clock partnership defines autonomous ERP, where agents work stealthily in the background, informing users about completed tasks, areas requiring attention, and suggesting activities when they log into work. 

💠Adaptive Experience: Microsoft is designing an adaptive experience to help build this interaction between Copilot and AI agents. Since there is excitement but also uncertainty about AI, Microsoft is introducing semi-autonomous scenarios to build user trust and ensure users are in the loop. 

💠Dynamic workflows: The introduction of dynamic workflows can have massive implications for its users. Sameer shares examples of classic workflows such as source to pay, record to report, and plan to produce, that impact end-to-end business processes. Introducing agents that work in the background, can streamline and improve the end-to-end process. 

The benefits of these features for Microsoft’s ERP users are: 

• Proactive assistance at their fingertips as agents can analyze data patterns, anticipate needs, and recommend next steps.  

• Enhanced efficiency by working in the background and automating workflows by dynamically adjusting processes based on real-time data.  

• Improve decision-making by providing AI-driven recommendations and insights that allow businesses to act faster and more strategically.

    

The role of Data Maturity in adopting AI successfully 

You must have heard the phrase “Garbage in is garbage out”. The effectiveness of AI depends on the quality of data in your ERP system. As I emphasized in the discussion, even the most advanced AI models are limited by poor data governance and can share misleading insights. Organizations must ensure they have structured, clean, and integrated data pipelines and a strong foundation of master data management to fully realize AI's potential.  

STAEDEAN’s no-code embedded Data Management Solutions supports enterprises in achieving AI-ready data by providing solutions for Data Integration & Security, and Master Data Management for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management. 

👉Take STAEDEAN’s Data Maturity Assessment for Microsoft Dynamics 365 to test your AI-readiness! 

How is STAEDEAN’s AI strategy complimenting Microsoft’s vision? 

AT STADEAN, we have two decades of deep-domain expertise operating in the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem. We offer industry-specific solutions for Equipment Rental, Life Sciences, and Manufacturing, and we also offer industry-agnostic solutions for Data Management. We have explored use cases where we can deliver quantifiable and measurable value to our customers using artificial intelligence based on our existing portfolio of solutions.  

AT STAEDEAN besides leveraging Copilot and Copilot Studio to create our own scenarios for our customers, we are also leveraging Azure and OpenAI. What we are most excited about currently is the agents we are building on our own AI architecture to unlock value and ease processes for our customers. 

We unveiled a multi-agent AI for our data integration solution (Connectivity Studio) that creates integrations 85% faster. The multi-agent AI is designed to make our data integration implementation self-serve and offer faster time to value for our customers.  

Related reading: Multi-Agent AI for Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP Unveiled! 

Microsoft’s Real-World AI Use Cases in Supply Chain Management  

Last year Microsoft released about 30 Copilots within the Microsoft tech stack. The reactions and interactions from customers helped the team shape future agents. These Copilots were assistive and conversational in nature and laid the foundation for the next set of 6 transformative agents to be launched in April 2025. 

In the design phase, Microsoft focused on end-to-end processes that have many sub-processes and go through multiple departments. These end-to-end processes were then mapped to a jobs-to-be-done framework. This was also done for supply chain collaboration based on where users across business departments were spending majority of their time. Sameer revealed that Microsoft is launching their first supplier collaboration agent which will be available for public preview in April 2025.  

The supply chain agent can help Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management users:  

• Enhance supplier collaboration by automating procurement tasks, reducing manual follow-up, and sharing actionable improvements.  

• Faster decision-making by sharing proposals to mitigate supply chain challenges that can be approved or rejected.   

• Increase supply chain resilience by assessing the downstream impact of supply delays and share suggestive actions.

    

Embrace autonomous AI-powered ERP with Microsoft and STAEDEAN  

The AI revolution isn’t coming—it’s already here. With the integration of Copilots and agents within the Microsoft ecosystem the distinction between Microsoft’s infrastructure, data layer, and range of productivity and collaboration solutions is becoming increasingly blurred. For instance, getting approvals or expense reports is possible directly in Teams without accessing the ERP system.  

Businesses that embrace these changes early on and adopt intelligent, autonomous, and AI-driven ERPs such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management will lead within their industries. However, without clean and well-governed data management processes within D365 F&SCM, you will be unable to optimize the potential of AI agents. The partnership between Microsoft and STAEDEAN can help businesses streamline their operations, reduce inefficiencies, and improve decision-making.  

Contact us to discover how our no-code/low-code embedded solutions can help you improve your business processes within the ERP.