New release: Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 Wave 2

Microsoft has released Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 release wave 2. With version 29.0, Business Central receives another major update, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence, performance and integrations.

Copilot is becoming even more integrated into the everyday user experience, AI Agents are gaining new capabilities, and Microsoft has introduced several optimisations under the hood as well. Let’s take a look at some of the key improvements.

Improvements in Business Central 29.0

Copilot becomes an increasingly important part of Business Central

One of the most visible changes in this release is the further integration of Microsoft Copilot. Business Central introduces a renewed Copilot chat experience that aligns with the broader Microsoft Copilot ecosystem. Users can interact with Copilot in natural language directly from Business Central, combining business data with general knowledge and information from the web.

As a result, Copilot is increasingly evolving from a standalone AI feature into an assistant that is directly embedded in the everyday Business Central experience.

AI Agents gain new capabilities

In addition to Copilot, Microsoft continues to invest in AI Agents: digital assistants that can autonomously support specific business processes. The Payables Agent, for example, now offers improved purchase order matching capabilities. When matching documents, the agent can take factors such as line amounts and expected receipt dates into account.

Agent management has also been improved, including easier management of permissions and tasks, as well as better options for reviewing AI-generated information directly within Business Central. This clearly demonstrates the direction Microsoft is taking: AI is no longer just about answering questions but is increasingly helping users carry out business processes.

Accessing Business Central data through MCP

Another technically interesting development is the expanded support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Through the MCP Server, applications can define, validate and execute custom queries on Business Central data. This makes it possible to retrieve data even when an existing API is not necessarily available.

For developers and organisations building AI solutions around Business Central, this creates new opportunities to make business data available to AI applications in a controlled way.

Improved performance under the hood

Not all important improvements are immediately visible to end users. Microsoft has once again optimised the way Business Central processes data, with table extensions being one of the key areas of focus. Business Central solutions and apps frequently use these extensions to add additional fields to standard tables.

Optimisations to the way this data is processed can result in faster database operations. In practice, this can lead to faster page loading and improved performance when adding, modifying or deleting data. Particularly in environments with many extensions, these technical optimisations can make a noticeable difference.

Further integration with Dataverse and Power Platform

The integration between Business Central, Dataverse and the Power Platform has also been expanded. In version 29.0, new Dataverse fields can be mapped directly in Business Central, making it easier to exchange data between Business Central and other applications within the Microsoft ecosystem.

For organisations that combine Business Central with Dynamics 365 applications, Power Apps or other Dataverse-based solutions, this represents another step towards a more integrated application landscape.

SOAP web services continue to be phased out

Version 29.0 also introduces an important change for existing integrations. Microsoft is removing the ability to expose standard Microsoft pages as SOAP web services. SOAP has been gradually phased out for some time in favour of more modern integration methods such as REST APIs.

For organisations with legacy integrations, this is therefore an important point to consider. Existing integrations that still rely on SOAP should be reviewed from a technical perspective to determine whether migration to a modern API is required.

Plenty of new features for AL developers

Business Central 2026 release wave 2 also introduces several improvements for developers. Actions on pages and reports can now inherit tooltips, developers have more extensive options for working with indexes, and they can check whether records contain uncommitted changes.

Microsoft also continues to integrate AI into the development experience. AI can, for example, assist with analysing and debugging recorded Business Central failures. Combined with new capabilities for MCP workspaces and logging, these improvements are designed to make developing, maintaining and troubleshooting Business Central solutions more efficient.

Conclusion: AI is becoming increasingly tangible

With version 29.0, Microsoft continues a development that has already been apparent across several releases: AI is evolving from a collection of standalone features into an integral part of Business Central.

Copilot is becoming more deeply embedded in the user experience, Agents are taking on an increasing number of specific tasks, and MCP creates new opportunities to connect Business Central data with AI applications. At the same time, Microsoft continues to invest in the fundamentals. Performance improvements, new development capabilities and further Dataverse integration make version 29.0 a relevant update beyond AI as well.

For organisations, the key question is therefore not only which new features are available, but which of these improvements can have a tangible impact on their existing processes, extensions and integrations.

Microsoft no longer publishes traditional Release Plans. New Business Central functionality will now be published through the AI at Work roadmap.

Webinar: What’s new in Dynamics 365 Business Central?

During this free webinar on 17 November 2026, we’ll show you what’s new in Business Central and how you can start using these improvements within your own organisation. In just 45 minutes, you’ll be fully up to date and ready to make the most of the latest Business Central capabilities.