Microsoft Copilot: The Benefits of AI in Agribusiness
Artificial Intelligence has touched every sphere of technology, and the benefits of AI in agribusiness are becoming clearer for the agribusinesses behind global food production.
Agribusinesses face unique and evolving challenges. Tight margins, outdated infrastructure, limited budgets, and supply chain disruptions have highlighted the need for them to adapt cutting-edge technology and business applications to enhance and optimize processes. With the rise of AI and modern business platforms like Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Copilot, agribusiness companies like yours that want to take advantage of these technologies can do so effectively by combining everything they need into a unified platform.
This blog will highlight Copilot's AI-driven features and functionalities and explain how it integrates with and functions within Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM solutions.
The AI Advantage with Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft Copilot’s AI capabilities further enhance the power of Dynamics 365 by bringing conversational AI directly into the workflow. This opens new opportunities for automation and efficiency:
AI-Generated Product Descriptions
In Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, Copilot assists in creating compelling product descriptions by analyzing attributes such as color, material, and size. This feature is particularly beneficial for managing diverse product lines, enabling rapid and consistent content generation for online platforms.
Efficient Bank Reconciliation
Copilot streamlines the reconciliation process by automatically matching transactions from bank statements with existing records in Business Central. This automation reduces your team’s manual effort and minimizes human error, which is crucial in handling numerous financial transactions.
AI-Powered Customer Insights
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights empowers your marketing team to analyze customer data using natural language queries. Quick access to this information will help them create targeted marketing campaigns and personalized customer experiences. Streamlining your marketing process allows you to attract more customers and will keep them coming back.
Proactive Supply Chain Management
Copilot proactively identifies external factors such as weather or financial issues that may impact supply chain processes. This foresight allows agribusinesses to mitigate potential disruptions effectively. You can also set up automated alerts for any potential issues that come up.
By leveraging these AI-driven features, agribusinesses can enhance productivity, improve customer engagement, and make informed decisions. This leads to increased operational efficiency and profitability.
Real-World Applications: AI in Agribusiness Use Cases
The potential applications for AI in agribusiness are vast. Here are a few examples:
- Queue Management: Long truck queues at grain elevators disrupt operations and cause frustration for growers. Using AI, agribusinesses can analyze real-time footage to count trucks and estimate wait times. Copilot helps Growers receive text alerts, enabling them to plan deliveries more efficiently.
- Precision Agriculture Integration: By connecting Precision Ag data (like soil nutrient levels or pesticide application maps) to Dynamics 365, agribusinesses can track input costs at the field level. This data drives smarter decision-making and helps with traceability for farm-to-table initiatives.
- Predictive Analytics: AI models can analyze historical data to predict future production volumes, product shortages, grower contracts, and potential disruptions to your operations. This ensures that operations run smoothly, even during peak seasons.
- AI-Powered Customer Insights: An agribusiness selling fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems can use Copilot to analyze customer buying trends and suggest recommendations. This enhances customer engagement and boosts sales conversions.
- Automated Bank Reconciliation: If you are managing multiple revenue streams, Copilot can automate transaction matching and reconcile bank statements, which saves your accounting team and reduces the possibility of errors.
- Proactive Supply Chain Management: Businesses dependent on just-in-time supply chains can leverage Copilot’s capabilities to identify potential disruptions. The system provides automated alerts so they can source alternatives in advance.
Dynamics 365: A Platform Designed for Agribusiness Success
Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers integrated ERP and CRM platforms that combine inventory management, financial systems, and supply chain operations. For agribusinesses, this foundation eliminates the need for siloed systems and reduces reliance on outdated processes. It also meshes with Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, Teams, and more. With the right licensing, you can use Copilot in these tools to streamline your and your team’s workdays.
Here are some specific tools and capabilities within Dynamics 365 that can tangibly help your agribusiness:
- Finance and Supply Chain Management: Offers robust tools for managing contracts, inventory, and compliance, ensuring that agribusinesses stay efficient and meet regulatory requirements.
- Customer Service: Enables agribusinesses to provide seamless support to growers and trading partners through multi-channel communication tools.
- Power Automate Integration: Automates repetitive tasks like invoice processing, load orders, and shipment tracking to reduce human error and improve efficiency.
- Sales and Marketing Tools: Simplifies communication with growers and customers, helping agribusinesses better manage relationships and boost sales.
- AI-driven Insights: Through Dynamics 365’s AI capabilities, companies can forecast demand, optimize inventory, and analyze yield trends for better long-term planning.
When you work with Stoneridge Software, you gain access to a team of experts with vast experience implementing Dynamics 365 solutions for various businesses, including agribusinesses.
You can also access Levridge, an ag-specific ISV that is a sister company to Stoneridge. It is built on Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management and handles unique agribusiness scenarios like contract management, farm and field tracking, and commodity splits. By offering these industry-specific capabilities, Dynamics 365 enables agribusinesses to manage everything from grower contracts to inbound scale tickets and settlement processes seamlessly. Note: As of right now, Levridge does not work with Copilot.
The Road Ahead: Why AI in Agribusiness Matters
The adoption of AI and modern ERP systems like Dynamics 365 represents not just an opportunity but a necessity for agribusinesses. With labor shortages, unpredictable weather, and growing consumer demands for transparency, automation, and AI offer a path to resilience and growth.
By leveraging Microsoft’s platform, we’re helping businesses move beyond outdated processes to a more automated, AI-powered future—one where operational efficiency and data-driven decisions aren’t just possibilities but standard practices.
Contact Us Today to Learn More About Optimizing Your Processes With Microsoft Copilot
Stoneridge and Levridge experts can help you implement these technologies. We will also provide proactive support after your solution goes live, ensuring you always have a team of experts to help optimize your software.
Get in touch with us to learn more.
Under the terms of this license, you are authorized to share and redistribute the content across various mediums, subject to adherence to the specified conditions: you must provide proper attribution to Stoneridge as the original creator in a manner that does not imply their endorsement of your use, the material is to be utilized solely for non-commercial purposes, and alterations, modifications, or derivative works based on the original material are strictly prohibited.
Responsibility rests with the licensee to ensure that their use of the material does not violate any other rights.