Directions Asia 2026 Recap: Key Takeaways from Ho Chi Minh City
Directions Asia 2026 in Ho Chi Minh City focused on AI's transformation of Business Central from a system of record to a system of action, with live demonstrations of autonomous agents for accounts payable, sales orders, and expenses. The conference highlighted emerging partner competencies in agent design, integration architecture evolution, and governance frameworks needed for AI-driven implementations.
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post Saurav Dhyani
"ERP is shifting from a system of record to a system of action."
Key points
- ERP is shifting from recording transactions to enabling autonomous action through AI agents, with humans moving to governance and review roles
- Partners need to develop AI competency through the AI Development Toolkit and Agent Building Sandbox, treating agent design as a core capability rather than specialist skill
- Traditional point-to-point integrations are incompatible with agent-driven environments; decoupled, event-driven architecture is required
- Governance conversations about agent autonomy, approval workflows, auditing, and error handling are missing from most partner-customer discussions
- Partner business models must evolve as AI compresses development timelines; billing hours for automatable tasks is unsustainable
Quotes
- “ERP is shifting from a system of record to a system of action.” (This frames the fundamental shift in how Business Central will operate as AI agents handle routine interpretation and action, requiring partners to rethink implementation strategy.)
- “Drive AI transformation inside your own company first, before you try to sell it to your customers.” (Partners must experience AI capabilities directly in their own operations before advising customers, establishing credibility and understanding real implementation challenges.)
- “Governance is the conversation partners are not having.” (This identifies a critical gap in partner delivery: structured decision-making frameworks about agent autonomy, approval rules, auditing, and error recovery are needed but largely absent.)
Context
- Features: AI Development Toolkit, Agent Building Sandbox, Accounts payable agent, Sales order agent, Expense agent, Model Context Protocol integration, AI-assisted AL diff analysis, Performance analysis with Application Insights
- Versions: Business Central 2026 Release Wave 1 (v28)
Source: Saurav Dhyani, community blog. Summary, key points and quotes are derived (CONTENT-NOTICE.md); read the original for the full text.