Note
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try signing in or changing directories.
Access to this page requires authorization. You can try changing directories.
[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]
This FAQ provides answers to frequently asked questions about the AI technology that is used in the Procurement Agent that is available with Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management. It includes key considerations and details about how the AI is used, how it was tested and evaluated, and any specific limitations.
Important
- This is a production-ready preview feature.
- Production-ready previews are subject to supplemental terms of use.
What is the Procurement Agent?
The Procurement Agent provides the following capabilities that help purchasers communicate with vendors and handle change requests as part of their daily work:
- Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders
- Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails
- Review the impact of purchase order changes from vendors - automatically triggering the impact analysis for incoming change requests
- Simulate if purchase order changes have a downstream impact - manually triggering the impact analysis
Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders overview
It can be tedious to follow up on purchase orders that are sent to vendors if the vendors haven't yet confirmed or delivery is late. It can take significant time to find the correct orders in the system and then write a specific email for each order.
To streamline this process, the system helps you perform the following actions:
- Create a query to find the purchase orders to follow up on. Configuration is user specific.
- Configure the email generation process for each group of purchase orders that the query finds. The system provides two default queries. One query is used to follow up on unconfirmed purchase orders, and the other query is used to follow up on late deliveries. Queries are unique for each user. Therefore, you can create and adjust them to meet your specific business needs.
- Review and modify drafted emails, copy them to your email client, and/or send them. The data that is used to generate the emails comes from the purchase order lines and/or related tables.
Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails overview
This capability helps speed up communications with vendors about purchase orders. It enables Copilot to read emails from all or specific vendors.
The Procurement Agent can determine what each email is about (for example, whether it's a purchase order confirmation or a purchase order change request) and which purchase order numbers it applies to. Copilot then matches the information that it extracts from the email to fields in the system and indicates whether there are any changes. Therefore, the purchaser can review just the information that Copilot provides and update the fields in the system as required. They don't have to manually open the purchase order and do all the work themselves. They can then spend the time that they save on other tasks that add more value.
Review the impact of purchase order changes from vendors overview
Impact analysis automatically analyzes the downstream impact of change requests that arrive through e-mails (Procurement Agent - Supplier communications) and through the vendor collaboration interface if configured and enabled.
Purchasing teams regularly receive change requests from suppliers, including delivery delays, quantity reductions, and purchase order cancellations. Each change request can potentially affect safety stock, production schedules, internal transfers, and customer commitments.
In most cases, purchasers don't want to spend time on changes to purchase orders with no downstream impact. Impact analysis gives purchasers the confidence, visibility, and ability to quickly identify these changes that can be safely accepted, apply them right away, and move on.
For changes with downstream impact on orders, or ones that cause inventory levels to go below certain thresholds, purchasers need to quickly understand the details, consequences, and decide how to respond. Purchasers often follow up with the supplier. If purchasers must accept a change with impact, they now know straight away which internal stakeholders to be informed.
Simulate whether purchase order changes have impact overview
The impact simulation capability allows purchasers and planners to test the impact of purchase orders changes that weren't directly communicated through supported channels. This capability could be used to proactively test changes on high-priority or at-risk purchase orders, or to analyze the impact of changes communicated through non-supported channels such as telephone.
What are the capabilities of the Procurement Agent?
Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders
The Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders capability uses Copilot to generate natural language email texts and subjects, based on information from purchase orders that are found through user-specified queries. User-defined settings such as language tone, length, and urgency are used to adjust the resulting text. Copilot uses the gpt-4o generative AI model to generate the natural language content.
Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails
The Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails capability must be set up to access the relevant users' email and analyze emails from either all or specifically selected vendor email addresses. Each relevant vendor record must include an email address to enable Copilot to recognize it.
You must also set the frequency of the email analysis.
Copilot classifies each vendor email that it reads into one of the following categories, based on the intent that it detects:
- Purchase order confirmation – Copilot detected that the purpose of the email is to confirm one or more purchase orders (all the purchase orders that are mentioned in the email).
- Requested changes – Copilot detected that the email contains at least one requested change to a purchase order. For example, the vendor can't deliver the full quantity that was requested, or they can't meet the requested delivery date.
- Rejection – Copilot detected that the vendor can't deliver the purchase order as a whole.
- Other – Copilot couldn't identify any of the previous intents.
For the first two categories, the system identifies which purchase orders the email is related to and matches the information in the email to information in the system.
For messages where the vendor requested a change, the system indicates the current information plus the new information in the purchase order. Therefore, the changes are easier to understand.
A review page lists the emails that were identified and classified, and summarizes the information in each message. From this page, you can apply the changes directly to the purchase order that is stored in the system.
Review the impact of purchase order changes from vendors
The Review the impact of purchase order changes from vendors capability only runs automatically on change requests, and only on sources selected during setup.
If you choose to enable impact analysis based on changes received in email, the analysis only runs on emails classified as Requested changes, and during the specific conditions set up for the Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails capability. In other words, the analysis only runs for specified mailboxes and vendors.
If you enable the vendor collaboration interface, this capability runs on In external review requires action messages only.
Simulate whether purchase order changes have impact
To use the Simulate whether purchase order changes have impact capability, enable the Procurement agent - Impact analysis feature in feature management. This capability runs only when you change a date or quantity of a purchase order and select Simulate impact.
What is the intended use of the Procurement Agent?
The Procurement Agent has the following intended uses:
- The Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders capability streamlines the process of following up on purchase orders. By default, it identifies orders that are delayed or unconfirmed. It presents a draft message to purchasers, who can review and modify it, copy it to their email client, and send it.
- The Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails capability saves purchasers time by automatically reading emails, extracting information from them, and mapping that information to information in the system.
- The Review the impact of purchase order changes from vendors capability saves purchasers time in manually analyzing planning data to understand if a change request has downstream impact.
- The Simulate whether purchase order changes have impact capability enables purchasers and planners to stay on top of potential purchase order changes and to test different scenarios.
How was the Procurement Agent evaluated? What metrics are used to measure performance?
The Procurement Agent underwent substantial testing with demo data examples before it was released.
Microsoft relies on users to report inappropriate generated content. If you encounter inappropriate content, report it to Microsoft by using the following feedback form: Report abuse. Your feedback helps improve the functionality.
Microsoft might disable Copilot-driven features for selected customers if it detects abuse of the functionality.
What are the limitations of the Procurement Agent? How can users minimize the impact of these limitations?
The Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders capability uses Copilot to generate an email based on information that it retrieves through user-specified queries. You can select which fields to include in the email text. The information in the email is limited to data that comes from purchase orders, purchase order lines, and related information (such as vendor records). Primary contacts that are linked to emails and vendors are used to identify the recipient's name and company. User data is used to identify the sender's name and company.
The generated content should never be used without manual review or supervision.
The system doesn't send emails automatically, unless you explicitly configure it to do so. You're responsible for reviewing and sending each email.
To configure the system to send emails automatically, an admin must turn on the (Production ready preview) Procurement Agent – Supplier communications - automatically sending follow-up emails feature in Feature management. Use this capability only after you test and review drafted emails over a long period.
The Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails capability is intended only for vendor collaboration (classification of emails that are related to purchase orders). Therefore, during setup, you must specify which vendors' email addresses (either all or only specific ones) the system can read emails from.
What operational factors and settings allow for effective and responsible use of the Procurement Agent?
When you use the feature, follow these recommendations:
- Make sure that your company has enough control over data permissions to ensure that business data can't be manipulated to influence AI data processing in an undesirable way.
- When you use the Send follow-up emails to vendors on purchase orders capability, always review each email and subject before you use the information that is provided or make decisions based on it.
- When you use the Speed up updates in purchase orders based on incoming vendor emails capability, always review each email, intent extraction, and data before you use the information that is provided or make decisions based on it.
- When you use the Review the impact of purchase order changes from vendors capability, review the detailed impact before determining if a change is safe to accept and apply to the purchase order.