Directions for Enterprise 2026: It’s time for partners to benchmark their AI and agent alignment, Microsoft says

Microsoft is preparing ERP partners for the arrival of Dynamics 365 Activate, the agent-driven delivery and guidance platform that the company believes will serve new, migrating, and long-term Dynamics 365 ERP (F&O) customers. 

Activate was originally introduced as Project Mia, an initiative from the FastTrack program team with a focus on both ERP and CRM. Microsoft promises it will shorten project engagements, with “an agent-driven implementation experience designed to accelerate every D365 journey with lower risk and repeatable outcomes.” 

Activate will use a collection of specialized agents covering requirements analysis, configuration, data migration, integration design, security role analysis, test planning, cutover, training, feature evaluation, and process optimization. The platform will also use the FastTrack team’s Business Process Catalog as an underlying resource.

Audience response to a demonstration at Directions for Enterprise 2026 this week was enthusiastic. Some partners already have their own agent-driven deployment methods and project onboarding tools, but sources who have worked with Activate in private preview say they have found at least some useful elements of it for customer work so far. 

The FastTrack team’s agent development work also includes a library of agent templates tied to common business processes, and Microsoft is urging partners not only to use them as an acceleration tool for projects but to use agents internally in their own businesses. 

Setting an AI engagement benchmark

Partners should also be assessing themselves on AI maturity using Microsoft’s lates tools, company representatives told the event audience. Assessments developed by Microsoft are meant to involve a partner’s practice leads and the results can be benchmarked against firms Microsoft believes to be leading on AI. 

Maitame Munoz, partner marketing lead for Microsoft Business Applications, told the audience that partners need an honest accounting of their AI engagement. She explained:

We created an assessment that we encourage all your practice leads to take. [It will assess] where are the current gaps and strengths that your organization have and benchmark you with one of the top organizations in that particular industry. [We are doing this because] we wanted to give you a very data-driven exercise that then you can … place within your practice needs.

In Microsoft’s view, AI-first partners share a key set of characteristics, starting with the kind of AI-focused delivery of services and solutions that Activate aims to cover. It also includes factors like updated roles and talent acquisition methods, new service offerings for AI adoption, agent-focused IP, and new go-to-market models focused on “outcome-led AI transformation” and recurring revenue.