Dynamics Business Central / NAV Developer Digest - Vol. 555

ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert’s Developer Digest focuses on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics NAV development. This week’s volume includes Business Central’s architecture, AI models in BC 28, index tuning, and AI adoption.

The Dynamics 365 Business Central community, comprising developers, project managers, and consultants, collaborates across platforms to share valuable insights. At ArcherPoint, we greatly value their dedication and expertise. To ensure widespread access to this technical knowledge, we created Developer Digest.

Extensions, Events, and BC architecture

When Microsoft moved from C/AL to AL, it changed the architecture to an event-driven one. Developers no longer modify the base code. Instead, they use extensions to customize BC. This keeps the base code separate and easier to maintain. Plus, it makes software updates easier on everybody.

Or so many were led to believe.

As Matt Traxinger points out, while the current BC development environment is better than the C/AL model, it still has some architectural… um… features that could use some improvement.

Read the latest installment of his series on BC software development, Events Were Supposed to Save Us, for his perspectives on the subject.

Switch AI models in BC v28

New in BC is the ability to switch AI models from the Agents page. Beginning with Business Central 2026 Wave 1 (version 28), GTP-5.3-chat will be the default AI model used by Microsoft on Agents and Managed AI service.

Stefano Demiliani discusses this new feature and provides guidance for optimizing its use.

Currently, users can select between GPT-5.3-chat and GPT-4.1-latest. This lets you select the best model for your requirements.

As Demiliani points out, “You should use GPT-5.3-chat for every task that requires conversation, brainstorming, and tasks where you want a natural human-like interaction. GPT-4.1-latest is instead ideal when dealing with heavy tasks, complex data parsing, or workloads that require the model to hold huge volumes of reference documentation.”

Check out his blog, Dynamics 365 Business Central: new model choice in Agent definition, to learn more.

Improve Business Central performance with Index Tuning

Also new in version 28, BC now allows indexes to be turned on and off at will. This capability can significantly improve Business Central performance by reducing the time required for SQL INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands.

Duilio Tacconi offers an in-depth look at how this new capability can be effectively utilized in his blog, Index Management with Dynamics 365 Business Central 2026 Wave 1.

AI: From concept to adoption

There is plenty of chatter about AI: the technology, the models, the uses, etc., etc.

Tharanga Chandrasekara offers his thoughts on the difference between TALKING about AI and ADOPTING it.

In his recent blog, he makes the comment, “Concept is interesting. Tech is exciting. Neither one changes anything by itself. Adoption is what changes something.”

Until the principles of AI are actually put to use, though, the promise of AI will never materially affect how you work.

Read his blog, From Talking About AI to Adopting It: Why I Am Writing This Series, to see more.

Are you interested in Dynamics NAV and Business Central development? Check out our collection of NAV/BC Development Blogs.

Read “How To” blogs from ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central.

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