What does the job involve day to day?
You take the way a sales team actually sells and map it onto Dynamics 365 Sales. That means designing the lead and opportunity records, building business process flows for each sales stage, setting up the product catalog and price lists with their currencies, and configuring mailboxes, the timeline, and the Outlook and Teams connections that sellers live in. Dynamics 365 Sales runs on Microsoft Dataverse and is a model-driven Power Apps app, so most of your build happens in Power Platform tools. Much of your week goes to workshops with sales managers. You work out where their process matches the standard app and where it does not.
Forecasting gets more scrutiny than any other part of the build. Microsoft describes Sales forecasts as a near real-time view of expected revenue built from pipeline data, forecast categories, quotas and hierarchy rollups. You define the hierarchy, the categories such as committed and best case, the quotas, and how deals roll up from seller to manager to director. If opportunity data is poor, the forecast is poor. So a good part of the job is setting rules that keep sellers updating their pipeline.
How Copilot and agents changed the work
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales summarizes leads, opportunities and accounts, highlights recent record changes, helps prepare for meetings, drafts emails, answers questions from SharePoint documents and surfaces account news. Microsoft now says the Sales agent in Microsoft Copilot is where this experience is heading and will become the preferred way to reach Copilot help in Sales. Copilot can only read records and files the signed-in user has access to, so your security model decides what it can see.
The newer work is agents. The AB-210 study guide covers the Sales Qualification Agent, which runs in Research-only or Research and engage mode, plus the Sales Opportunity Agent, the Sales Close Agent and the Sales Research Agent. You configure them, read what they did, and monitor them. Clients also expect you to know which features sit in which plan. Microsoft lists Sales Professional, Sales Enterprise and Sales Premium, and Premium adds AI features on top of Enterprise.
From MB-210 to AB-210
For years the badge for this role was Dynamics 365 Sales Functional Consultant Associate, earned through Exam MB-210. Microsoft retired that certification, the exam and its renewal assessment on November 30, 2024. In their place came the Dynamics 365 Customer Experience Analyst Associate (MB-280), which combined Sales with Customer Insights. Microsoft's study guide says MB-280 retired on July 31, 2026. Microsoft's July 2026 partner announcement names Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate as its replacement.
AB-210 is titled Accelerating Sales Pipelines with AI in Dynamics 365. It weights five areas: configuring Sales core features for AI (15 to 20%), optimizing AI-driven sales (20 to 25%), qualifying and prioritizing leads with AI (15 to 20%), developing deals through intelligent opportunity research (25 to 30%), and extending Sales (10 to 15%). Note the weighting. Agent setup and opportunity work make up the largest share of the exam. The basic configuration skills MB-210 tested now carry less weight.
What employers look for now
Microsoft's own candidate profile for AB-210 is a fair summary of what a hiring manager will test in an interview. You need to read an organization's sales process and seller experience, build and extend model-driven apps, and build Power Automate cloud flows. Microsoft strongly recommends intermediate-level Power Platform configuration training before the exam. In practice, a consultant who can only click through standard Sales settings is less useful than one who can also design the Dataverse data model, embed a Power BI report and write a flow.
An MB-210 badge on a CV still shows past experience. That certification has retired, though, and its renewal assessment has retired with it. If your Sales certification is older than late 2024, AB-210 is the one that shows current skills. Pair it with a story about a real forecast or pipeline you configured. Interviewers ask about those far more often than about exam scores.
Pay
USD a year, before tax. Source: D365 Market advertised pay, US adverts that state pay, snapshot 5 November 2026 (https://d365market.com/salaries). These are advertised salaries, not earnings and not an official Dynamics 365 pay rate. They skew to US states with pay transparency laws. The Dynamics 365 CE row (9 adverts, 7 employers) and the functional consultant row (5 adverts, 3 employers) are small samples. Refer to the Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (CRM) salary guide for figures from live adverts.
What you need
- Sales process knowledgeYou need to understand how B2B and B2C sales teams qualify leads, run opportunities and forecast revenue. Without that, you cannot map their process onto the app.
- Power Platform configurationMicrosoft strongly recommends intermediate-level Power Platform configuration training before AB-210. Model-driven apps and Power Automate cloud flows come up throughout the work.
- Dataverse and securityYou design the sales data model in Dataverse and the Sales security model. Copilot only reads records the signed-in user can access, so security settings also limit what it can see.
- Copilot and agent setupYou configure record summarization, forecasts, goals, predictive scoring and the Sales agents. You also need to know which features each Sales plan includes.
- CertificationMicrosoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate requires Exam AB-210. You need a score of 700 and have 120 minutes. The exam is offered in seven languages.
- Microsoft 365 integrationThe exam covers connecting Sales with Teams, SharePoint, Outlook and OneDrive. Sellers spend their day in these tools.
How to get there
- Year 0-1Learn sales operations or Power PlatformMost Sales consultants come from sales operations, CRM administration or Power Platform building. Learn model-driven apps and cloud flows first.
- Year 1-2Configure Sales on a real projectBuild leads, opportunities, business process flows, product catalogs and price lists under a senior consultant.
- Year 1-2Pass AB-210Earn Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate. Most of the exam covers agents and opportunity work.
- Year 2-4Own forecasting and agent rolloutLead workshops on forecast hierarchies, quotas and the Sales Qualification and Close agents.
- Year 4+Move to lead consultant or architectDesign across Sales and the other Customer Engagement apps, and lead other consultants on the build.
Open now on D365 Market
Questions people ask
Can I still take MB-210?
No. Microsoft retired the Dynamics 365 Sales Functional Consultant Associate certification, Exam MB-210 and its renewal assessment on November 30, 2024. The current exam for this role is AB-210.
What replaced MB-280 Customer Experience Analyst?
Microsoft's study guide says MB-280 retired on July 31, 2026. Microsoft's July 2026 partner announcement names Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate, earned through Exam AB-210, as the replacement.
Is AB-210 still a beta exam?
When we read it, the certification page still linked to information about the AB-210 beta. It also explains that beta exams are not scored immediately. If you take it while it is in beta, expect to wait for your result.
How do I keep the certification current?
Microsoft associate certifications expire each year. You renew by passing a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn before the expiry date.
How much do Dynamics 365 Sales roles pay in the UK?
IT Jobs Watch has no figure for Sales roles alone. For permanent UK jobs citing the Dynamics 365 skill in the 6 months to 5 November 2026, its median advertised salary was £65,000, with a 25th to 75th percentile range of £50,000 to £84,215. These are advertised salaries, not earnings.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn: Dynamics 365 Sales AI Consultant Associate certification
- Microsoft Learn: Study guide for Exam AB-210
- Microsoft Learn: Dynamics 365 Sales Functional Consultant Associate (retired)
- Microsoft Learn: Study guide for Exam MB-210
- Microsoft Learn: Study guide for Exam MB-280
- Microsoft Partner Center: July 2026 announcements
- Microsoft Learn: Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales overview
- Microsoft Learn: Sales forecasting overview
- D365 Market: salaries
- IT Jobs Watch: Dynamics 365 permanent salaries
