It’s been 1.5 years since CentralQ was released, and what a journey it has been!
What started as an idea—to build an AI-powered answering system for the Business Central community by blending Microsoft Learn with community-driven knowledge—has grown into an essential tool for Business Central teams worldwide.
As we approach the end of 2024, it’s the perfect time to pause, reflect, and celebrate what we’ve achieved together. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.
Usage
CentralQ just hit an important milestone, and I want you to share the excitement.
In just 18 months:
- 300,000 questions answered
- Average answer time: 10.4 seconds
- Time to start showing the answer: 2.6 seconds
That’s 300,000 problems solved, decisions made, and tasks completed faster—all because CentralQ exists. To put it into perspective, that’s 30 times more answers than on the official Microsoft Business Central forum in the same timeframe.
What Questions Do Users Ask?
I’ve received many questions from the community about what users are most asking for. Until today, I couldn’t answer.
So, I asked AI to categorize all 300,000 queries, and it took 5 days! Now I finally have the statistics—and I’m excited to share them with you.
With over 300k requests, here’s what users search for the most:
Some users even asked questions for certification exams. And yes, CentralQ quietly helped them too 🤭
I was surprised to see AL Development as the second most-asked category. CentralQ was never fine-tuned from the beginning to answer questions like: “Refactor my codeunit”, “Write AL tests”, “Find bugs in my AL code”
It tried its best—and sometimes succeeded—but there’s definitely room for improvement here. I already have some ideas on how to make answering these types of questions even better.
Where the Answers Come From
CentralQ is smart, but it’s nothing without the incredible knowledge behind it.
This visual shows the percentage of requests where each source category was used to provide answers. For example, 86% of all requests relied on blogs, while 63% referenced Microsoft Docs. The percentages add up because a single question can draw answers from multiple sources.
Top 3 Source Groups
- Blogs – 86% of requests
- Docs (Microsoft Learn) – 63% of requests
- YouTube – 59% of requests
Combining structured, reliable Microsoft content with community wisdom gives CentralQ its power. This mix ensures that answers are accurate, practical, and tailored to real-world scenarios.
Blog Heroes
CentralQ wouldn’t be what it is without the incredible community leaders who continuously share their knowledge. This visual highlights the Top-10 blogs that CentralQ relied on the most.
The percentage indicates the proportion of requests where a specific blog contributed to generating the answer.
Every one of these blogs represents time, effort, and dedication to sharing knowledge with the community. Without you, CentralQ would not have the depth and accuracy it provides today.
Thank you to everyone who contributes to the Business Central ecosystem—you are the true heroes 🙏
YouTube Stars
YouTube has been a critical source of knowledge for CentralQ, providing video explanations, deep dives, and practical walkthroughs for Business Central users. The percentage shown reflects how many requests used each channel to generate answers.
These creators are the real YouTube Stars for the Business Central community. Whether it’s tutorials, troubleshooting, or deep dives into complex topics, their content has been invaluable in helping users find answers quickly.
A huge thank you to each of these channels for sharing knowledge, one video at a time. You make CentralQ smarter every day!
Community Knowledge: The Heart of CentralQ
CentralQ is living proof that shared knowledge changes everything.
While Microsoft Learn provides the foundation, it’s your blogs, videos, GitHub repos, and other community-driven contributions that elevate it to the next level.
I’ve always believed in the power of community, and CentralQ statistics prove it: with your shared knowledge, CentralQ stands out as something truly unique—delivering answers that combine official guidance with real-world expertise.
The Cost of Free
CentralQ is a free tool for the community, but it’s not free for me.
Over the last 18 months, the total cost of running CentralQ reached $16.5K. That’s about $0.05 per request—and the cost isn’t just about paying for LLM usage. It includes:
- Hybrid search approach
- Keeping the knowledge base up to date every single day.
- Hosting, infrastructure, and analytics to keep everything running smoothly.
- Ongoing support and development—currently handled solely by me.
I believe CentralQ is already making a difference, but as a tool, it needs to evolve. To achieve this, I’m opening up the opportunity for you to sponsor CentralQ and contribute to its growth.
How You Can Sponsor CentralQ
You can now support CentralQ with three sponsorship options:
1. Community Supporter – $25/month
- A simple way to say “thank you” and help keep CentralQ running.
- Benefit: Your name (or company name) will appear on the CentralQ Sponsors Page.
2. CentralQ Hero – $300/month
- For businesses, influencers, or those who want to contribute more significantly.
- Benefits:
- Your name will appear on CentralQ’s Answer Page with the message:
“This answer appeared thanks to [Your Name]” (rotated with other sponsors). - Premium placement on the Sponsors Page of the CentralQ website.
- Your name will appear on CentralQ’s Answer Page with the message:
3. A Simple Thanks – One-Time Support
- Sometimes a simple “thank you” is all that’s needed. This tier allows you to contribute any amount to show your appreciation for CentralQ and its value to the Business Central community.
Here’s a quick video showing where your sponsorship will be visible—because your support deserves to be recognized and appreciated.
With your help, we can continue improving CentralQ and make it even smarter, faster, and more useful for everyone in the Business Central community.
Looking Ahead
So, what’s planning next for CentralQ? The journey doesn’t stop here. CentralQ will continue to evolve with:
- Multimodal Input – Support for screenshots or images as inputs to generate answers.
- Image-Based Knowledge – Using images from blogs and other visual content as part of the knowledge base.
- Private knowledge – Integrate your own sources and private knowledge to get personalized results.
- Deeper Insights – Providing even more detailed and actionable answers.
- Better UI – A smoother, more intuitive experience to make finding answers even faster.
But the most important part is still you. Your content, contributions, and questions continue to make CentralQ what it is—and what it can become.
Thank You!
Once again, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who shares knowledge. Your content makes CentralQ smarter every day.
If you want to help or say thanks, you can sponsor the project on GitHub.
Let’s find even more answers together in 2025!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
