diff --git a/docs/api.yaml b/docs/api.yaml
index 30a4073ca..c62767f91 100644
--- a/docs/api.yaml
+++ b/docs/api.yaml
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ info:
     - OData Data Document for requests of Submissions and Entities now allow use of `$orderby`.
     - ETag headers on all Blobs.
 
+    **Changed**:
+
+    - The [Entity Create](/central-api-entity-management/#creating-an-entity) endpoint will now generate a UUID if the `uuid` parameter is not provided.
+
 
     ## ODK Central v2023.5
 
@@ -10068,7 +10072,11 @@ paths:
       - Entity Management
       summary: Creating an Entity
       description: |-
-        Creates an Entity in the Dataset. Request body takes the JSON representation of the Entity. It should have `uuid` and `label` property in addition to the user-defined properties of the Dataset in `data` property.
+        Creates an Entity in the Dataset. The request body takes a JSON representation of the Entity, which has the following properties:
+
+          1. A `data` object containing values for the user-defined Dataset properties. (Not all properties have to have values.)
+          2. A `label` property, which cannot be blank or an empty string. (This is used as a human-readable label in Forms that consume Entities.)
+          3. An optional `uuid` property. If the `uuid` is not specified, Central will generate a UUID for an Entity with the provided data and label.
         
         Value type of all properties is `string`.
 
diff --git a/lib/data/entity.js b/lib/data/entity.js
index c2c8b77da..a3b7d589e 100644
--- a/lib/data/entity.js
+++ b/lib/data/entity.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 const csv = require('csv-stringify');
 const { clone, path, mergeLeft } = require('ramda');
 const { Transform } = require('stream');
+const uuid = require('uuid').v4;
 const { PartialPipe } = require('../util/stream');
 const Problem = require('../util/problem');
 const { submissionXmlToFieldStream } = require('./submission');
@@ -112,7 +113,7 @@ const extractEntity = (body, propertyNames, existingEntity) => {
     if (body.uuid && typeof body.uuid !== 'string')
       throw Problem.user.invalidDataTypeOfParameter({ field: 'uuid', expected: 'string' });
 
-    entity.system.uuid = normalizeUuid(body.uuid);
+    entity.system.uuid = (body.uuid) ? normalizeUuid(body.uuid) : uuid();
   }
 
   if (body.label != null)
diff --git a/test/integration/api/entities.js b/test/integration/api/entities.js
index 12b188e28..7813588f5 100644
--- a/test/integration/api/entities.js
+++ b/test/integration/api/entities.js
@@ -1302,6 +1302,36 @@ describe('Entities API', () => {
         });
     }));
 
+    it('should generate uuid if one is not provided', testDataset(async (service) => {
+      const asAlice = await service.login('alice');
+
+      await asAlice.post('/v1/projects/1/datasets/people/entities')
+        .send({
+          label: 'Johnny Doe',
+          data: {
+            first_name: 'Johnny',
+            age: '22'
+          }
+        })
+        .expect(200)
+        .then(({ body: person }) => {
+          person.should.be.an.Entity();
+          person.uuid.should.be.a.uuid();
+          person.creatorId.should.equal(5);
+          person.should.have.property('currentVersion').which.is.an.EntityDef();
+          person.currentVersion.should.have.property('label').which.equals('Johnny Doe');
+          person.currentVersion.should.have.property('data').which.is.eql({
+            first_name: 'Johnny',
+            age: '22'
+          });
+          person.currentVersion.should.have.property('dataReceived').which.is.eql({
+            first_name: 'Johnny',
+            age: '22',
+            label: 'Johnny Doe'
+          });
+        });
+    }));
+
     it('should reject if uuid is not a valid uuid', testDataset(async (service) => {
       const asAlice = await service.login('alice');
 
@@ -2095,6 +2125,27 @@ describe('Entities API', () => {
           logs[0].details.errorMessage.should.equal('Required parameter label missing.');
         });
     }));
+
+    it('should not create entity if the uuid is missing in the submission', testDataset(async (service, container) => {
+      const asAlice = await service.login('alice');
+
+      await asAlice.post('/v1/projects/1/forms/simpleEntity/submissions')
+        .send(testData.instances.simpleEntity.one
+          .replace('id="uuid:12345678-1234-4123-8234-123456789abc"', 'id=""'))
+        .set('Content-Type', 'application/xml')
+        .expect(200);
+
+      await exhaust(container);
+
+      await asAlice.get('/v1/projects/1/forms/simpleEntity/submissions/one/audits')
+        .expect(200)
+        .then(({ body: logs }) => {
+          logs[0].should.be.an.Audit();
+          logs[0].action.should.be.eql('entity.error');
+          logs[0].details.problem.problemCode.should.equal(400.2);
+          logs[0].details.errorMessage.should.equal('Required parameter uuid missing.');
+        });
+    }));
   });
 
   describe('entity updates from submissions', () => {