Microsoft Corp. on Thursday unveiled a new suite of agentic AI solutions aimed at embedding intelligent automation across every layer of the retail value chain—from merchandising and marketing to store operations and fulfillment. The move underscores Microsoft’s growing ambition to become the operating backbone for modern retail as the industry faces rising competition, thinner margins and rapidly evolving consumer expectations.
The new capabilities are designed to help retailers move faster, serve shoppers with greater relevance and operate with resilience and efficiency. At their core, the solutions create a connected layer of intelligence that turns traditionally fragmented retail workflows into coordinated, insight-driven execution.
By equipping teams with context-aware AI agents that can anticipate needs and act autonomously, Microsoft is accelerating retail’s shift toward a unified, intelligence-led operating model built for real-time decision-making.
“The retailers that thrive will be the ones that unify their business with intelligence that reaches every corner of the value chain,” said Kathleen Mitford, corporate vice president of global industry at Microsoft. “With Microsoft’s agentic AI, retailers can automate what slows them down and amplify what sets them apart.”
Turning Inspiration Into Action With Agentic Commerce
The announcement comes as AI reshapes how consumers discover and purchase products. Adobe recently reported that AI-driven ecommerce traffic during the 2025 holiday season surged 693% year over year, highlighting the growing importance of meeting shoppers precisely at the moment of intent.
Microsoft is positioning Copilot Checkout as a direct response to that shift. The new capability allows shoppers to complete purchases discovered within Copilot without being redirected to an external website. Conversations become transactions—instantly—while merchants remain the merchant of record.
Copilot Checkout is now live in the U.S. on Copilot.com, with support from partners including PayPal, Shopify and Stripe. Early participating brands include Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Ashley Furniture and Etsy sellers.
“At Etsy, our job is to make it simple for people to discover the special things our sellers create,” said Rafe Colburn, Etsy’s chief product and technology officer. “By bringing Etsy’s unique inventory to Copilot Checkout, we’re meeting buyers at the moment intent becomes action.”
Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled following an opt-out window. According to Mani Fazeli, Shopify’s vice president of product, the experience reflects the rise of agentic storefronts, where speed, trust and personalization converge in a single conversational flow.
Intelligent Shopping Agents For Loyalty And Conversion
Beyond checkout, Microsoft is expanding agentic commerce into the digital experiences retailers already own. Two new offerings aim to deepen engagement and boost conversion:
- Brand Agents, now available for Shopify merchants, enable brands to deploy conversational AI trained on their product catalogs and brand voice with minimal setup.
- A personalized shopping agent template in Copilot Studio provides a customizable framework for retailers seeking deeper differentiation, supporting features such as real-time recommendations, context-aware discovery and even outfit building across web, mobile and in-store environments.
Retailers see these tools as a way to improve both conversion and customer confidence.
“Microsoft’s personalized shopping agent template gives us a flexible foundation to explore AI-powered guidance in a way that fits our brands,” said Jenny Jidborn, IT manager at Kappahl Group. “It supports our ambition to improve conversion while also reducing returns.”
Smarter Discovery Through AI-Powered Catalog Enrichment
Microsoft also introduced a catalog enrichment agent template, now in public preview, that automates one of retail’s most persistent pain points: product data management.
The agent extracts attributes from images, enriches them with social and contextual insights, and automates tasks such as onboarding, categorization and error resolution. The result is structured, enriched product data that powers discovery, recommendations and hyper-personalized experiences across channels.
“For us, it turns product details into meaningful insights,” said David Torrecilla, head of innovation at Guess. “That helps shoppers discover styles in real time and explore complete looks.”
Empowering Store Associates With Real-Time Intelligence
While much of retail AI innovation has focused on digital commerce, Microsoft is also targeting the store floor. High turnover and limited access to digital tools continue to challenge frontline teams.
The store operations agent template in Copilot Studio, now in public preview, gives store leaders and associates a natural language interface to query inventory, policies and operational data. The agent can also orchestrate workflows, flag exceptions and recommend next best actions by analyzing sales trends, foot traffic, weather and local events.
“With the store operations agent template, we’re enabling teams to act on live store insights,” said John Khoury, group CTO at Strandbags. “It ensures our teams can focus on delivering exceptional service.”
Taken together, Microsoft’s agentic AI solutions signal a broader shift in enterprise AI—from passive analytics to active, goal-driven agents that execute work. For retailers, that means automating critical workflows while freeing human teams to focus on strategy, creativity and customer relationships.
