Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday that it will be releasing agentic AI solutions that would bring smart automation to all areas of the retail sector. These new features help stores work faster, serve customers more relevantly, and stay strong and efficient, giving them a modern base for growth in an industry that is very competitive.
These technologies add a layer of connected information to merchandising, marketing, retail operations, and fulfillment. This turns disjointed workflows into coordinated execution. Microsoft is speeding up the industry’s shift toward a single, intelligence-driven operating system that can keep up with the fast pace of modern retail by giving teams tools that can understand their surroundings and act on them.
Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President of Global Industry at Microsoft, remarked, “The retailers that do well will be the ones that bring their business together with intelligence that reaches every part of the value chain.” “With Microsoft’s agentic AI, stores can speed up what slows them down and boost what makes them unique. This lets them make decisions faster and build stronger relationships with customers while getting their operations ready for whatever comes next.”
Using agentic commerce to turn ideas into action
AI is changing the way people purchase for gifts in a big way. Adobe said that AI-driven online shopping volume for the 2025 Christmas season is up 693% from 2024. This rise shows how important it is for retailers to integrate real brand engagement with easy checkout so they can get value at the exact moment of intent.
With Copilot Checkout, retailers will be able to contact customers who are making purchases right within Copilot without having to send them to other websites. Copilot Checkout turns chats become sales right away. No redirects, no problems, and merchants stay the merchant of record. You can now use Copilot Checkout in the U.S. at Copilot.com. PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe are some of the trusted partners that make this possible. People will be able to buy from top retail brands like Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Ashley Furniture. They will also be able to find unique and handmade things from Etsy merchants, and many more will join shortly.
“At Etsy, our job is to make it easy for people to find the unique things that our sellers make.” Rafe Colburn, Etsy’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, said, “By bringing Etsy’s unique inventory to Copilot Checkout, we’re meeting buyers at the moment intent becomes action.” “With one integration, we make it possible for our vendors to show up on new surfaces without having to do any further effort. It’s an easy method for them to interact with serious buyers and keep shopping human as it changes.
After a chance to opt out, all Shopify businesses will be automatically signed up for Copilot Checkout. “Copilot Checkout can turn a customer’s intent into a transaction in seconds, all while the consumer is still talking. “It’s the merchant’s checkout powered by Shopify, and it fits right into the customer’s experience,” said Mani Fazeli, VP of Product at Shopify. “Personalization and relevance, trust and accuracy, speed and convenience—this is the modern power of Agentic Storefronts.”
If you wish to use PayPal or Stripe to sign up as a merchant, you can do so here.
Intelligent shopping agents can help you get more committed customers and sales.
Microsoft is launching two new products that make agentic commerce a reality in all of the digital experiences that retailers own. These are Brand Agents, which are now accessible for merchants on the Shopify platform, and the personalized shopping agent template in Copilot Studio. Both let customers shop in a way that is tailored to them and lets them talk to the store, which helps stores advise clients, get them more involved, and make more sales.
Brand Agents is a complete solution for brands to make sure that their real voice comes through in every digital contact on their website. It can answer extensive questions about a business’s products, engage shoppers in natural discussions that fit the brand, and is ready for Shopify customers to use with little setup.
The personalized shopping agent template gives merchants a completely flexible framework for making experiences even more unique. It contains advanced features like outfit creation and more, as well as real-time, context-aware product discovery and recommendations across web, mobile, and in-store interactions. This gives businesses the freedom to create unique and interesting shopping experiences.
Jenny Jidborn, IT Manager at Kappahl Group, said, “Microsoft’s personalized shopping agent template gives us a flexible foundation to explore AI-powered guidance in a way that fits our brands, improves the customer experience, and helps customers get inspired.” “It helps us reach our goal of increasing conversions while also lowering returns by providing better decision support at the product level. This will ultimately make customers feel more confident and happy with their choices.”
Catalog enrichment makes it possible for smarter discovery and suggestions.
Microsoft is also releasing the catalog enrichment agent template in Copilot Studio for public preview. This is an intelligent assistant that pulls product information from pictures, adds social insights to it, and automates catalog tasks like onboarding new products, putting them in the right category, and fixing mistakes. This customizable template turns product data into structured, enhanced data that powers discovery, recommendations, and hyper-personalized shopping experiences across channels. It serves as a basis for agentic commerce and a new tool for merchants.
David Torrecilla, Head of Innovation at Guess, said, “With Microsoft’s catalog enrichment agent template as the foundation of our personalized shopping experiences, we can turn product details into useful insights that help shoppers find styles in real time, get personalized recommendations, and explore complete looks.” “It’s a big step forward in our promise to provide service that is as dynamic as our brand.”
Giving retail employees more control and making store operations more efficient so that customers get better service and experiences.
Retailers are still having trouble with excessive turnover and not enough trained workers on the front lines. A lot of staff don’t have access to digital technologies that could help them better and more quickly service consumers. Microsoft’s new agentic AI solution is meant to change that by giving employees easy-to-use, on-demand help.
The store operations agent template in Copilot Studio, which is now in public preview, gives store managers and employees a natural language interface for quick answers on store policies and inventory availability. It also manages workflows on its own, flags exceptions, and suggests the next best actions. It looks at both internal signals like sales trends and foot traffic and external elements like the weather, local events, and holidays to provide you recommendations for staffing, KPIs, and operational objectives. The smart agent helps executives make decisions that are better and faster.
John Khoury, Group CTO at Strandbags, said, “With the store operations agent template, we’re moving forward with our AI strategy by letting teams act on real-time store data.” “The ability to customize the agent to meet our specific needs lets our teams focus on providing great service while we stay ahead in a fast-paced retail world.”
Microsoft’s new agentic AI solutions are a big step forward for retailers in the world of agentic AI. They give retailers the tools they need to prepare for change, work more efficiently, and provide experiences that are true to their brand values. Smart agents automate important retail tasks including managing inventory, onboarding new products, and getting real-time insights into merchandising. This lets teams focus on strategy and innovation while still getting demonstrable commercial results. Microsoft is helping retailers develop better companies and long-lasting consumer relationships for the future by combining deep enterprise integration with responsible innovation.
To get started, check out the retail agent solutions in the Microsoft Marketplace. You can also find out more about Microsoft for Retail here. Visit Microsoft and its clients and partners at NRF 2026, booth #4503, to see these solutions in action.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) makes platforms and tools that use AI to come up with new ways to address the changing demands of our customers. The tech startup wants to make AI widely available and do so in a responsible way. Its goal is to help every person and every organization on the planet do more.
