M&S rolling out 11,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses in AI transformation drive
Retailer Marks & Spencer is to offer all Store Managers and Store Support Centre colleagues Microsoft generative AI and agentic AI tools to help them to run their stores and teams more efficiently, and so offer an even better quality of service to customers.
Every M&S store manager and support centre colleague will have Microsoft 365 Copilot generative AI and Agentic AI tools to transform the way they work.
The retailer is deepening its strategic partnership with Microsoft, offering 11,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses to Store Managers, giving them instant access to store-specific data and analysis.
Sales insights, product availability, shift handover notes and rota changes will be at their fingertips, resulting in a better quality of service for customers.
In the Store Support Centre, Microsoft 365 Copilot will take on tasks such as drafting meeting updates and generating trading summaries, as well as offering recommendations and actions derived from more complex trading reports.
‘Analytics and insights’
M&S CEO Stuart Machin said: “We’re already embedding AI across M&S – supporting stock forecasting and ordering, generating marketing materials, and powering a colleague help hub with AI agents.
“Now 11,000 colleagues will have AI support at their fingertips, pulling together summaries from multiple sources and giving them the data, analytics and insights they need in seconds.”
M&S will also embark on a training and development programme to support adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Nicole Ritchie, Clapham Common Store Manager, who has been using Microsoft Copilot said: “I already love using AI in my daily tasks. Every morning I ask Copilot to pull together my morning huddle and shift handover notes.
“I can’t wait to see how Microsoft 365 Copilot will take this to the next level, using data and information from different sources to focus on clear actions and talking points, all ready for me to share with my team.
“This will free up more time to spend with my team serving our customers.”
Machin added: “As we reshape M&S for growth, scaling the use of AI is central to our technology transformation and today’s announcement is just one of the steps forward on that journey.”
Welcoming M&S’s Microsoft 365 Copilot roll-out, Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK & Ireland, said: “It’s great to see M&S driving AI-powered transformation of the retail sector. By putting Copilot into the hands of the people closest to its customers, M&S is turning store data into clear actions and insights, enabling teams to spend more time delivering exceptional service to customers on the shop floor.”