Alice Chambers |
Microsoft will demonstrate its data solutions, Copilots and customisable retail agents at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show, which takes place on 12-14 January in New York.
“In short, our mission is to help our customers become Retail Ready,” said Shelley Bransten, corporate vice president of global retail consumer goods and gaming industries at Microsoft, in a blog post titled ‘Retail Ready: Agentic AI built for the future of retail – ready now’.
This involves retailers investing in smart technology investments to prepare for the future. Microsoft will showcase its solutions within Microsoft Cloud for Retail, including the Personalized Shopping Agent, which is a context-aware conversational assistant to help customers find what they need; the Store Operations Agent, which uses AI to help store employees to do work more efficiently in store; and the retail data solutions in Microsoft Fabric that provide retailers with real-time data and suggest actionable insights.
“By engaging with customers early in their shopping journey, conversational commerce agents and other AI personalisation tools are boosting customer satisfaction and driving top-line growth,” said Bransten.
Bransten will host a session on 12 January with representatives from Walmart and Canadian Tire Corporation to explore how generative AI is overcoming frontline worker challenges.
Read more: Microsoft’s Shanthi Rajagopalan explains how Canadian Tire Corporation has introduced humanoid robots into its stores to alleviate tedious tasks like picking and packing items.
Microsoft will also focus on the power of AI to help retailers provide more tailored shopping experiences for their customers. For example, Kathleen Mitford, corporate vice president of global industry marketing at Microsoft, will host a session on 13 January with representatives from Bath and Body Works, Venchi and Sitecore to explore how technology is transforming the shopper journey.