M&S buys 11,000 Copilot licences for store managers and support centre staff

Marks and Spencer (M&S) is rolling out AI and agentic AI tools to every store manager and support centre employee in a bid to speed up data access and analysis.

The retailer is purchasing 11,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences and launching a training and development programme to help staff adapt and make full use of the technology.

M&S said the move builds on its deeper partnership with Microsoft, through which it is deploying AI at scale across the business.

The tools will enable store managers to turn operational data into clear highlights and trends, with an AI assistant taking on tasks such as producing meeting notes, offering sales insights and alerting managers to rotas and shift handovers.

M&S claims the assistant will free up colleagues to spend more time serving customers and supporting their teams.

In the retailer’s support centre, Microsoft 365 Copilot will be used to draft meeting updates and trading summaries, as well as turn reporting into recommendations and actions that it said will help employees get closer to customers.

“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,” said M&S chief executive Stuart Machin. “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.

“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.”