Microsoft Cloud for Retail <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Connect your customers, your people, and your data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nMicrosoft agents\u2014whether built on Microsoft Copilot Studio<\/a> or Azure AI Foundry<\/a>\u2014provide a conversational AI interface for accessing and managing both data and workflows in retail, enhancing employee productivity and customer experience. Retailers and partners can customize these agents to integrate with business applications, data sources, and workflows, re-imagining interactions between store associates and consumers. By running processes autonomously, they offer significant benefits: better consumer experiences, quicker ramp-up, higher productivity, and empowered frontline workers. These agents provide a comprehensive view of the business, helping retailers make informed decisions, increase customer conversion rates, and improve operational efficiency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At NRF this year<\/a>, Microsoft and its partners are showcasing agents and solutions designed to help retailers unlock the full potential of their data. These include the latest advancements in AI and generative AI, enabling retailers to transform their operations and drive growth. Microsoft Cloud for Retail<\/a> helps retailers deliver personalized customer experiences, optimize operations, and empower their workforce, demonstrating how Microsoft retail products are truly better together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Available agents and solutions include: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft retail products are designed to work seamlessly together, creating a unified ecosystem that enhances every aspect of retail operations.\u202fRead Shelley Bransten\u2019s blog<\/a> to see how customers are experiencing the benefits of these solutions and staying ahead in the competitive retail landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Personalized Shopping Agent<\/a> enables retailers to offer consumers an enhanced shopping experience. Using conversational design and seamless integration with retail ecosystems powered by generative AI, it provides a truly personalized and efficient shopping experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When used online, in a retailer\u2019s website, or consumer app, the agent allows consumers to shop through an AI-powered, chat-based product discovery experience. The conversational interface allows consumers to describe their product search in term of requirements instead of product specifications\u2014for example, ‘I am a family of five and typically run the washing machine twice a week<\/em>‘. Through clarifying questions generated by generative AI, the agent will classify the consumer\u2019s intent such as brand inquiry, gifting, advanced product search, or product recommendations, and specify the item search more precisely. This experience can be customized to reflect the merchant\u2019s tone of voice, responsible AI practices, or other company specific guidance. Finally, the agent uses AI semantic search to match items with the consumer\u2019s requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Personalized Shopping Agent can provide great assistance to in-store employees as well. Combining the agent with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce<\/a>, in-store employees can provide differentiated levels of personalized experience to customers, driving customer satisfaction and brand affinity. The Personalized Shopping Agent engages seamlessly to search for appropriate product options without breaking the employee\u2019s flow of conversation with the customer, providing several relevant prompts to narrow down product suggestions, and offers up selling opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft partner Avanade has built voice recognition control over the Personalized Shopping Agent, providing store associates with a seamless interactive experience where they can seek product recommendations, suggestions, and discover products using voice-based natural language conversation while assisting customers. By using the power of AI, retailers can reimagine the consumer journey and how they discover products and content online. The agent scales the in-store experience too, by transforming the consumers search and providing recommendations combined with brand storytelling, ultimately leading to higher brand loyalty and increased sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Store Operations Agent<\/a> is designed to enhance the productivity of retail frontline workers and in-store customer experience. A single, conversational interface helps the store associate to execute a variety of tasks and provide service to customers without having to flip between dozens of apps. In the conversational interface, the store associate is able to quickly find store procedures and protocols in documents, create and update incidents, create tasks, and make product, order, and inventory inquiries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One standout capability of the Store Operations Agent is its ability to integrate with retail data sources and business applications, including Dynamics 365, to access order and inventory information and ServiceNow service requests. Microsoft Copilot Studio<\/a> provides more than 1,000 connectors as part of the platform. The agent also empowers the store associate to get answers to their questions from the retailer\u2019s knowledge base, search across select internet portals, and connect to other plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Store Operations Agent is a headless service and can integrate with existing in-store apps. One of the channels that Microsoft Copilot Studio provides is Microsoft Teams. This provides a natural language user interface that allows store associates to access information and perform tasks without toggling between multiple applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microsoft partners Accenture Avanade have developed the Clienteling Copilot Accelerator, which uses the Store Operations Agent to enhance the efficiency of retail frontline workers. This AI-augmented solution helps high-end retailers and brands allow seamless data visibility across the value chain and simplify workflows for in-store teams. By integrating with the Store Operations Agent, the Clienteling Copilot Accelerator provides store associates and client advisors with real-time access to product information, order details, and customer interactions, and seamlessly manage store tasks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re excited about our\u202fPersonalized Shopping and Clienteling Copilot Accelerators because they help retailers use context to help meet customers where they are. These solutions foster more relevant interactions through personalized shopping experiences and empowered\u202fstore\u202fassociates. By converting vast amounts of data to create\u202fseamless customer experiences, we see improved conversion rates, larger basket sizes, and higher transaction values. Our partnership with Microsoft and their AI retail technologies enables us to deliver this value to retailers quickly and effectively.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n Ruth Harrison, Global Retail and Consumer Goods Managing Director, Avanade<\/em> <\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n
Enhancing in-store and online consumer experiences with Personalized Shopping Agent <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Empowering frontline workers with Store Operations Agent <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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