Marks & Spencer is enabling thousands of frontline staff to use generative and Agentic AI tools to support everyday tasks.
The retailer has purchased 11,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, including one for every store manager and all store support centre staff, and will roll out an associated AI training programme.
The initiative is expected to enable managers to focus more on their core responsibilities, such as serving customers, improving availability, and supporting teams, by reducing time spent on tasks like compiling data, summarising meeting notes, and creating rotas.
The scheme builds on Marks & Spencer’s existing partnership with Microsoft and the adoption of AI throughout the business. As part of the latest drive, Copilot will also be used at M&S’s store support centre to rapidly draft trading summaries quickly, and to turn “complex reporting into recommendations and actions that will help M&S colleagues get closer to customers”.
M&S chief executive 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. 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.”
M&S Clapham Common store manager Nicole Ritchie, who has been using 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 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.”
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