M&S Powers New Digital Era, Handing AI Tools To 11,000 Staff

M&S is embarking on a major digital transformation by rolling out AI tools to 11,000 store leaders and office-based workers in a bid to reshape how teams run stores, analyse data, and serve customers day to day.

Image: M&S

The retailer has purchased 11,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences for every store manager and all Store Support Centre colleagues.

The aim is to free up staff from time-consuming tasks in order to focus on serving customers, improving availability, and supporting their teams.

As it reshapes for growth, M&S said in a press release that the business is prioritising modernising retail through technology and digital transformation.

Under the new AI roll out, M&S store managers will gain instant access to store-level data and insights. 

Copilot will pull together sales trends, product availability, rota changes, and shift handover notes in seconds, turning previously manual tasks into quick, guided workflows. 

In the M&S support centre, Copilot will help draft meeting updates and trading summaries, and convert complex trading reports into clear recommendations and next actions. 

“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,” explained M&S CEO 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.”

Machin said the AI roll out marks just one of the steps forward on the future journey for M&S.

“As we reshape M&S for growth, scaling the use of AI is central to our technology transformation,” he noted.

Feedback from staff using Microsoft Copilot has been highly positive.

"I already love using AI in my daily tasks,” enthused Nicole Ritchie, Clapham Common Store Manager. 

“Every morning I ask Copilot to pull together my morning huddle and shift handover notes,” Ritchie explained. 

“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.” 

Darren Hardman, CEO, Microsoft UK & Ireland, praised the decision by M&S to drive 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,” Hardman commented. 

All M&S staff users will receive training in using the generative and agentic AI tools to handle routine administration and data tasks.

The AI roll out aims to speed up access to data and analysis, support better decision‑making, and allow colleagues to spend more time on customer‑facing activity and supporting teams on the shop floor. 

The move deepens M&S’s partnership with Microsoft and builds on existing uses of AI in stock forecasting, ordering, marketing content creation, and an AI-powered colleague help hub.