Coles signs five-year deal with Microsoft to bring AI to supermarkets
Coles Group and Microsoft have announced a five-year partnership that will see the companies “co-innovate” on a number of AI technologies that will improve store-to-store efficiency and “enhance customer experiences”.
Coles will work with Microsoft to deliver a number of AI use cases, including Tell Coles, a generative AI model that “generates customer sentiment insights based on customer feedback surveys and delivers them to store managers to drive on-going improvement in customer experience”.
Microsoft’s machine learning models will “provide real-time, individual and family-relevant recommendations consistently across all digital channels” to shoppers, a process achieved through what the supermarket calls “hyperpersonalisation that reflects Coles’ value”.
Early plans include prototyping a “digital chef” to “provide personalised meal solutions, recipes and cooking tips to customers based on their preferences and dietary needs”.
Coles will also build Microsoft Power Apps and Copilot agents that provide team members with “real-time, next-best-action insights” to increase customer satisfaction and drive productivity, and is modernising its data and analytics platform to “provide richer and faster insights to business users at a lower cost, through data democratisation and streamlining access to both historical and realtime data”.
Coles will also work with Microsoft to advance Coles’ sustainability goals, improve customer experiences, reduce stock loss, and boost team member productivity and safety.
Additionally, Coles plans to use Copilot Studio to extend out-of-the-box copilots such as Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot for Power BI, Copilot for Security and GitHub Copilot to deliver data-driven use cases at speed.
The new five-year agreement builds on Coles and Microsoft’s longstanding relationship, which included a strategic partnership in 2019 and a workplace transformation in 2021.
More recently, Coles and Microsoft used several AI models to develop the retailer’s IEB, which makes 1.6 billion informed predictions each day “so customers can find exactly what they are looking for” across its 850 stores.
“We are delighted to refresh our longstanding partnership with Microsoft to drive our strategic priorities and create more value for our customers, team members, suppliers and shareholders,” said John Cox, chief technology officer at Coles.
“Microsoft’s proven expertise and innovative solutions will help us build the digital foundations and enablers that will empower us in our purpose of helping Australians to live and eat better every day.
“We strive to provide delicious, easy and affordable food and drink to our customers. I’m excited that our partnership with Microsoft is not only helping us deliver this consistently – from online to instore or through home delivery – but also helping us move beyond the hype around AI so we can use it to delight our customers with enhanced experiences across their customer journey.”
Steven Worrall, managing director, at Microsoft ANZ, added: “We’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Coles, a true leader in Australian retail. Together, we’ll leverage Microsoft’s cloud, AI and edge computing capabilities to drive meaningful transformation, helping Coles stay ahead in an ever-evolving, customer-first landscape.
“This partnership is a great example of how our technology empowers retailers to innovate, grow and deliver exceptional value in a highly competitive market.”
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Linkedin
It’s all about gathering your information and data to sell it or use it without your consent!
They’ve been doing this with Microsoft for 5yrs already but have things really changed in stores?
Its tracking, tracing, spying and controlling.
User ID not verified.
Michael Hunt – Are you Concerned your shopping trends will be spied upon…yawn….
User ID not verified.
Have your say