Microsoft Reveals Brand-New Copilot Checkout and Special Brand Agents to Turn AI Conversations into Retail Conversions for 2026

Microsoft is rolling out two new AI-driven commerce tools—Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents—designed to turn natural conversations into completed purchases, both inside Copilot and on merchant websites. Together they aim to cut friction between discovery and checkout while keeping merchants in full control of customer data, experience, and brand voice.​

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AI shopping is collapsing the funnel

Microsoft’s latest commerce update starts from a simple reality: shoppers are already asking AI assistants what to buy, comparing options, and deciding in a single conversational flow. Instead of bouncing between tabs and carts, customers now expect AI to understand intent, recommend products, and help them act immediately—whether they are in Copilot or browsing a brand’s site.​

• Microsoft’s pitch is that “whoever shows up strongest in the moments that matter” will win the conversion as AI shortens the distance between curiosity and purchase.​

• Copilot can now push high‑intent shoppers directly to checkout, with interactive guidance at the speed of a prompt, rather than traditional multi-step journeys.​

To capture that behavior, Microsoft is introducing two linked capabilities: Copilot Checkout for transactions inside Copilot, and Brand Agents for AI-guided shopping embedded on merchant sites.​

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Copilot Checkout: from prompt to purchase

Copilot Checkout keeps the entire purchase journey inside a conversational Copilot session—no redirects, no extra tabs, and no need to leave the assistant to complete the transaction. A typical scenario might be a shopper asking Copilot for a dress to wear to a dinner party, comparing several options, asking follow‑up questions, and then checking out in the same thread.​

• Copilot Checkout positions itself as a retail companion, present at the “spark of inspiration,” product comparison, value questions, and final purchase decision in one frictionless flow.​

• Crucially for merchants, they remain the merchant of record, retaining ownership of the transaction, customer data, and long‑term relationship rather than handing everything to a generic AI intermediary.​

Microsoft is already seeing encouraging early signals from Copilot‑assisted shopping journeys:​

• Journeys that include Copilot lead to 53% more purchases within 30 minutes than those without Copilot.​

• When shopping intent is present, journeys with Copilot are 194% more likely to result in a purchase than comparable journeys without Copilot.​

Partners are positioning this as foundational infrastructure for a new “agentic commerce” era. PayPal says its work with Microsoft is about enabling “tens of millions of merchants” to become AI‑ready using Copilot’s commerce stack, while keeping the checkout experience enjoyable and intuitive. Stripe calls Copilot Checkout an example of new infrastructure for commerce directly inside AI agents, built on Stripe’s payments rails.

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Easy onboarding with PayPal, Stripe, Shopify

Microsoft is trying to make Copilot Checkout as low‑friction as possible to adopt, especially for merchants already plugged into mainstream payments and commerce platforms. The initial rollout is happening in the U.S. on Copilot.com, with partner activations across PayPal, Shopify, and Stripe.​

• PayPal and Stripe merchants: Microsoft is now accepting applications from merchants who want to onboard via PayPal or Stripe, using an application form to join Copilot Checkout.​

• Shopify merchants: If you are on Shopify, you do not need to apply or build a new integration—Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled into Copilot Checkout after an opt‑out window, and can manage settings from the Shopify admin.​

Shopify describes Copilot Checkout as the merchant’s own checkout, powered by Shopify but fully embedded into the customer’s conversational Copilot experience. Microsoft frames this as part of “Agentic Storefronts”—AI‑driven shopping that balances personalization, trust, accuracy, speed, and convenience.​

On the commerce content side, Microsoft is already lining up recognizable brands: Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Ashley Furniture, and inventory from Etsy sellers are all expected to be available at launch. As Copilot Checkout expands across other Microsoft surfaces like Bing, MSN, and Edge, enrolled merchants will automatically gain exposure without extra integration work.​

Looking ahead, Microsoft is also collaborating with Mastercard and Visa on agentic payments, leveraging offerings like Mastercard Agent Pay and Visa Intelligent Commerce to extend this model deeper into the ecommerce ecosystem.​

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Brand Agents: AI sales associates in your brand’s voice

If Copilot Checkout is about closing the loop inside Copilot, Brand Agents are about upgrading the shopping experience on merchants’ own websites. Microsoft describes Brand Agents as AI‑powered shopping assistants that talk in your brand’s voice and can be deployed in hours instead of weeks.​

• Brand Agents guide customers from curiosity to purchase, turning everyday questions into deeper product discovery and faster decisions.​

• Across early adopters, sessions assisted by Brand Agents are delivering higher engagement and stronger conversion relative to unassisted sessions.​

One early example is premium sleepwear retailer Alexander Del Rossa, which saw more than 3X higher conversion rates in Brand Agent‑assisted sessions compared to unassisted sessions. The company’s CTO calls it their best example of AI integration to date, noting that the agent learned their inventory and could recommend products with minimal ongoing effort from the internal team.​

Brand Agents are designed to act like a strong in‑store associate rather than a rigid chatbot: ​

• Intuitive conversations: Shoppers might start with a vague question like “What’s a good gift for my mom?” and the agent will respond in the brand’s tone, ask follow‑ups, compare options, and narrow recommendations by fit, preferences, and intent.​

• Guidance and assistance: As customers approach purchase, the agent can answer questions about shipping, returns, or product details, surface checkout links at the right time, and suggest relevant add‑ons without feeling pushy.​

• Upsell and cross‑sell: Because Brand Agents understand the catalog and behavior, they can support post‑purchase experiences too, recommending replenishments or related items based on past orders.​

The aim is to boost shopper confidence, improve discovery, and lift conversion while fully preserving brand voice and customer trust.​

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Clarity-powered insights and how merchants can start

Brand Agents ship with analytics built on Microsoft Clarity, Microsoft’s free behavioral analytics tool known for heatmaps and session replays. That gives merchants a direct way to see how AI‑assisted sessions perform and where to optimize.​

• Clarity dashboards expose key metrics like engagement rates, conversion uplift, and average order value.​

• Once Brand Agents are activated, merchants can compare agent‑assisted sessions against organic traffic to refine strategy and drive growth.​

Microsoft is also aligning Copilot Checkout with open standards like the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to keep onboarding scalable across platforms. For merchants who want to get involved:​

• Copilot Checkout:

  • Join Microsoft Merchant Center (MMC) if you are not already a member; while MMC is not required, its product feeds help inform organic Copilot results.​

  • Non‑Shopify merchants can apply to become Copilot Checkout merchants using Microsoft’s online application form.​

  • Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled and can manage Copilot Checkout from their existing Shopify admin, with the option to opt out.​

• Brand Agents:

  • Brand Agents are available first for Shopify merchants.​

  • The onboarding path starts by installing the Microsoft Clarity app for Shopify, then using the “Join Waitlist” button on the Clarity homepage for early access; existing Clarity users can simply join the waitlist directly.​

Microsoft will showcase both Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents live at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference from January 11–13, giving retailers a chance to see “agentic commerce” in action. For teams planning their broader AI search and discovery strategy, Microsoft is also promoting a new playbook titled “From Discovery to Influence: A Guide to AEO and GEO,” which focuses on how brands can win across AI assistants, browsers, and agents.​

For ecommerce and retail leaders, this launch signals that Microsoft intends Copilot not just as a search or productivity assistant, but as a full commerce surface where conversations, recommendations, and checkouts live in one continuous, AI‑driven experience.

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