Microsoft launches Copilot Checkout and Brand Agents

Microsoft is beginning to roll out its first agentic experiences within Copilot, it’s AI answer engine. Copilot Checkout allows shoppers to make purchases directly within Copilot without redirecting to external sites. This is done directly in the Copilot chat experience including across all Copilot surfaces such as Bing, MSN, and Edge.

Plus, a new feature called Brand Agents is rolling out for Shopify sites, allowing merchants to have an AI chat experience trained on their own product catalog. Microsoft said the AI responses will have your brand’s voice and be “built for fast, scalable adoption.”

Copilot Checkout. Copilot Checkout is beginning to roll out in the U.S. on Copilot.com. Copilot Checkout enables conversational purchasing directly in Copilot, within your current chat dialog. It works with partners including PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and Etsy.

Shopify merchants will be automatically enrolled in Copilot Checkout with an option to opt-out, and non-Shopify merchants can apply to onboard over here.

Here is what it looks like:

Brand Agents. Brand Agents is now available for Shopify merchants. It brings over your brand’s voice in every digital interaction on their website, Microsoft told me. It is trained on a brand’s product catalog, and it can answer detailed product questions. The AI experience will also engage shoppers in natural, brand-aligned conversations.

“Brand Agents are AI-powered shopping assistants that speak in your brand’s voice and guide customers naturally from curiosity to purchase,” the company said. It can be added to your site in hours. “The result is a more intuitive shopping experience and measurable performance gains. Across merchants, sessions assisted by Brand Agents deliver higher engagement and stronger conversion than sessions without them,” the company added.

Here is a video of it in action:

Brand Agents insights. With Brand Agents, Microsoft is also leveraging Microsoft Clarity to give merchants insights and analytics into those Brand Agents conversations.

“Once you’ve activated Brand Agents, you’ll have access to additional insights to understand performance of agent-assisted sessions compared to organic traffic and use these insights to optimize strategy and drive growth,” the company said.

Here is a screenshot:

Google and OpenAI. Google has been rolling out what it calls agentic experiences including checking out and buying in AI experiences called agentic checkout. And OpenAI within ChatGPT also announced Instant Checkout in ChatGPT last year.

So it looks like the industry is moving closer to letting users by direclty in these AI experiences.