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Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) has today signed a multi-year partnership with Microsoft to “expand cloud innovation” across the Australian company’s sweeping portfolio, which includes Bunnings, Kmart, Priceline, and more.
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The AI, data, and cloud technology partnership deal includes Microsoft Cloud, Azure OpenAI, M365 Copilot, and Microsoft Copilot Studio.
These programs will be used both for customer-facing initiatives and for how the team works behind the scenes. Wesfarmers hopes customers will “be able to find products more easily” and see more relevant recommendations. The company will also be implementing new AI support chatbots.
Specific AI-backed programs being deployed include Gemini Enterprise (for product searches) and Search with OnePass (for multi-brand online shopping).
“Our partnership with Microsoft is supporting our increased use of AI across the group, and we’re already seeing benefits,” Wesfarmers MD Rob Scott said. “[Those benefits are] particularly at the team member level with Copilot.”
He continued: “This continues our collaboration with Microsoft, including, critically, expanding innovative cloud services in priority areas. This will help support our productivity and improve the customer experience.”
This Feb deal with Microsoft follows Wesfarmer’s partnership with OpenAI, signed in November last year. That CY25 union saw the company deploy the ChatGPT Enterprise chatbot across the entire retail group, with customised training run for any team members to be utilising the new systems.
All this AI integration is now expected to be rolled out through the life cycle of the Microsoft-Wesfarmers partnership. Wesfarmers currently employs some 118,000 people across its many Australian businesses.
WES opened some +1.2% stronger today, at $88.87/sh.
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