109 RETAIL & CONSUMER GOODS validation where production data is monitored to prevent issues like over or understocking. “Retailers and consumer goods organisations don’t have to choose between speed and trust; with IQ-based guardrails, they can move fast where it’s safe, be human-led where it matters and be fully accountable everywhere else,” says Miller. “Once intelligence is embedded across all departments, retailers will be tempted to measure success by familiar metrics, such as speed or return-on-investment, but agent-based operating models really change the nature of what success looks like. The real question now becomes less about a single, measurable key performance indicator, but more about how quickly the organisation can learn and adapt.” Additionally, retailers are under pressure to grow their business while reducing their carbon footprints and de-risking supply chains. “These priorities are increasingly intertwined,” says Miller. “Growth, decarbonisation and resilience are no longer trade-offs to manage but forces that reinforce one another when every decision is informed by data. Microsoft’s partner ecosystem is a force multiplier; when combined with Microsoft’s IQ platform, our partner model becomes a powerful, competitive engine, expanding capability and accelerating time to value, while also giving retailers access to innovation they could never build alone.” Through a partnership with Microsoft, Danone launched a global upskilling programme and deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot and autonomous agents to automate human resources and order-to-cash processes in order to boost competitiveness and growth. Empowering employees with digital skills and integrating AI across global operations enabled the French multinational food and beverage company to reduce manual errors, speed up order handling, cut billing disputes, improve cash flow and foster innovation. Microsoft partners, including 09, Auger, Blue Yonder, Fractal, IBM/Neudesic, Lyric, Nvidia, Sight Machine and Symphony AI, use flexible architecture to extend the Microsoft stack to provide retail and consumer goods–specific functions, such as demand planning and store automation, that accommodate industry “ We are entering the first era where the enterprise itself can learn, and that changes everything” Estee Lauder’s AI agent, ConsumerIQ, enables the company to respond faster to trends and launch products quickly to meet customer demand Photo: Microsoft/Estee Lauder
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