Wesfarmers and Microsoft today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to collaborate and co-innovate on a range of digital initiatives to further accelerate and embed AI, support agentic development, and expand cloud innovation across Wesfarmers’ diverse portfolio of businesses that serve millions of customers each year in Australia and New Zealand.
Through the partnership, Wesfarmers will expand its adoption of Microsoft’s AI, data, and cloud technologies including the Microsoft Cloud, Azure OpenAI, M365 Copilot, and Microsoft Copilot Studio. This will enable AI to be made available to a number of divisions including Bunnings, Kmart Group, Blackwoods, and Priceline to deliver outcomes to support team member productivity, customer
experience, and long-term value creation.
Areas to be explored include:
- Leading the shift to agentic commerce, by exploring Copilot digital storefronts.
- Supply chain optimisation, including demand forecasting, inventory management, and product availability. By combining high-quality enterprise data with AI-powered agents embedded within Microsoft’s ecosystem, Wesfarmers aims to improve product availability for customers while reducing operational complexity and cost.
- Accelerating AI-enabled productivity across core business functions such as engineering, finance and marketing. This includes deploying AI agents to automate and augment core workflows, providing teams with secure access and guardrails while reducing time spent on manual and repetitive tasks.
- Improving access to organisational information and insights, helping teams more quickly find answers, analyse data, and make informed decisions. Out-of-the-box agents can support activities such as data analysis, reporting and research, freeing teams to focus on higher-value work.
“Our partnership with Microsoft is supporting our increased use of AI across the Group and we are already seeing the benefits, particularly at a team member level with the use of Copilot,” said Wesfarmers Managing Director Rob Scott. “This agreement continues our collaboration with Microsoft including, critically, expanding innovative cloud services in priority areas. This will help support our team member productivity and improve the customer experience.”
The announcement builds on the long-standing relationship between the two companies, which has already seen the delivery of Copilot licences and training across multiple teams and the rollout of an AI-powered team member assistant capability for Bunnings’ store teams. The AI-powered service provides fast access to organisational knowledge, product information, and operational updates, enabling team members to spend less time searching and more time in quality conversations with customers, with better information at their fingertips.
As part of the agreement, Wesfarmers aims to more than double its Microsoft 365 Copilot footprint. With tangible time savings already delivered in 2025 through Copilot use, the continued rollout is expected to further improve team member productivity and day-to-day experiences across the Group.
Microsoft will support Wesfarmers through embedded engineering expertise, established enterprise deployment frameworks, and governance models designed to support the transition of AI initiatives from pilot to production.
The partnership also includes a strong focus on skills and capability development through training programs on Microsoft AI, ensuring teams are equipped to adopt AI tools effectively, responsibly and maximise the value of emerging technologies.
“This expanded partnership with Wesfarmers opens a new chapter for retail innovation for Australia and New Zealand. By harnessing the power of Microsoft’s AI, data, and cloud technologies, we are proud to support Wesfarmers’ mission to unleash productivity, improve customer experience, and enrich customer loyalty across the enterprise. Together, we aim to will deliver scalable, responsible and secure AI solutions that improves employee and customer experience and sets a new benchmark for transformation across the retail sector,” said Jo Dooley, Vice President of Enterprise, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand.
Together, Wesfarmers and Microsoft aim to redefine what it means to be an AI-powered enterprise – driving outcomes in efficiency, customer experience, and long-term value creation.