Have you ever wanted to save approximately three seconds and two mouse clicks when shopping online? Microsoft has something special just for you. The company just introduced something called Copilot Checkout at the NRF 2026 retail conference. This is exactly what it sounds like. It's a shopping assistant embedded within Copilot.
The feature is rolling out now in the US and integrates with PayPal, Shopify, Stripe and Etsy. It lets people complete purchases directly inside of Copilot without having to withstand the grueling experience of being redirected to a retailer's website. Participating partners include Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Ashley Furniture.
The retailers remain the actual merchant of record, so they'll still get customer data and all of that jazz. Microsoft controls the interface.
We don't know what kind of safeguards are in place to prevent the AI from hallucinating its way into buying you a giant bounce house when you wanted to order some Bounce dryer sheets. Engadget has reached out to Microsoft to inquire about these safeguards and how exactly the money is handled.
This is a pretty big moment for AI shopping. OpenAI introduced a shopping assistant several months ago that seems to work in a similar way. However, the company said that a related shopping assistant "might make mistakes about product details like price and availability" and it encouraged people to visit the merchant site for the most accurate details.
Microsoft is advertising Copilot Checkout as a way to avoid the merchant site entirely, so maybe all kinks have been worked out. A recent report from The Information suggests OpenAI has had trouble integrating merchant partners for its own initiative, so maybe not.
It's also worth noting that automatic shopping isn't exactly a new concept. It's just the AI wrapper that's new. Remember those weird buttons from Amazon that would complete a purchase with a simple press? That was over ten years ago.
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