Microsoft has introduced a managed MCP server in Dynamics 365 Commerce to ensure AI agents interact securely with retail systems.
Without a secure layer between AI agents and retail systems, AI can become a significant operational and security risk and organizations lose more control over its actions.
CX leaders must therefore ensure that their AI agents are able to complex customer-facing tasks whilst maintaining the basic governance and security required for reliable experiences.
Gaining an early preview of the MCP server, Shaun Morley, Group Retail and Omnichannel Systems Manager at Michael Hill, highlighted that retailers can accelerate AI adoption by building on their existing commerce infrastructure.
“Our early experience with testing Dynamics 365 Commerce MCP server has been promising," he noted.
"Having access to this type of tooling creates a practical way to introduce AI-driven innovation at the pace retail demands, simply by layering intelligence over existing commerce platforms.”
Retail's Growing Security Blind Spot
Today's AI assistants can already recommend products or summarize policies, however rising expectations means that organizations are instilling more involvement in the customer journey, meaning more direct access to core commerce systems.
Without secure access, retailers are required to build custom integrations for every AI application, resulting in complexity and increased operational risk.
When an agent is not operating within strict authorization in retail, it could perform unauthorized transactions or be manipulated through malicious prompts that can quickly become customer trust issues when payment information and sensitive data is involved.
Furthermore, retailers may adopt multiple AI assistants all without a common framework, creating fragmented governance and making it difficult to monitor AI activity.
Without standardized, secure interfaces, retailers risk accumulating dozens of custom connections and isolated governance practices, increasing enterprise maintenance costs and expanding the attack surface.
Closing the Gap Between AI and Retail Systems
Announcing the public preview at NRF 2026, Microsoft revealed Dynamics 365 Commerce MCP Server, a new capability that enables AI agents to securely interact with Dynamics 365 Commerce through a standardized interface.
The next generation of agentic commerce now means that AI agents can execute more complex tasks with live commerce data, with MCPs now emerging as an industry standard that defines how AI agents communicate with enterprise applications.
The server exposes approved commerce capabilities as standardized tools that any MCP-compatible AI agent can use, meaning organizations can connect compatible platforms to Dynamics 365 Commerce without building custom integrations for each one.
The MCP Server aims to solve the challenges within retail by acting as a secure, managed gateway between AI agents and retail systems, where authorization and governance remain under enterprise control and AI agents only receive permitted capabilities.
