Levi Strauss wowed by workflow boosts from Microsoft AI agents

Levi Strauss & Co is rolling out artificial intelligence agents built with Microsoft Copilot across its global operations to modernize how employees access data and make decisions.

The iconic American jeans maker, in a company post for Microsoft, said it is using these tools to connect information from more than 400 technology systems, aiming to streamline work in areas such as user experience design, finance, human resources and inventory management.

Lead UX product designer Derek Shirk created an internal agent called Minerva using Copilot Studio, training it on customer satisfaction reports and instructing it to “ground every answer in Levi's data” and “never guess, always cite the source with a reliable link,” the company said.

Shirk said the tool turned a scattered archive of PDFs and slide decks into “an instant efficiency booster and a way to gain knowledge faster,” describing it as “a real wow moment.”

In finance, vice president for the US and Canada Lisa Stirling used an agent to review 1,100 standard operating procedures, a task she said would previously have taken multiple people nearly a year, but was completed in one day, cataloging 18,000 tasks and flagging automation opportunities.

“The agent had just sized an opportunity I'd assumed was impossible to quantify,” Stirling said, adding that she is now planning an internal finance summit to show teams live how AI can streamline work.

Other agents now monitor inventory and trigger reorders, adjust pricing based on regional demand and detect quality issues in supplier shipments, while Levi’s is developing a “super agent” interface to route employee queries to the right tools, according to Michael Womack, the company’s head of global infrastructure and end user services.

Chief digital and technology officer Jason Gowans added, “From designing a product to the moment it shows up on shelves, AI and agents will touch every step of our digital transformation,” adding that the technology “unlocks a pace of innovation that wasn’t previously possible.”

The recap

• Levi deployed Microsoft Copilot-based AI agents across global operations.
• Finance agent analyzed 1,100 procedures, cataloging 18,000 tasks in one day.
• Company is building a “super agent” interface to unify employee AI access.