Published: Sep 22, 2025

Frontline Knowledge, Reimagined: Enabling Expert Service at Scale

Overview

An iconic Australian retailer sets the industry standard for reliable advice and service. With hundreds of stores, tens of thousands of products, and a high volume of annual helpdesk calls - many requiring further work and escalation - the business faced a challenge common to many organisations: enabling immediate, expert answers at the frontline.   As an early adopter of AI technologies, they recognised the opportunity to improve customer and employee experience through a balance of innovation, security and enablement.
 

Frontline staff fielded a constant stream of complex, often safety-critical questions - from general information and guidance through to navigating regulatory landscapes - all while working on busy  shop floors. Legacy systems compounded the issue, forcing staff to search through manuals or escalate queries, delaying service, impeding sales, and undermining hard-won customer trust. Previous AI solutions proved inadequate for delivering the real-time, region-specific expertise staff required to serve customers well.
 

NCS designed an advanced, AI-powered frontline knowledge platform—deeply embedded within Microsoft’s ecosystem and purpose-built for operational realism. At its core lies Microsoft Copilot Studio—one of the most innovative and rapidly evolving tools in the Microsoft suite—empowering the creation of scalable, intelligent agents that go far beyond traditional knowledge base capabilities. 

Working closely with Microsoft, we maximised the potential of Copilot Studio—leveraging its low-code agility while extending its capabilities with pro-code enhancements. This included integrating the latest OpenAI models on Azure and Azure AI Search as part of a powerful retrieval stack, ensuring the solution overcame the limitations of native functions. Combining deep Power Platform expertise with advanced AI engineering, we delivered a robust, enterprise-grade solution built for demanding frontline environments. 

Every query from frontline staff is interpreted in real time and matched to an extensive library of internal documentation and guides, returning regionally tailored, expert-verified answers. For staff, the process is effortless: simply speak into a handheld device to receive an instant, trusted response—enabling exceptional service, delivered in the moment, without leaving the customer’s side. The AI agent is built for scale, with future phases set to add capabilities such as automated ticket creation and seamless integration with enterprise resource systems.

“Delivering the right answer, first time, every time. Even for ambiguous or complex queries—without leaving the customer. It’s a game-changer for service and trust.”

Retail worker

To ensure the solution continues to perform at its peak, rigorous AI scenario testing and continuous validation are conducted through Azure Prompt Flow. Feedback loops from frontline usage feed directly into the system, keeping it agile, accurate, and relevant. Security and compliance are foundational—all data remains within secure, role-controlled Azure environments, enabling confident adoption while meeting the highest enterprise standards.
 

The new frontline knowledge platform is already transforming store operations. With the right answers now instantly accessible, frontline teams are accelerating service and handling more queries on their own - reducing call volumes to central helpdesks and freeing up specialist resources for higher-value work. The teams are making decisions confidently, which is translating into a measurable boost in productivity and a marked uptick in the quality and consistency of customer service. 

Early indicators show significant productivity gains and tangible commercial uplift, delivering both cost savings and increasing the ability to capture new value on the shop floor. Employee engagement and retention are both tracking upward as friction is removed from daily problem-solving and stress is reduced for frontline staff. 

The solution’s accuracy and robustness - endorsed by Microsoft’s global specialists - have earned strong internal advocacy, catalysing rapid organisational buy-in and enabling swift, scaled rollout. By transforming previously manual, time-consuming tasks into seamless, AI-assisted workflows, the business now sets a higher benchmark for trusted, expert-led advice.
 

This frontline knowledge solution marks a step change - not only for the retailer but for the wider sector. The flexible, security-led architecture is ready to support other industries, enabling safe, rapid deployment of responsible AI into manufacturing, field services, emergency response and beyond. 

At NCS, this journey has been about more than delivering technology. It’s been a story of creative partnership, operational rigour, and shared learning with both Microsoft and our valued retail client. As AI matures from a useful tool to a genuine copilot - and, ultimately, autonomous agents—the opportunities for frontline innovation in Australia are vast. With this project, we’re proud to have taken an important step - but the path ahead, and all it will teach us, is even more exciting. The future of empowered frontline work is now, and we’re committed to leading and learning as it evolves.
 

Wherever the margin for error is slim and the demand for fast, highly accurate knowledge is required, this AI-powered platform equips teams to deliver - safely, confidently, and at scale.