Microsoft started developing the new technology following conversations with customers about a year and a half ago, Alysa Taylor, a corporate vice president at Microsoft, told CNBC in an interview last week. It's now available in private preview. Marks and Spencer, which has food and clothing stores in the United Kingdom, is starting to use a separate new Microsoft service, Dynamics 365 Connected Store, which can send alerts to employees based on information gathered from sensors and cameras installed in physical stores.