Vodafone reveals a decade-long collaboration with Microsoft to introduce AI, digital, enterprise, and cloud services across its markets. As part of the partnership, Microsoft will also become an equity investor in Vodafone’s IoT platform.
Vodafone has announced a decade-long collaboration with Microsoft to introduce AI, digital, enterprise, and cloud services to over 300 million businesses and consumers in Europe and Africa. In this partnership, Vodafone plans to invest $1.5 billion in customer-focused AI, developed using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI and Copilot technologies, with the goal of replacing physical data centers with more cost-effective and scalable Azure cloud services.
As part of the agreement, Microsoft will become an equity investor in Vodafone’s managed IoT platform, which is set to achieve standalone business status by April 2024. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “We’re delighted to partner with Vodafone Group to apply the latest cloud and AI technology to enhance the customer experience for hundreds of millions of people and businesses across Africa and Europe.”
Vodafone’s Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic highlighted Microsoft’s leadership in AI, particularly through its OpenAI partnership, emphasizing the transformative impact on the telecom’s customer services. Mucic noted that a Microsoft AI-backed TOBi chatbot would offer more consistent and intelligent responses to queries.
Microsoft’s Chief Commercial Officer Judson Althoff emphasized the strategic importance of Vodafone’s strength in IoT and financial services. Althoff stated, “The IoT assets are critical in helping us address the sustainability needs of so many of our customers in hard-to-abate sectors.”
In separate news, Microsoft has introduced CoPilot Pro, a subscription service providing access to the latest and most advanced AI products. This subscription is available to users in India for a monthly fee of Rs 2,000.00. CoPilot Pro offers priority access to the latest AI models, including GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo, integrated with Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
