Vodafone And Microsoft Agree On A 10-Year Partnership To Present AI And Cloud Services

Vodafone has agreed to forge a 10-year partnership with Microsoft (photo: dock. voldafone)

Vodafone has agreed to forge a 10-year partnership with Microsoft to bring artificial intelligence (AI), digital, enterprises, and cloud services to more than 300 million businesses and consumers in the European and African markets.

The British company will invest $1.5 billion in customer-focused AI development using Microsoft's Azure OpenAI and Copilot technology, and will replace physical data centers with cheaper and scalable Azure cloud services.

Microsoft, in exchange, will become an equity investor on the IoT (Internet of Things) platform managed by Vodafone when separated as an independent business in April, and help expand Vodafone's mobile financial platform in Africa.

Vodafone CEO, Margherita Della Valle, who is under pressure to restore group profit growth, has identified opportunities to help businesses digitize, noting in May that an accessible market worth 140 billion euros (IDR 2,380.6 trillion).

He said the deal, which he signed with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, would "accelerate the digital transformation of our business customers, especially small and medium enterprises."

Vodafone's CFO, Luka Mucic, said Microsoft's AI leadership, backed by partnerships with OpenAI, would change the telecommunications company's customer service.

"This part will really attract the attention of each of our customers," he said on Tuesday on Vodafone's blog. He added that TOBi chatbots supported by Microsoft's AI would provide a more consistent and intelligent response to questions.

The technology will help Vodafone customer service staff increase productivity and quality of their conversations, the company stated, not replacing them with AI.

Judson Althoff, Microsoft's Chief Commercial Officer, said Vodafone's strength in IoT and financial services was strategically critical.

"Asset IoT is critically critical to helping us overcome the sustainability needs of so many of our customers in the sector are difficult to overcome," he said.

Microsoft uses "digital twins" to model the manufacturing environment so that process improvements can be tested in the cloud.

"IoT Vodafone's stake allows us to enter the environment, model the environment, create large-scale data storage, and use AI to help customers achieve their sustainability goals," he said.

The digital money platform Vodafone, M-PESA, which operates in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and other African countries, has the same goals as Microsoft in the region, such as building digital literacy.

"We are pleased to bring AI's generating ability to help customers make smarter financial decisions," he said.