In order to provide generative AI, digital, enterprise, and cloud services to over 300 million organisations and customers throughout its European and African regions, Vodafone and Microsoft have reached a 10-year cooperation.

The British corporation announced that it will replace physical data centres with more affordable and scalable Azure cloud services, as well as invest $1.5 billion in customer-focused AI created with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI and Copilot technologies.

Microsoft will then assist in growing Vodafone’s mobile banking platform in Africa and convert into an equity investor in the managed Internet of Things (IoT) platform when it is spun out as a separate company by April.

With the addressable market valued at 140 billion euros in May, Vodafone’s Chief Executive Margherita Della Valle—who is under pressure to lead the group back to profit growth—has recognised a chance to assist businesses in digitising.

“Accelerate the digital transformation of our business customers, particularly small and medium-sized companies,” she stated, referring to the agreement she made with Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft.

According to Luka Mucic, Chief Financial Officer of Vodafone, Microsoft’s leadership in artificial intelligence, supported by its collaboration with OpenAI, will revolutionise the telco’s consumer services.

“That’s the part that is really going to catch every single one of our customers,” he stated on Tuesday, going on to say that the TOBi chatbot, powered by Microsoft AI, would respond to inquiries with greater consistency and intelligence.

The company stated that rather than replacing customer support representatives with artificial intelligence, the technology would assist them increase efficiency and the calibre of their talks.

Judson Althoff, Chief Commercial Officer of Microsoft, stated that Vodafone’s IoT and financial services capabilities were strategically significant.

“The IoT assets are critical in helping us address the sustainability needs of so many of our customers in hard-to-abate sectors,” he stated.

Microsoft uses “digital twins” to simulate industrial settings so that cloud-based testing of process enhancements is possible.

“Vodafone’s IoT stack allows us to go into those environments, model the environment, create large-scale data stores, and use AI to help customers meet their sustainability goals,” he said.

Building digital literacy was one of Microsoft’s regional goals, and Vodafone’s M-PESA mobile money platform—which runs in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and other African countries—shared this goal.

“We are excited to bring generative AI capabilities to help customers make more intelligent financial decisions,” he said.

(Adapted from Bloomberg.com)