Vodafone has signed a decade-long strategic partnership with Microsoft and aims to delve deeper into generative AI, digital services, and cloud solutions. With this collaboration, spanning over 10 years, the two giants anticipate a significant impact on more than 300 million businesses, public sector entities, and consumers across Europe and Africa.
Microsoft’s generative AI will enhance customer service, scale the managed IoT connectivity platform, and introduce novel digital and financial services, primarily targeting SMEs in the specified regions. A substantial investment of US$1.5 billion by Vodafone underscores its commitment to fostering cloud and AI services over the next decade, fostering a symbiotic relationship with Microsoft, which, in turn, will leverage Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services.
Vodafone is making strategic moves in its digital transformation efforts, announcing that its managed IoT connectivity platform will become a standalone business by April 2024. Microsoft is set to invest in this venture. Vodafone aims to leverage the latest generative AI technology to offer a highly personalized and differentiated customer service experience across various channels.
The development of AI technologies within this framework will prioritize unbiased and ethical privacy and security policies. Vodafone’s CEO, Margherita Della Valle, highlighted the commitment to a digital future for Europe and Africa through this strategic partnership with Microsoft, emphasizing the acceleration of digital transformation for business customers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
