London
Vodafone calls up Microsoft: Telecoms firm Vodafone has signed a $1.5bn deal to use Microsoft’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools for its 300 million business consumers in Europe and Africa, says Paul Sandle for Reuters. As part of the ten-year partnership, Vodafone will use Microsoft’s OpenAI technology running on the latter’s Azure and Copilot platforms to bolster its customer service operations, including its online chatbot. That will allow Vodafone to sell more of Microsoft’s services to business clients and replace physical data centres. In turn, the US tech giant will invest in Vodafone’s “internet of things” (various devices connected to the internet) division, which will be spun out in April, and bolster Vodafone’s mobile financial platform in Africa.
Vodafone’s boss Margherita Della Valle is under pressure to turn around the company’s stagnating revenues and a slump in the share price. Microsoft, on the other hand, is riding high on its bet on OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, which spurred a boom in tech stocks last year. It has sought to
