Microsoft said that the generative AI tool will be implemented across Vodafone with the aim of improving productivity, innovation and digital efficiency
U.K.-based telco Vodafone has extended its strategic deal with Microsoft to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot AI software to up to 68,000 Vodafone employees across multiple countries, Microsoft said in a release.
The U.S. software firm noted that the generative AI (GenAI) tool will be implemented across Vodafone with the aim of improving productivity, innovation and digital efficiency further. It will free up time spent on monotonous tasks to allow employees to focus on more varied and interesting work, the company added.
Vodafone is already using Microsoft’s GenAI technology to deliver a more personalized service to customers, including supercharging TOBi, Vodafone’s online chatbot in 13 countries.
Under the new deal, Vodafone will now integrate Microsoft 365 Copilot into most areas of its business, from customer service to product development, network management to sales and marketing.
Microsoft 365 Copilot embeds GenAI into Microsoft’s suite of productivity apps – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote and OneDrive – enabling users to draft emails, analyze data, summarize meetings and documents, generate marketing content and create imagery, among other applications.
Scott Petty, CTO at Vodafone, said: “Our AI journey is focusing on three areas: operational efficiency inside the organization, rewiring the business to provide an enhanced customer experience and unlocking growth opportunities through new products and services that we can create around generative AI.”
After an initial trial of the GenAI technology, Vodafone, working with Microsoft and KPMG, found that users had increased productivity, saving time on drafting emails, meeting agendas, and documents: summarizing meetings and identifying action points as well as searching for information.
“It’s not about doing more work, it’s about doing better quality work and being more customer-focused,” said Petty.
“And it’s about improving the efficiency of the entire business, from the mobile and fixed broadband network and digital platforms, to our retail stores, online services and customer care centers,” he added.
Clare Barclay, CEO at Microsoft UK, said: “Generative AI is transforming every industry and we look forward to unlocking the benefits this powerful technology will bring to all aspects of Vodafone’s business.”
This latest Microsoft 365 Copilot deal follows the announcement of a 10-year strategic partnership between Vodafone and Microsoft signed in January 2024.
In this previous agreement companies had committed to collaborate to transform the customer experience using Microsoft’s generative AI, scale up Vodafone’s standalone IoT business, develop new services for small- and medium-sized business and continue Vodafone’s data migration to Microsoft’s cloud service, Azure.
Vodafone said it planned to invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years in cloud and customer-focused AI services developed in collaboration with Microsoft.
The partners had noted that the digital services generated by the partnership will use the latest generative AI technology to provide a highly personalized and differentiated customer experience across multiple channels.