Vodafone and Google today announced a ten-year strategic expansion of their existing collaboration to provide new services, gadgets, and TV experiences to millions of Vodafone consumers in Europe and Africa, backed by Google Cloud and Google’s Gemini models.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, disclosed the partnership and development plans in a statement.
The expansion of the strategic partnership is a major step towards Vodafone’s goal of enhancing digital experiences and increasing operational efficiency by incorporating AI-powered technology into its service offerings.
According to Margherita Della Valle, CEO of Vodafone Group, the move would give millions more customers access to innovative AI-powered content and gadgets.
“Using these services, our customers can discover new ways to learn, create, and communicate, as well as consume TV, on a scale we haven’t seen before,” she said.
AI will also be used in Vodafone’s TV services to improve search, suggestions, and targeted advertising, thus increasing the consumer experience.
This cooperation will help Vodafone diversify its revenue streams beyond traditional telephony.
“It’s partly because the nature of the device and the nature of the experience people have at the device is going to change as AI becomes much more prominent on the device,” Kurian explained.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, believes the expanded relationship will offer the company’s most sophisticated AI products and services to more people in Europe and Africa.
Vodafone’s African presence includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, and Lesotho.
“Our expanded partnership with Vodafone will help bring our most advanced AI products and services, including our Gemini models, to more people across Europe and Africa,” said Picha.
“I’m excited to see how Vodafone’s consumers, small businesses and governments, will use generative AI and Google Cloud to transform the way they work and access information.”
We earlier reported that Google and Volkswagen have partnered to include cutting-edge AI in a mobile app made just for Volkswagen drivers.
