Microsoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) disclosed on Tuesday a substantial agreement with Coca-Cola, valued at $1.1 billion over five years, for utilizing its cloud computing and artificial intelligence offerings.
Within this partnership, Microsoft and Coca-Cola will collaborate on leveraging Azure OpenAI, a service integrating technology from the Microsoft-backed startup and creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI. This platform enables customers to develop chatbots and various AI solutions hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure.
Previously, in 2020, Coca-Cola committed to a five-year $250 million deal with Microsoft for cloud services and business software. The forthcoming collaboration will see Coca-Cola evaluating Microsoft’s Copilot tools, aimed at enhancing productivity within the beverage giant’s operations. Copilot functions as an AI assistant, capable of condensing lengthy email threads and constructing professional-grade slide presentations, among other tasks.
In addition to exploring AI innovations, the newly announced agreement encompasses an expansion of Coca-Cola’s deployment of Microsoft’s traditional software suite, including Dynamics 365. This software caters to sales professionals and competes directly with platforms like Salesforce.
Although Microsoft did not delineate the precise financial breakdown of the $1.1 billion deal with Coca-Cola, it remains unclear how much of the sum pertains specifically to AI services as opposed to conventional cloud software offerings.