What the hell is Coca-Cola doing investing $1.1 billion in Microsoft? The answer makes a lot of sense

The soft drink company is very interested in the Redmond giant’s artificial intelligence.

When talk of the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) began with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, figures such as Bill Gates predicted that the discipline would have a significant impact on wide range of industries. Not only purely technological entities will benefit, but also those working in sectors such as food, medicine or education.

After all, everything seemed to indicate that the artificial intelligence industry would eventually become a very profitable business. Perhaps for this reason, a surprising “arms race” has begun between American big technology companies to take the lead in developing this technology. The industry leader will have a better chance of returning some of the investment made. One of Microsoft’s most prominent actors today.

Alliance between Microsoft and Coca-Cola

For decades, companies of all sizes have been experiencing what is known as “digital transformation.” This is a process that involves the integration of digital technologies. at all levels, which often requires huge cultural changes. All this for the sake of reducing costs, increasing productivity and even more dynamic scaling of various business areas.

Digital transformation seems to be entering a new phase where AI is becoming the real hero. More and more companies are implementing internal algorithm-based solutions, products or services. This is where Coca-Cola comes into play. The American soft drink giant wants to use generative artificial intelligence on a large scale and is willing to spend millions of dollars to do it.

Both companies announced this through their press channels. The Coca-Cola Company has committed $1.1 billion with Microsoft. We’re about to create a five-year “strategic alliance” in response to the food company’s plan to align its entire technology strategy under Microsoft to “advance innovation and productivity around the world.”

The connection between Microsoft and Coca-Cola is amazing. The latter company has already migrated all of its applications to the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform and is even encouraging its independent partners to follow suit. This million-dollar investment will see both firms take their relationship to the next level, as we say, with generative artificial intelligence as one of the axis.

It’s no secret that generative AI still has a long way to go. Models need to be improved, mainly in relation to accuracy and safety. But the truth is that the current state of this technology has not prevented collaboration between the aforementioned giants. Moreover, they made it clear that they would experiment with innovative use cases together.

The idea is for Coca-Cola to test the Azure OpenAI service’s AI across various business functions. Let us remind you that one of the star products of the above-mentioned service is Copilot. An AI assistant should help employees improve the customer experience, as well as streamline their work and drive innovation and growth. In other words, Coca-Cola is aiming to become much more competitive.

The example of Coca-Cola, whose previous investment in Microsoft occurred in 2020 and amounted to $250 million, is an example of how the Redmond company could get lucrative contracts. Satya Nadella’s firm is in its current position largely due to its decision to partner with OpenAI. We must not forget that a significant part of its products, in turn, is based on partner technologies.

Images | Microsoft | Coca Cola

In Hatak | It’s not Steve Jobs, it’s Mustafa Suleiman: Microsoft’s AI CEO who’s joining the “Jobs style” dressing trend