ATLANTA and REDMOND,
Wash., April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft
Corp. and The Coca-Cola Company on Tuesday announced a five-year
strategic partnership to align Coca-Cola's core technology strategy
systemwide; enable the adoption of leading-edge technology; and
foster innovation and productivity globally.
As part of the partnership, Coca-Cola has made a $1.1 billion commitment to the Microsoft Cloud
and its generative AI capabilities. The collaboration
underscores Coca-Cola's ongoing technology transformation,
underpinned by the Microsoft Cloud as Coca-Cola's globally
preferred and strategic cloud and AI platform.
Through the partnership, the companies will jointly experiment
with groundbreaking new technology like Azure OpenAI Service to
develop innovative generative AI use cases across various business
functions. This includes testing how Copilot for Microsoft 365
could help improve workplace productivity.
"Through our long-term partnership, we've made significant
progress to accelerate systemwide AI transformation across The
Coca-Cola Company and its network of independent bottlers
worldwide," said Judson Althoff,
executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Microsoft.
"We're proud to support Coca-Cola as it continues to embrace the
era of AI and looks to solutions like Azure OpenAI Service and
Copilot to drive innovation across every area of its business."
Coca-Cola has migrated all its applications to Microsoft Azure,
with most major independent bottling partners following suit. As a
pioneer in AI adoption, Coca-Cola has been innovating with
generative AI for nearly a year and has already leveraged Azure
OpenAI Service to reimagine everything from marketing to
manufacturing and supply chain and beyond. The company is currently
exploring the use of generative AI-powered digital assistants on
Azure OpenAI Service to help employees improve customer
experiences, streamline operations, foster innovation, gain a
competitive advantage, boost efficiency and uncover new growth
opportunities.
"This new agreement builds on the success of Coca-Cola's
partnership strategy with Microsoft, showing our commitment to
ongoing digital transformation," said John
Murphy, president and chief financial officer of The
Coca-Cola Company. "Our partnership with Microsoft has grown
exponentially, from the $250 million
agreement we initially announced in 2020 to $1.1 billion today."
The agreement reflects a significant step in advancing
Coca-Cola's digital transformation, focused on providing expanded
access to Microsoft's cloud and AI platforms — as well as solutions
such as Microsoft 365, Power BI, Dynamics 365, Defender and Fabric
— to enhance efficiency and scalability while fostering innovation
across the system.
"Our expanded partnership with Microsoft is an important next
chapter in Coca-Cola's journey toward a digital-first enterprise
powered by emerging technologies," said Neeraj Tolmare, senior vice
president and global chief information officer for The
Coca-Cola Company. "Microsoft's capabilities help accelerate
our adoption of AI to create incremental enterprise value."
About The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company
with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. Our
company's purpose is to refresh the world and make a
difference. We sell multiple billion-dollar brands across
several beverage categories worldwide. Our portfolio of
sparkling soft drink brands includes Coca-Cola, Sprite and
Fanta. Our water, sports, coffee and tea brands include
Dasani, Smartwater, Vitaminwater, Topo
Chico, BODYARMOR, Powerade, Costa, Georgia, Gold Peak and Ayataka. Our juice,
value-added dairy and plant-based beverage brands include Minute
Maid, Simply, innocent, Del Valle,
fairlife and AdeS. We're constantly transforming our portfolio,
from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative new
products to market. We seek to positively impact people's lives,
communities and the planet through water replenishment, packaging
recycling, sustainable sourcing practices and carbon emissions
reductions across our value chain. Together with our bottling
partners, we employ more than 700,000 people, helping bring
economic opportunity to local communities worldwide. Learn more
at www.coca-colacompany.com and follow us on Instagram,
Facebook and LinkedIn.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables
digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and
an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and
every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.