Coca-Cola is looking to accelerate the use of AI in its beverage-making services after officially inking a new $1.1 billion deal with Microsoft.
The new agreement sees Coca-Cola committing to Microsoft Cloud and its generative AI capabilities as part of the agreement.
The partnership highlights Coca-Cola's continuous technological revolution, supported by Microsoft Cloud, the company's strategic and globally preferred cloud and artificial intelligence platform.
As a result of the collaboration, the businesses will work together to test cutting-edge new technologies like Azure OpenAI Service to create creative, generative AI use cases for various business applications.
This involves examining the potential benefits of Copilot for Microsoft 365 for raising office productivity.
(Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images) Cans of Sprite, Diet Coke, and Coca-Cola are offered for sale at a grocery store on April 17, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois.
Coca-Cola has reportedly moved all its apps to Microsoft Azure, and most significant independent bottling partners have followed suit.
Coca-Cola, a leader in AI use, has been experimenting with generative AI for almost a year and has already used Azure OpenAI Service to rethink a variety of industries, including marketing, production, supply chains, and more.
The business is now investigating how to leverage digital assistants with generative AI capabilities on Azure OpenAI Service to aid staff members in enhancing customer experiences, streamlining processes, encouraging innovation, gaining a competitive edge, increasing productivity, and identifying new business prospects.
Microsoft did not reportedly outline the costs of the $1.1 billion Coca-Cola deal in terms of how much of the money goes toward AI services as opposed to conventional cloud software.
Read Also: Study Investigates Coca-Cola's Role in Easing Blocked Esophagus, Debunking the Myth
Coca-Cola's AI-Generated Drink
Coca-Cola's AI expansion deal comes just a few months after the beverage maker introduced a limited-edition AI-generated drink.
In October 2023, Coca-Cola unveiled Y3000, a flavor for which the corporation asked a generative AI to create the recipe. The corporation then used the AI's recommendations for toppings to make the drink.
The firm named the drink Y3000 because it believed it to be "from the future," emphasizing its distinct flavor and container design. Coca-Cola first offered the Y3000 taste in two varieties: regular and zero-sugar.
Internet reviews at the time said that the Y3000 tasted like "raspberry slushy," but whether or not this is true still depends on who gets to taste it and how they interpret the beverage.
Microsoft's Newest AI Models
On a related note, Microsoft just released a whole new family of lightweight AI models dubbed Phi-3. Microsoft's vice president of GenAI research, Sébastien Bubeck, claims that Phi-3 is not only somewhat more affordable than other models with similar capabilities but also much less expensive.
Microsoft asserts that the Phi-3 family of open models is the most efficient and cost-effective small language model, even though large language models are still the "golden standard" for various AI applications.
It is asserted that Phi-3 models outperform models of the same size and the next level up on a variety of benchmarks that evaluate language, coding, and mathematical skills.
Related Article: Tech Industry Sees Massive Challenges with Tesla, Google; AI Development Race Still On
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