Microsoft Corporation (MSFT, Financial) has announced that it has signed a five-year strategic partnership deal with Australian-based Coles Group (CLEGF, Financial) to enhance its cloud and AI capabilities. This relationship stems from a partnership in early 2019 when Coles started migrating to the Microsoft Azure cloud, which currently contains over 70% of company data.
Thus, within the framework of the new partnership, Coles will create a new, modern IT infrastructure based on Microsoft Azure's AI, machine learning, and Edge computing technologies and an AI-as-a-service platform. This move is believed to improve productivity, optimize stock control, and deliver customized services. Coles will be able to control real-time data processing for its 1,800+ stores with the help of Microsoft's IEB and other intelligent edge computing products.
Coles has been ahead in the adoption of AI for day-to-day functioning. It recently deployed Predictive Demand Planning to manage the supply chain for 20,000 SKUs. It has also deployed generative AI capability to process a large amount of qualitative feedback information to generate results for action.
The partnership is a significant development underscored by the increasing combination of AI and cloud services to solve customer needs and other issues in the retail sector. Coles and Microsoft plan to set the benchmark in retail innovation by leveraging a strong digital plan.
