Vodafone and Google’s latest platform – AI Booster was launched and it focuses on handling thousands of ML models a day covering more than eighteen countries.
AI Booster is based on Google’s Vertex AI and blends with the Neuron platform of Vodafone. This platform was launched after being developed for eighteen months.
When Vodafone began working on AI Booster, Vertex AI, among other Google technologies, had not yet been officially announced.
Cornelia Schaurecker, Vodafone’s Global Group Director for Big Data and AI, stated: Our vision was to enable quick creation and horizontal/vertical scaling of use cases in an automated, standardized manner in order to maximize business value at pace and scale. To accomplish this, we set out to develop a cutting-edge AI/ML platform 18 months ago using fresh Google technology, some of which hadn’t even been revealed.
We knew it would be difficult. ‘Shoot for the stars, and you might get off the ground,’ people said. Today, we’re extremely proud that AI Booster is truly taking off, having gone live in nearly double the markets we had planned.
Together, we developed Vodafone’s AI Booster Platform using the best ML Ops tools available in order to simplify the work of data scientists, maximize value, and advance the co-creation and global scaling of use cases.
With pre-trained and custom tooling within a unified platform, Google’s Vertex AI enables customers to build, deploy, and scale ML models more quickly.
Vodafone’s Analytics Product Lead, Ashish Vijayvargia, commented: As a technology platform, we are extremely proud of having built a cutting-edge MLOps platform based on best-in-class Google Cloud architecture with built-in automation, scalability, and security.
As a result, we are extracting more value from data science while incorporating reliability engineering principles throughout.
Vodafone emphasized four key AI Booster features:
- Drift/skew detection, explainability, auditability, and other ML lifecycle compliance activities can be automated using reusable pipelines, containers, and managed services.
- Security is built-in by design.
- Utilize Google-native ML toolings such as BQML, AutoML, Vertex AI, and others.
- Increase adoption by using standardized and embedded ML templates.
According to reports, the new platform allows Vodafone’s data scientists and developers to reduce the time it takes from proof-of-concept to production from five months to four weeks.
In recent years, Vodafone and Google have developed a close relationship. The two companies extended their partnership in May 2021 to create a global data platform.
Vodafone’s thriving relationship with Google Cloud is a critical component of our evolution toward becoming a world-leading tech communications company, said Cengiz Ucbenli, Vodafone’s Global Head of Big Data and AI, Innovation, and Governance.
It accelerates our ability to create swifter, more scalable solutions to business challenges such as increasing customer loyalty and improving customer experience, all while keeping Vodafone at the forefront of AI and data science.
