A new platform launched by Vodafone and Google called AI Booster aims to handle thousands of ML models a day across 18+ countries.
AI Booster is the result of 18 months of development and is built upon Google’s Vertex AI and integrates with Vodafone’s Neuron platform. When Vodafone began work on AI Booster, Vertex AI and other Google technologies had not yet received official announcements.
AI Booster allows users design, deploy, and scale ML models more quickly
“To maximise business value at pace and scale, our vision was to enable fast creation and horizontal/vertical scaling of use cases in an automated, standardised manner. To do this, 18 months ago we set out to build a next-generation AI/ML platform based on new Google technology, some of which hadn’t even been announced yet.
We knew it wouldn’t be easy. People said, ‘Shoot for the stars and you might get off the ground…’ Today, we’re really proud that AI Booster is truly taking off, and went live in almost double the markets we had originally planned.
Together, we’ve used the best possible ML Ops tools and created Vodafone’s AI Booster Platform to make data scientists’ lives easier, maximise value, and take co-creation and scaling of use cases globally to another level,” stated Cornelia Schaurecker, Global Group Director for Big Data & AI at Vodafone.
Customers can design, deploy, and scale ML models more quickly using a unified platform and pre-trained and customized tooling thanks to Google’s Vertex AI. Data is too valuable to backup traditionally, that is why these kind of collaborations are really important for firms.
“As a technology platform, we’re incredibly proud of building a cutting-edge MLOps platform based on best-in-class Google Cloud architecture with in-built automation, scalability, and security. The result is we’re delivering more value from data science while embedding reliability engineering principles throughout,” stated Ashish Vijayvargia, Analytics Product Lead at Vodafone.
Vodafone and Google emphasized the following four benefits of AI Booster:
- Automated ML lifecycle compliance activities (drift/skew detection, explainability, auditability, etc.) via reusable pipelines, containers, and managed services.
- Embedded security by design.
- Capitalise on Google-native ML tooling using BQML, AutoML, Vertex AI and others.
- Boost adoption through standardised and embedded ML templates.
Vodafone’s data scientists and engineers can now get from proof-of-concept to production in just four weeks rather than the five months it previously took. The next task will be to increase adoption across markets and geographies now that the new technological platform is in place.
The roles, learning, and working styles of individuals are significantly impacted by the changes in technology and processes. Data scientists may now physically click a button to support non-core activities with machines running in the background. In addition to learning new tools to aid them in their work, they can spend time doing what they do best.
Data scientists and ML developers have already begun generating more value and working together on creative solutions thanks to AI Booster. A culture of exploration and learning is being shaped through AI Booster, which is supported by instructor-led and on-demand learning routes with Google Cloud.
“Vodafone’s flourishing relationship with Google Cloud is a vital aspect of our evolution toward becoming a world-leading tech communications company,” said Cengiz Üçbenli, Global Head of Big Data and AI, Innovation, Governance at Vodafone.
In recent years, Vodafone and Google have developed a tight bond. The two businesses expanded their partnership in May 2021 to create a global data platform.
The two businesses created the platform together with the added capability of processing and transporting massive amounts of data internationally from numerous systems into the cloud. Vodafone will use Google Cloud to host its SAP system in addition to “all big data and business intelligence workloads.
“It accelerates our ability to create faster, more scalable solutions to business challenges like improving customer loyalty and enhancing customer experience, whilst keeping Vodafone at the forefront of AI and data science,” Üçbenli added.
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