Telstra goes in on AI with expanded Microsoft partnership

Telstra has expanded its strategic partnership with Microsoft, bringing in AI to its intercity fibre network project and investing in 21,000 Copilot for Microsoft 365 licences to help its employees.

The integration of AI within the network, of which Microsoft is an anchor tenant, will see the tech giant extend its AI infrastructure. As a result, Telstra claims this will allow users to “leverage the transformative benefits of Al”.

“This partnership, which involves building high-capacity intercity fibre routes for Microsoft, further enables Microsoft to boost its capacity and achieve end-to-end connectivity across key telecommunications routes in Australia and across the Asia Pacific region,” Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said.

Microsoft has also signed contracts for the first routes on the network and has tapped Telstra InfraCo as part of its strategy to deliver “enhanced connectivity solutions”.

As for the licences, Telstra claimed this will be the largest deployment of the service in Australia and one of the largest for a telecommunications company globally.

By doing so, the telco said this will help its employees “adapt and thrive in an AI-fuelled future”.

Telstra is also planning to conduct a phased roll out of Copilot to its regular Microsoft 365 app users following consultation with employees and unions.

It also comes after a trial of 300 early adopters who used Copilot to summarise meetings, emails and chat threads and generate content drafts. Results from the trial allege that users managed to save one to two hours per week.

“We’re dedicated to equipping our people with the best Al technology and upskilling them to thrive in the workforce of the future,” said Brady. “Giving our team access to Copilot not only gives them the space and time to spend on more meaningful tasks, but also fosters a culture of continuous learning, improvement and innovation as we drive digital and Al transformation through our business.”

The partnership between the two organisations was initially expanded in July 2022 for five years.

As a result of the five-year extension, Telstra launched a dedicated end-to-end Microsoft practice in addition in making Microsoft an anchor tenant on the intercity fibre network.

The practice was said to be based in the telco’s managed services and technology consulting business Telstra Purple and planned to utilise Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams to build solutions focused on hybrid working and cloud migration across the manufacturing, retail, agriculture, utilities and finance industries.