Airtel-Perplexity deal gives the AI giant an entry into India market
Empower your mind, elevate your skills
Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel announced a partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) major Perplexity which provides all Airtel customers (mobile, broadband, and DTH) with a free 12-month subscription to Perplexity Pro, a search and answer engine subscription usually priced at about Rs 17,000 per year globally.This marks Perplexity's first partnership with an Indian telecom company, giving the former access to Airtel's 360 million users to spread its international footprint. Pro offers features like access to models like GPT 4.1 and Claude, deep research and analysis tools and image generation.The AI company, which has been seeking to take on Big Tech giants in AI and recently, Google through its AI-powered search engine, gets a new and diverse audience.Offering the app to such a wide userbase also boosts Perplexity's visibility and adoption. This was clear when the app went to the top of the downloads list on Apple's App Store after the deal, overtaking competitors like ChatGPT.This also helps Perplexity strengthen its footprint in India's rapidly growing AI user market, while jointly innovating AI service delivery with Airtel. Perplexity benefits from a distribution and monetisation model through Airtel's network, enhancing user stickiness and driving AI usage across multiple customer segments, from students and professionals to homemakers.One of the major telecom companies in India, Airtel is demonstrating a new approach in telecom offerings by throwing in a GenAI productivity tool. This goes beyond the traditional OTT content and entertainment deals offered by telcos, and moves toward practical, AI-powered utility services that add value to customers' daily digital experience.Airtel also plans to gain insights into how customers interact with advanced AI tools, which will show the company how to embed intelligence deeper into its service layers, eventually enhancing and personalising its product ecosystem.
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