The merger of artificial intelligence and 5G marks a turning point in India’s telecommunications sector. This is especially significant for enterprises working to update their digital systems. As these technologies advance, telecom providers must balance innovation with practical results. They also face growing demands for better security and efficiency.
In this interview with CIO&Leader, Sharat Sinha, Director & CEO, Airtel Business examines how AI solutions are changing enterprise telecommunications. The interview looks at the real-world results of Airtel’s recent technology projects. From cloud-based communication to security systems, Sinha offers insights into what current enterprise solutions can and cannot do in India’s growing digital market.
Director & CEO,
Airtel Business
CIO&Leader: With 5G and AI creating new possibilities for enterprise solutions, how is Airtel Business leveraging this to help businesses drive operational efficiencies?
Sharat Sinha: As the world, especially India, continues to digitize, AI will continue to be at the core of this revolution. Integrating 5G technology with artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to revolutionize enterprise solutions across various industries. Besides enhancing operational efficiency, collaborating both technologies can unlock new possibilities that enhance productivity, improve customer experiences, and drive sustainable growth across various sectors.
We are at the forefront of leveraging the two technologies to transform enterprise operations. Our solutions aim to provide businesses with smarter, more secure, and efficient operations. While 5G enables newer capabilities with faster speeds and low latency, AI enables a host of transformations with its wide range of abilities, such as learning, reasoning, perception, problem solving, data analysis, and language comprehension.
We recently partnered with Google, and we are combining our unique strengths of connectivity and AI technology to develop industry-leading AI/ML solutions that we will train on our large data sets. Through this partnership, we are also accelerating the deployment of Gen AI in the country to unlock its problem-solving potential.
We have also built an AI/ML based platform – Airtel IQ Spam Protection – that detects and suspends fraudulent messages, ensuring customer safeguarding. With AI algorithms, the platform continuously learns from communication patterns and user feedback to identify and filter out spam communications with precision.
In another example of leveraging AI, we have become the first data centre in India to deploy AI to build new-age digitized facilities engineered to drive smart capabilities like predictive maintenance, enhanced operational and energy efficiency, streamlined operation automation, and optimised capex utilization.
CIO&Leader: How is Airtel Business leveraging AI algorithms to empower businesses to stay ahead of cyber threats?
Sharat Sinha: We understand that cyber threats are consistently growing, and therefore, proactive defense is crucial to safeguarding enterprises.
We have leveraged advanced AI algorithms to monitor our customers’ networks in real-time, constantly scanning for irregular activities, potential vulnerabilities, and signs of cyber threats to provide real-time enterprise protection. Airtel’s i-SOC (Security Operations Center) actively monitors networks 24/7, detecting and reducing the risk of potential cyber threats by utilizing AI-driven threat intelligence and Machine Learning (ML). As a result, the AI-powered orchestration tools enable continuous automated threat detection, response, and mitigation, greatly increasing the effectiveness of cybersecurity defenses while decreasing human intervention and response time.
Additionally, we use AI for proactive network management, ensuring seamless and secure connectivity across its pan-India Internet Leased Line (ILL) network. AI technology also adapts to evolving threats, ensuring enterprises remain secure in a dynamic digital environment and strengthening their overall cybersecurity posture.
These initiatives underline our commitment to providing enterprises with robust, adaptive, and AI-enhanced cybersecurity frameworks that address the complexities of today’s digital threats.
In addition to these, we have also built cybersecurity solutions for our customers. While Airtel Secure Internet provides comprehensive end-to-end protection by integrating Fortinet’s advanced firewall with Airtel’s high-speed Internet Leased Line (ILL), Airtel’s Secure Digital Internet uses Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) to continuously validate users, devices, and network interactions. Both solutions enable businesses to reduce attack surfaces and simplify security management.
CIO&Leader: How is Airtel Business enabling CIOs and CISOs to seamlessly navigate the challenges of balancing innovation in security? How are you addressing their evolving needs?
Sharat Sinha: Today, CIOs and CISOs are under immense pressure to foster innovation while ensuring robust security measures are in place. At Airtel Business, we understand the importance of balancing these priorities for business continuity and growth. Our solutions are designed to empower organizations to innovate securely without compromising their cybersecurity posture.
Through our customizable solutions, we are focused on delivering cutting-edge solutions specific to each industry. We offer round-the-clock monitoring and proactive threat detection through our state-of-the-art Intelligent SOC (iSOC), enabling businesses to stay ahead of emerging risks.
With our security capabilities, we ensure that organizations can balance fostering innovation and maintaining a secure digital environment, providing CIOs and CISOs to thrive and focus on business growth.
CIO&Leader: Can you elaborate on your latest solution, “Airtel Secure Digital Internet?” How does it address the unique challenges of today’s hyperconnected world?
Sharat Sinha: In today’s hyperconnected but increasingly risky digital landscape, where data flows seamlessly across devices and even borders, securing digital ecosystems has never been more critical. Airtel Secure Digital Internet is our solution to this challenge, designed to redefine cybersecurity standards by providing a robust, comprehensive, and real-time defense against evolving threats.
With built-in features like a secure web gateway, cloud firewall, intrusion prevention, and content filtering, Airtel Secure Digital Internet offers an end-to-end framework that adjusts to your enterprise’s specific needs, ensuring that unauthorized access, data breaches, or disruptions do not affect business operations.
This innovative solution offers advanced security features like threat protection, SSL inspection, cloud firewall, and secure cloud application access. Enterprises can also customize security by tailoring settings based on specific needs, such as protecting sensitive sectors like banking or healthcare and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.
Built on a Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA), our solution simplifies security by transitioning to a cloud-based framework from traditional hardware. It ensures that every interaction with the internet is met with rigorous verification and authentication, protecting enterprises from evolving cyber threats. Ultimately, Airtel Secure Digital Internet allows businesses to operate confidently in a connected world—knowing a trusted partner that is constantly ahead of the curve in cybersecurity innovation backs them.
CIO&Leader: How is Airtel IQ’s integration of cloud computing and AI affecting business communication patterns, and what insights have you gained from enterprise implementations so far?
Sharat Sinha: Airtel IQ Business Connect is a transformative platform that seamlessly integrates calling, SMS, and WhatsApp into a unified interface. The device-agnostic, multi-channel cloud platform eliminates communication silos caused by isolated conversations held by sales teams or relationship managers, ensuring continuity even during personnel transitions. By centralizing all customer interactions within a secure ecosystem, businesses gain greater visibility and control while enhancing customer engagement. Notably, this solution also helps businesses reduce their hardware costs and their total operations cost.
Airtel IQ Business Connect helps improve and streamline customer engagement. The platform empowers businesses to optimize their communication strategies and provide individualized experiences that appeal to their clientele. It enables businesses to automate routine customer service processes, making it easier and more efficient to manage large volumes of customer inquiries. The platform leverages cloud technology, enabling scalability and seamless access with minimal capital investments in hardware.
Though we launched the product recently, we have been witnessing a positive response from our customers. With Airtel IQ Business Connect, companies are not only streamlining their communications but also positioning themselves for growth in an increasingly competitive market. By providing data-driven insights that enable better decision-making, the technology is revolutionizing communication strategies for Indian organizations, especially SMEs. Businesses have reported enhanced seamless stakeholder interactions, improved operational efficiency, reduced response times, and improved customer satisfaction metrics. The seamless integration of multiple channels, encapsulated within a device-agnostic platform, offers businesses a future-proof solution for dynamic customer engagement.
CIO&Leader: What key emerging technologies are Airtel Business focusing on this year?
Sharat Sinha: 2025 will be a year of opportunities wherein new technologies like AI and Cloud will increasingly converge to drive transformations across industries.
AI will enable smarter, more efficient network management and real-time data analytics. In the future, the confluence of AI with 5G and cloud computing will unleash innovative transformations and drive revenue opportunities for businesses across industries. Additionally, the increased IoT coverage and network slicing capabilities of 5G will allow enterprises to manage complex, high-demand environments more efficiently.
Another major trend is the rise of AI and machine learning in cybersecurity. With the increasing complexity and volume of threats, AI-powered security solutions can proactively identify vulnerabilities, detect anomalies, and automate threat responses. This will help organizations stay ahead of cybercriminals by reducing response times and increasing threat detection accuracy.
Customers will continue to be at the core of all technological advancements, and it will become increasingly imperative to invest in technologies that can offer rich engagements that enable fostering deep customer connections, which can, in turn, lead to increased revenues.