Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, said on Monday it has entered into a long-term partnership with Google Cloud to develop and deliver cloud and artificial intelligence products to Indian businesses.
The partnership aims to leverage Airtel’s extensive customer base, which the company says includes 2,000 large enterprises and one million emerging businesses. The companies plan to offer AI solutions, including genetic AI, which Airtel will train using its massive data sets.
As part of the partnership, Airtel and Google Cloud will provide businesses with products such as geospatial analytics, location intelligence for trending, forecasting capabilities, market assessment, location selection, risk management and asset tracking.
Also available are voice analytics for chat apps trained in multiple languages and marketing technology to predict consumer behavior, perform audience segmentation, and streamline content creation with contextual advertising. Airtel said it has set up a managed service center in Pune staffed with more than 300 “specialists” to provide support.
Tech giants Google, Microsoft and Amazon are increasingly turning their sights on the telecommunications industry, seeking to capitalize on the vast troves of data generated by the industry’s billions of customers around the world. The three companies have signed deals with telcos worldwide, including in the US and the UK. Companies are also aggressively trying to sell their productive AI offerings to businesses around the world.
Google is already an investor in Airtel — it has pledged to invest up to $1 billion in the Indian carrier by 2022. The search giant has also backed Jio Platforms, which runs India’s largest carrier. Jio maintains a similar long-term partnership with Microsoft, as part of which the Indian operator sells Office 365 and Azure to local businesses.
Google and Airtel did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian described the partnership as “an important milestone” towards the Android maker’s commitment to accelerate cloud and AI adoption in India.
