Can Airtel's AI giveaway really sway India’s fierce data wars?

India's major telecom company, Bharti Airtel, has stunned the market by bundling a free year of Perplexity Pro with every mobile, fiber, and television plan, a giveaway that normally costs users about ₹17,000, around $200, and unlocks unlimited generative AI search and analysis.

Analysts say the move marks a fresh front in India’s brutal data price wars, pivoting competition from cheap gigabytes to intelligent services that help students, workers, and small businesses answer questions, draft documents, and explore facts at conversation speed.

How Perplexity picked Airtel

Perplexity wanted massive scale quickly, and India offered that scale at unmatched speed. Airtel’s 39 crore subscriber base gives the California company an instant test bed larger than the entire population of the United States.

Executives close to the deal say Airtel already funnels tens of millions to streaming and cloud partners, so adding a software-centric benefit required only an application programming interface, not new spectrum or capital-heavy infrastructure.

Perplexity also gains coveted on-device shelf space inside the Airtel Thanks app, sidestepping India’s fierce customer acquisition costs while collecting anonymized intent data to refine answers in local languages.

Perplexity plans to roll out Hindi and Bengali voice input within three months, tapping Airtel’s expertise in regional content and further embedding itself in daily search habits across urban and rural markets.

Did you know?
On 10 June 2024, Bharti Airtel’s market capitalisation briefly crossed the US $100 billion threshold, joining India’s elite club and becoming the first pure-play telco to do so.

Why Airtel pressed the button

For Airtel, the partnership promises three revenue levers. First, subscribers exploring Perplexity inevitably consume more data, raising average revenue per user. Second, the premium perk can justify upcoming tariff hikes without sparking churn.

Third, Airtel Business plans to upsell Perplexity-powered analytics to enterprises that already rent network, cloud, and cybersecurity services, stitching a higher-margin software layer atop its connectivity stack.

Internal dashboards seen by this publication show Airtel users who redeem movie streaming perks log in twice per week, whereas early Perplexity beta testers engaged four times daily, evidence that knowledge utilities may drive stickier engagement than entertainment perks.

Life after the free year

The bundle currently stops billing after twelve months. Airtel and Perplexity will announce renewal pricing next summer, but insiders hint at a sharply discounted annual plan or a pay-as-you-search micro wallet pegged to data usage.

Customers who port out before the anniversary lose the subscription, a design meant to lock in loyalty during a year in which analysts expect carriers to attempt another round of price increases.

Will other telcos join the AI rush

Reliance Jio, India’s largest carrier, is already in talks with at least two rival search startups, according to two executives who requested anonymity because negotiations are private.

Vodafone Idea, struggling with debt, may leverage its upcoming equity infusion to ink a lower-cost deal that bundles an open-source large language model with data packs, people familiar with board discussions said.

Global carriers are watching. Telefónica in Spain and Singtel in Singapore confirmed experimental talks with unnamed US startups about embedding conversational search inside loyalty portals.

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Implications for India’s digital economy

India’s telecom sector once differentiated on cheap calls, then on unlimited video. The next battleground appears to be intelligent assistance that turns raw bandwidth into direct productivity, a shift regulators must supervise for data privacy and algorithmic transparency.

Consultants at EY estimate that time saved by AI search could lift India’s digital economy by five billion dollars annually through efficiency gains across education, logistics, and small business onboarding.

Consumer advocates, however, caution that free often becomes paid later, urging the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to ensure transparent renewal pricing and straightforward opt-out processes.

Perplexity insists that search queries will be anonymized and processed in line with local data rules, and cords can be pulled if regulators demand stricter controls.

Investors reacted positively. Airtel shares rose two percent in early trading following the announcement, while several brokerage notes predicted higher enterprise valuations for Perplexity during its next fundraise.

If usage data aligns with expectations, industry insiders predict a new class of telco bundles where generative AI sits alongside video, music, and cloud storage, permanently rewiring what consumers expect from a basic connectivity plan.

Critics note that hallucinations and factual errors still plague large language models, so telcos must pair glamorous marketing with clear disclaimers and rapid correction channels.

Industry groups expect rising demand for prompt engineering and AI literacy, potentially creating new jobs even as automation threatens others, underscoring the double-edged nature of generative tools.

Education groups are already working with Airtel to develop school-friendly modes that restrict explicit queries and highlight primary source citations, a sign the partnership could spill into broader digital literacy efforts.

Airtel’s gamble positions the company at the nexus of connectivity and cognition, and its success or failure will signal whether the next wave of telecom growth comes from pumping more bits or from making every bit smarter.