The India Mobile Congress 2024 (IMC) was a showcase for innovation in artificial intelligence (AI).  Themes included AI in Networks, AI in Chipsets, Ethical AI and AI for Good, with over 50 speakers in various discussions. Telcos, start-ups and educational institutions demonstrated over 900 technology use case scenarios, including 750 AI-based use cases at the IMC.

Major focus areas included conservation, convenience, efficiency, safety, automating hazardous tasks and assisting humans. The breadth of scope for AI solutions was evident as use cases were demonstrated across sectors such as agriculture, pharma, defence, automobile, environment and sustainability, healthcare, entertainment, information technology and telecom.

For instance, Ericsson showcased a 5G-powered robotic dog, Rocky, designed to assist with efficient emergency response by sending alerts to help deal with situations such as fires. Nokia showcased technologies spanning 5G, 6G, AI/ML and network infrastructure, aimed at driving innovation and promoting a sustainable future.

Reliance Jio demonstrated a preview of PhoneCall AI, a feature for transcribing and summarising phone calls currently in alpha testing phase. At the demo, Akash Ambani, chairman, Reliance Jio, envisioned AI positioning India as the “New-Age Factory and New-Age Services Centre for the World”, enhancing productivity while minimising resource consumption. Ambani noted that AI could benefit Indian farmers, improve healthcare access and transform education for millions of students.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel showcased its AI-powered spam detection solution to combat spam calls and messages – this is already being rolled out. Bharti Airtel also uses speech recognition and speech analytics algorithms on its network to improve the quality of customer services. This initiative, built and deployed in collaboration with Nvidia, is part of Airtel’s enterprise-focused AI solutions. AI-based virtual agents are also taking over workloads at contact centres.

Vodafone Idea demonstrated the transmission of real-time diagnostic reports over its network, which can enable remote medical consultations. This package offers over 30 medical tests at a cost of under Rs 250, making healthcare more accessible. Other demonstrations included solutions for railway safety, such as AI-based systems that can detect and send alerts about unusual activity on tracks.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research showcased over a dozen AI-based solutions for smart agriculture and aquarium management.  For example, an AI-enabled feed system for fish detects the right time for feeding and releases the feed accordingly, while monitoring water quality and sending alerts to owners. Mahindra University students also displayed AI-based solutions to bolster shrimp farming, with constant monitoring to ensure conditions are ideal for shrimp farming.

Start-ups at IMC included innovation leaders such as Signalchip, Wisig Networks and women-led start-ups such as Astrome and Easiofy Solutions. Among other use cases, start-ups introduced humanoid co-workers, AI marketing bots for mental health issues and AI-based de-addiction programmes. Other start-ups focused on human resources, recruitment automation, payroll management, attendance tracking and employee performance monitoring, and telemedicine solutions to compensate for the shortage of doctors in remote places.

IMC 2024 also showcased groundbreaking ideas and innovations from prestigious academic institutions such as IITs and IIMs. Through large language models such as BharatGen, IMC highlighted the cutting-edge research and technological advancements emerging from these institutions, demonstrating their role in shaping the future of telecom and technology in India.

C3iHub, a technology innovation hub established at IIT Kanpur and funded by the Department of Science and Technology, addressed the cybersecurity of cyber-physical systems, with a key focus on critical infrastructure, automotives and drones.

Content creation is another area of interest, as discussed in a session which featured Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Hon’ble Minister for Communications, alongside industry stalwarts. Scindia underscored India’s leadership in the content creation space, stating, “India is poised to become the content creation capital of the world, with the market projected to grow from $30 billion today to $480 billion by 2035.” He emphasised the democratisation of information access and the readiness to embrace next-gen technologies such as 6G.

While AI plays a pivotal role in transforming the content landscape, human content creators still dominate. For example, AI enhances regional content, with 95 per cent of YouTube consumption in India now in regional languages. AI can therefore be a tool for improving content quality and outreach, enabling commentary in multiple regional languages and helping with scriptwriting and translations. But the human creators’ ingenuity remains irreplaceable.

The panel emphasised that AI in content creation could help expand revenue streams, reduce costs and tap into new markets, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, where new content consumption patterns are evolving. As AI facilitates real-time personalisation and interaction with audiences, the creative economy may grow exponentially.

In the telecom industry itself, AI deployment in networks for operations, customer service provisioning, delivery management and infrastructure operations has already led to significant cost savings. AI has also enabled faster roll-outs, improved network reliability and enhanced customer experience. It has reduced both time and costs associated with repair and maintenance, leading to improvements in the quality of services.

Telcos are now exploring the possibility of creating new revenue streams through the use of AI and big data, with the roll-out of 5G networks (and later 6G networks), which will enable the scaling up of technologies such as internet of things. Nasscom estimates that AI can potentially add $450 billion-$500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025, a substantial increase, given India’s current GDP of around $4 trillion.

The recent visit of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasised how seriously multinational digital giants take Indian investments and exposure. Nvidia is collaborating with Jio and the Tata Group. IBM has signed three MoUs with entities engaged with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to accelerate innovation in AI, semiconductors and quantum technology. Meanwhile, Jio is offering AI services powered by Microsoft Azure to enable enterprises to build in-house AI solutions on the Jio platform.

The IIT Madras Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI) is in a partnership with Ericsson for research on responsible AI. CeRAI is an interdisciplinary research centre for fundamental and applied research in responsible AI. Ericsson Research will participate in research at CeRAI with a focus on developing 6G networks autonomously driven by AI algorithms.

CeRAI has several telecom-specific projects, with one on participatory AI, addresses the black-box nature of AI to interpret and understand data patterns in AI models. Another project, focused on multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) for trade-off and conflict resolution, studies MARL me-thods to manage coordination and facilitate automatic cooperation in case of conflicts on intent in networks.

Telecom is at the forefront of AI deployment. With a range of AI tools being deployed through telecom networks and telcos offering services such as cloud computing, data centres and enterprise solutions to clients, the industry is driving the adoption of AI across various sectors. This is expected to accelerate the uptake of AI, fostering economic growth.

Devangshu Datta