Remarks by Mukesh Ambani: “We have democratised digital services”

Since its service launch in September 2016, Reliance Jio has transformed India’s digital landscape significantly. In the past 6 years, the company has emerged as the sector leader in terms of wireless subscribers and has achieved several milestones both operationally and financially. It currently boasts 490 million subscribers, only 10 million shy of the half-billion subscriber mark. The telco’s networks have seen a surge in data consumption, especially with the expedited roll-out of 5G services. Jio is now betting big on artificial intelligence (AI) to drive its business growth and revenues in the years to come. During the 47th Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries Limited, Mukesh Ambani, chairman, talked about Jio’s growth, key milestones and focus areas. Edited excerpts from his speech…

in 2016, Jio began its mission to bring digital life to every Indian. And in eight short years, it has transformed India into an inclusive, premier digital society. We have democratised digital services, making them accessible to every citizen and business across our nation.

India is now the world’s largest data market. Today, Jio’s network carries nearly 8 per cent of global mobile traffic, surpassing even major global operators, including those in developed markets. We achieved this while maintaining the highest service quality, setting new benchmarks on the global stage. Jio’s commitment to affordability has made its services accessible to all, with current data prices one-fourth of the global average and just 10 per cent of those in developed countries.

In eight years, Jio has grown to become the world’s largest mobile data company. Today, it has 490 million subscribers, and each Jio customer, on average, uses over 30 GB of data monthly. We reported a 33 per cent growth in our data traffic over the past year.

One of the most gratifying aspects of Jio’s journey is that everything we have achieved is powered by our own technology. From the start, we knew that leading the digital revolution required innovation, not just integration. At the core of our success is our fully home-grown 5G stack – an end-to-end solution tailored to India’s unique needs. Our operations support systems and business support systems are also fully home-grown. Jio’s focus on innovation is also reflected in its growing portfolio of intellectual property. The company is among India’s largest patent holders, with over 350 patents in 5G and 6G technologies alone.

In 2023, Jio reached a new milestone in both operating and financial performance. We welcomed over 43 million new subscribers to our broadband service. Our revenue surpassed the Rs 1 trillion mark, while our net profit exceeded Rs 200 billion. Our EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margin reached 50.1 per cent, boosted by customer growth and operating leverage.

Also, this past year, we completed the pan-Indian roll-out of Jio True 5G. Over 85 per cent of the 5G radio cells operating in India belong to Jio. With the widest coverage and the highest quality, Jio True 5G now reaches every corner of India. In just two years, over 130 million customers have embraced the service. As more users migrate to 5G, our 4G network’s capacity is opening up, uniquely positioning Jio to welcome over 200 million 2G users in India into the Jio 4G service. Our JioBharat initiative offers entry-level 4G phones at prices lower than 2G phones. For many 2G users, JioBharat is their first step into digital services. Today, nearly half of 2G customers upgrading their devices choose JioBharat.

We launched JioAirFiber, our 5G-based home broadband service, in October 2024. It offers high speed broadband across India. In just over six months, we acquired our first 1 million air fibre customers. But that was only the beginning. By leveraging our deep-tech capabilities and continuously optimising every process, we acquired the next 1 million customers in just 100 days. We are now challenging ourselves to add a million homes every 30 days. With this momentum, we are confident in reaching our target of 100 million home broadband customers at record speed. We are also targeting over 20 million small and medium businesses, bringing them the connectivity to thrive in today’s digital age. What excites us the most is the potential to connect India’s 1.5 million schools and colleges, over 70,000 hospitals and 1.2 million doctors.

AI has become integral to everything we do. We have rapidly augmented our talent and capabilities, embracing the latest in Generative AI. We are embedding AI into all our processes and offerings. To streamline AI adoption, Jio is developing a comprehensive suite of tools and platforms that span the entire AI life cycle. We call this Jio Brain – it enables us to accelerate AI adoption across Jio, driving faster decisions, more accurate predictions and better understanding of customer needs. Moreover, with Jio’s AI “everywhere for everyone” vision, we are committed to democratising AI, offering powerful AI models and services to everyone in India at the most affordable prices. To achieve this, we are already laying the groundwork. We plan to establish GW-scale AI-ready data centres in Jamnagar, Gujarat. We also plan to create multiple AI inference facilities across our captive locations throughout the country, which we will scale up to support the growing demand. In parallel, we will partner with leading global technology companies and innovators to bring the most advanced AI models, solutions and tools to India.

By leveraging our expertise in infrastructure, networking, operations, software and data, and by collaborating with our global partners, our goal is to create the world’s lowest AI inferencing cost, right here in India. This will make AI applications more affordable, making AI accessible to all. Four sectors that will benefit the most from AI are:

• Agriculture: AI farmers will use intelligent tools to conserve water, manage other resources efficiently, make use of accurate weather predictions and grow more innovative crops. They will optimise crop yields, control pests, reduce waste and enhance environmental sustainability. This will lead to unimaginable growth in farm productivity, new economic activities in rural areas, and attractive and abundant livelihoods.
• Education: AI teachers will personalise learning experiences, making high quality education accessible and affordable to all. AI can offer personalised learning experiences, helping students learn at their own pace and in their own style, regardless of their location or background.
• Healthcare: AI can assist doctors in diagnosing diseases more accurately and faster. AI doctors will also be accessible to all, and available everywhere 24×7. They will improve diagnosis and treatment, enable the early detection of diseases, personalise treatment plans and promote preventive and predictive cures, especially for children and senior citizens.
• Small businesses: AI Vyapar will enable merchants and small businesses to achieve high levels of innovation and productivity. It will automate routine tasks, enhance decision-making with data-driven insights, and open new avenues for growth and competition. Using AI, even a small business owner operating in a Tier III city will be able to compete on a global scale.

These AI models and services will be hosted within India’s borders. They will comply fully with Indian data and privacy regulations, ensuring the security and privacy of citizens’ data. To achieve AI leadership, there is also a need to invest in talent development. Jio is partnering with Jio Institute to develop a cutting-edge AI programme.

At Jio, we believe that AI services should be accessible on all devices. This requires a delivery model where both AI services and the data processed by AI are hosted in the cloud, allowing every user to access their data and AI services from anywhere, on any device, over low-latency broadband networks. We call this concept Connected Intelligence. As a first step to Connected Intelligence, every user needs ample and affordable data storage capacity in the cloud, with the highest levels of privacy and security. With data safely stored in the cloud, AI can deliver intelligent, personalised services over the network. To support our AI “everywhere for everyone” vision using Connected Intelligence, we plan to launch the Jio AI-Cloud service soon.

I am extremely confident that by harnessing the power of AI, India will leap into a future of unprecedented progress and prosperity.