Airtel brings sovereign cloud, AI platform

Bharti Airtel’s wholly owned subsidiary Xtelify has launched a sovereign cloud platform called Airtel Cloud, along with an AI-driven software platform designed for telecom companies.

Initially built to handle 140 crore transactions per minute for Airtel’s internal operations in India, the company is now offering the platform to external businesses. The move comes amid growing demand for data localisation and digital sovereignty, especially in light of India’s evolving data protection regulations.

According to the company, Airtel Cloud operates from next-generation, energy-efficient data centres, uses Gen-AI to manage and allocate resources, and is overseen by a team of 300 certified cloud experts.

The platform offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and connectivity tools. It is designed to support secure migration, scaling as needed, cost management, and flexibility without being tied to a single vendor. These features are increasingly relevant as businesses adopt hybrid and multi-cloud strategies to meet both performance and compliance needs.

“We are also excited to take our telco-grade, sovereign-cloud platform and help businesses in India innovate faster, scale smarter and stay secure in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape. All controls of our cloud will reside strictly within the country, ensuring zero possibility of any entity outside India being able to access any part of this data or its working,” said Gopal Vittal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel.

Meanwhile, the AI-powered platform aims to support telecom operators globally by simplifying operations, improving customer experience, reducing churn, and helping to boost average revenue per user.

The suite supports these needs through three core modules: a unified data engine for large-scale AI insights, a workforce management tool for real-time task coordination, and a customer experience platform for end-to-end engagement.

To extend its reach, Xtelify also signed three global agreements to roll out its newly launched platform. In Singapore, it will deploy ‘Xtelify Work’ with Singtel to support field teams using AI-based tools. In the Philippines, Globe Telecom will adopt ‘Xtelify Serve’, a platform focused on customer service operations. Airtel Africa, on the other hand, will implement Xtelify’s Data Engine, Work, and IQ platforms across 14 countries to support its 150,000 field staff.

Xtelify brings Airtel’s digital capabilities, including Airtel Cloud, AI platforms, and managed services, into a single offering. This aligns with a broader industry trend, where telecom companies are shifting from pure connectivity providers to digital infrastructure enablers, offering platforms that support enterprise digitisation, 5G rollout, and public-sector tech initiatives.

“Within Airtel, we have been actively harnessing digital innovations at an unmatched scale to transform our services and enhance customer experience at Airtel for many years now. This has involved powering over 590 million customer touchpoints and solving some of the most complex telecom challenges in the world. All this is enabled by Airtel Cloud, where all our applications run at a very compelling cost,” Vittal noted.