AI a key enabler for next phase of India's telecom evolution: TRAI Chief
New Delhi: Artificial Intelligence is a key enabler for the next phase of India's telecom evolution, offering opportunities to deliver intelligent, adaptive, and trusted services across the ecosystem, said Anil Kumar Lahoti, Chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday.
Lahoti was speaking at a Pre-Summit Event of the India - AI Impact Summit 2026 on the theme "AI in Telecommunication".
The event was organized by TRAI), in collaboration with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) at the STPI Conference Facility in New Delhi.
"AI is no longer a futuristic idea for telecom - it is now a foundational capability. From network automation to spam detection, AI is already shaping how telecom services are delivered and experienced at scale," he said.
He further emphasised that AI applications must be guided by the principles of transparency, accountability and fairness, aligned with the national vision of digital empowerment.
The event brought together senior officials and representatives from telecom service providers, OEMs, startups and research institutions to deliberate on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the future of telecom networks, service delivery, and customer engagement.
Arvind Kumar, DG, STPI, emphasised the importance of building AI-led innovation ecosystems that connect startups, academia, and industry. He noted, "What we once referred to as a simple pipe has now transformed into an intelligent pipe."
He also highlighted that the upcoming India AI Impact Summit 2026 will offer a holistic and future-facing framework for responsible and impactful AI adoption.
Deliberations on responsible AI in telecom services were chaired by M P Tangirala, Member, TRAI, who set the context for discussions on ethical and accountable use of AI. The session focused on how AI-driven analytics, recommendation engines and behavioural insights are being leveraged to improve customer engagement through customised mobile plans, smart data packs and targeted offers.
Participants also discussed AI-based mechanisms for detecting and blocking spam calls, filtering unsolicited communications and enabling safe content curation for telecom-integrated platforms, while emphasising transparency, data privacy, consumer trust and minimising false positives in AI-driven systems.
The technical deliberations included focused discussions on AI-driven telecom networks, chaired by Ritu Ranjan Mittar, Member, TRAI. The discussions examined how AI-enabled predictive maintenance, traffic optimisation and anomaly detection are enabling telecom operators to move from reactive to predictive and self-healing network operations across India's expanding 5G and fibre-based infrastructure.
Speakers from leading telecom service providers, OEMs, academic institutions and startups shared use cases on intelligent network slicing, behavioural analytics for fraud prevention, and AI-native architectures designed to enhance performance, reliability, security and regulatory compliance.
The event saw participation from industry leaders, startups, telecom engineers and AI practitioners.
