India is innovating in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at break-neck speed in order to use it to enhance services of telecom networks, said telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal.
Speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2025 on Saturday, Mittal said the government believes AI can make telecom networks self-healing and improve customer services, which is why it is keeping up with the fast-evolving technological landscape along with the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) to ensure that a comprehensive policy can be devised to help use AI to improve services.
“As we move from 5G to 6G, there is a tremendous role for AI to improve intelligence in the networks, make them self-healing, move from generative AI to agentic AI, where both in the front end, deep in the network, and in the middle part of the network, there will be a lot of functions which AI will replace, make the customer service better,” he said.
According to telecom industry players, 6G trials are expected to start in 2028, although commercial deployment will take some more time.
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Pointing out the risks associated with the misuse of AI, Mittal said deep fake and frauds are becoming rampant, triggering the need to main vigilant about the use of technology.
“I look after telecom in the government of India. So, we are able to see how artificial intelligence-aided tools are leading to deep fakes, cloning of voice to bypass voice signatures and even videos to establish false identities and cause financial fraud. Therefore, we have to be very vigilant about what the telecom network will look like with artificial intelligence,” Mittal added.
He said the Department of Telecom has developed an AI-based fraud risk indicator tool, the use of which has helped payments apps, PhonePe and Paytm, to ward off fraud worth ₹200 crore and block more than 48 lakh suspicious transactions.
“We feel that the AI that is used for good, the foundational pillars of innovation, skills capacity-building, governance and standards should lead to trusted, impactful and accessible solutions for everybody. India is advancing the AI to a USD 1.25 billion ‘India AI mission’ by investing in research, startups, and scaling to advance the goals of a secure and inclusive AI ecosystem,” Mittal said.
The telecom secretary said that India continues to shape the AI fairness and governance agenda through leadership at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24) and contributions to the ITU’s AI standardisation framework.
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