Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving and expanding at an unthinkable pace, reshaping the way we live, work, or even look at this world. Global AI giants have started forming a beeline to establish a strong foothold in the Indian market, like Pereplexity did this week with its Airtel partnership.

The AI giant inked a pact with India’s second largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel to deepen its footprint in the world’s second-largest internet market.

Airtel’s massive user base, comprising more than 360 Mn prepaid, postpaid and broadband customers, will receive a free one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro.

Priced at $200 (around INR 17,000) annually, Perplexity Pro includes reasoning-based search modes, image generation, file analysis, API credits, priority support, and experimental tools for building reports, dashboards, spreadsheets, and basic web apps.

What The Airtel-Perplexity Deal Means

The partnership signals Perplexity’s aggressive go-to-market strategy. Globally, too, the company has teamed up with leading telecom providers like T-Mobile in the US and SoftBank in Japan to bring AI-powered search to the mainstream.

With India quickly emerging as one of the most important markets for AI, where players like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini are already making strong inroads, Perplexity’s partnership with Airtel gives it a major leg up.

By tapping into Airtel’s massive user base, Perplexity has firmly placed itself as a go-to AI tool for everyday users.

For Airtel, on the other hand, this partnership isn’t just about offering another offering — it’s a strategic retention lever for a class of users whose interests are more skewed towards ‘intelligence’ (think research work) than ‘entertainment’.

Overall, it is a win-win situation for........

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