Perplexity deal gives Airtel dual win: AI branding and monetization potential, say analysts

Airtel partners with Perplexity

Airtel’s partnership with Perplexity positions the telco as an AI-centric brand while strategically preparing its network for the rising wave of AI-driven data traffic, which is expected to demand higher bandwidth and lower latency similar to mobile video, analysts said.

The deal allows Airtel to experiment with premium AI services, learn from user behaviour, and potentially monetise the partnership by bundling and reselling Perplexity’s offerings to its vast user base, making it both a marketing and business win.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered answer engine Perplexity is offering a one-year complimentary subscription to its premium tier, Perplexity Pro, to Bharti Airtel customers in India, the country's second-largest telecom operator. The offer will be available to all 360 million Airtel prepaid and postpaid mobile customers, as well as broadband customers.

This marks the company’s first partnership with a telecom operator in India, as part of its efforts to drive adoption in the world’s second-largest internet market. Perplexity has struck similar deals with firms such as SoftBank and T-Mobile over the past year.

“There are two clear trends at play,” said Neil Shah, Research Vice President at Counterpoint Research, told Moneycontrol. “First, operators don’t want to miss the AI train, they want to associate themselves with being AI-first, which is great for brand positioning. Second, they need to understand and optimise their networks for the inevitable AI-driven traffic boom.”

Much like how video streaming once reshaped mobile networks, generative AI tools, especially multimodal ones, are expected to place new demands on both uplink and downlink bandwidth.

A rich GenAI prompt may require high throughput, while search and chatbot interactions demand ultra-low latency. Telcos like Airtel are now rethinking their quality-of-service (QoS) frameworks around such “experience-based” delivery.

By partnering with Perplexity, Airtel is not only riding the hype wave but also gaining early insights into usage patterns, bandwidth consumption, and AI-specific behaviour, which can inform network optimisation strategies.

Shah said this opens the door to a potential double-sided revenue model: Airtel could also act as a distributor of Perplexity’s premium offerings to its massive subscriber base, creating a new monetisation avenue while driving AI usage across tiers.

Shiv Putcha, founder of Mandala Insights, said Airtel’s partnership with Perplexity is a strategic move aimed at boosting market access and positioning itself as an “AI-first” telco. “Since Airtel lacks its own foundational AI infrastructure, teaming up with an emerging player like Perplexity helps it ride the generative AI wave and build brand association with cutting-edge tech.”

Putcha said that the partnership gives Perplexity massive reach in India, where GenAI usage is already widespread, and helps Airtel increase user stickiness by offering added value to its subscriber base. “Perplexity will gain market exposure and training data from Indian users, while Airtel boosts its AI credentials and potentially sets the stage for deeper data monetisation.”