Billionaire Ambani wants AI in every call, app, and home
As India searches for a homegrown contender in the global artificial intelligence race, billionaire Mukesh Ambani is positioning Reliance Industries as a national champion, rolling out AI services for phone calls, mobile apps, and connected homes. At itsannual shareholder meetingon Friday, the Mumbai-based conglomerate announced Jio Call Agent, an AI assistant that can join phone calls to transcribe conversations, generate summaries, and perform tasks such as booking cabs, ordering food, and making reservations. The service, which can be activated by saying “Hey Jio,” is expected to launch later this year for Jio’s more than 500 million users. By embedding the service directly into its telecom network rather than offering it as a stand-alone app, Jio is betting AI assistance can become a native feature of phone calls. The approach could reduce consumers’ reliance on third-party call-assistant apps and give Reliance a powerful distribution advantage in an increasingly crowded AI market. Reliance also unveiled an AI-powered version of its MyJio app that can perform tasks on behalf of users, from activating eSIMs to selecting roaming plans, through natural-language requests. The company further introduced TeleFrame, a home display that uses AI agents to proactively surface information and recommendations, such as weather alerts, schedules, and household reminders. The product appears to echo a broader industry push toward ambient AI assistants for the home, an area being explored by companies such asAmazonandGoogle. The announcements mark the next phase of Reliance’s AI ambitions as India seeks to build domestic capabilities in a field largely dominated by U.S. and Chinese technology companies. The push follows thelaunch of Reliance Intelligencelast year, through which the conglomerate aims to develop AI infrastructure and services for consumers, businesses, and governments, including applications that support 22 Indian languages. “India should not be a mere consumer of AI created elsewhere. It must become a creator, adopter, and a global leader in AI,” Ambani, age 69, said. Reliance has been ramping up its AI ambitions through partnerships withGoogle,Meta, andNvidia. Earlier this year, the company announced plans toinvest $110 billion in AI infrastructureas it seeks to establish itself as a major player in India’s emerging AI ecosystem. At the shareholder meeting, Reliance also unveiled a suite of AI services for healthcare, education, agriculture, and small businesses. The products, branded JioHealthIQ, JioLearnIQ, JioKrishiIQ, and AI Vyapar, are designed to operate across multiple Indian languages and cater to local needs, the company said. The shareholder meeting also brought a major development for investorsawaiting Jio’s stock market debut. Ambani said Jio Platforms’ board had approved a draft prospectus for an initial public offering that would include a fresh issue of up to 270 million shares, according to a stock exchange filing. The announcements also raise questions about how Reliance will handle user data as it expands AI services across phone calls, mobile apps, and connected homes. While the company said the services would operate with user consent, it did not answer questions about whether data generated through the products could be used to train AI models or shared with technology partners. Reliance’s AI ambitions come as Indian companies remain heavily reliant on foreign AI models and cloud providers.Recent restrictions on accessto some of Anthropic’s latest models have underscored that dependency, showing how decisions made overseas can affectstartups and businessesbuilding AI products in India — the kind of supply-chain risk that’s pushing Indian conglomerates toward building their own stack rather than renting someone else’s. Last week, Reliance announced acollaboration with Meta to establish an AI data centerin the western state of Gujarat, building on Meta’s earlier investment in Jio Platforms and a joint venture launched last year to develop AI solutions for enterprise customers in India and overseas markets. Reliance is not alone in pursuing AI opportunities.Tata Consultancy Services,Infosys, and rivalAdani Grouphave also expanded their AI initiatives and partnerships with global players, including Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, as India’s largest corporations race to secure a leading role in the country’s AI future. Nonetheless, for Reliance, the stakes are particularly high; it’s preparing Jio for a long-awaited stock market debut and needs new growth drivers, with the conglomerate’s shares down about 17% this year.
