Airtel steps up anti-spam fight with new AI features

Launched in September 2024, Airtel’s industry-first anti-SPAM tool has significantly reduced unwanted communication, identifying 27.5 billion spam calls to date—1,560 every second—and delivering a 16% drop in spam call volume for customers

Telecom giant Airtel has announced two major upgrades to its AI-driven spam detection system, following the successful flagging of over 27.5 billion spam calls for its users. These enhancements aim to further strengthen customer protection against increasingly sophisticated spam tactics.

The first feature introduces spam alerts in 10 Indian languages, enabling users to receive notifications for suspicious calls and SMS messages in their preferred regional language. Airtel plans to expand support to more languages in future updates, making spam detection more accessible across the country.

The second enhancement focuses on spam calls and messages originating from international networks. As Airtel's crackdown on domestic spam intensified, scammers began routing fraudulent communication through foreign networks—resulting in a 12% spike in overseas spam activity over the last six months. With this new capability, Airtel’s AI tool will now identify and alert users to international spam attempts in real-time.

Smarter alerts in local languages

Siddharth Sharma, Director Marketing and CEO Connected Homes, Bharti Airtel, said, “Customers and their feedback are at the heart of everything we do. After carefully analysing customer feedback, we have enhanced our solutions to better serve the linguistic diversity of India. Additionally, with the growing volume of SPAM traffic shifting to foreign networks, we have decided to expand our AI-powered tool to scan all SMS messages and phone calls originating from international numbers. Our dedicated team of engineers and data scientists will continue to refine and enhance our offerings, ensuring we stay ahead of any and all emerging threats.”

The upgraded AI-driven SPAM solution will now notify users about calls and messages from both domestic and international numbers in t10 Indian languages, including Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi and Urdu. SPAM alert notifications using vernacular languages are only accessible to customers using Android devices. All these features continue to be free for customers and will get auto-activated for all Airtel customers without them having to raise a service request.

Airtel’s innovative, industry-first anti-SPAM tool, launched in September 2024, has been a game-changer for its customers, providing substantial relief from unwanted communications. According to Airtel, it has identified 27.5 billion calls until date, which translates to an impressive 1560 spam calls every second. Since its launch in September 2024, Airtel customers have also seen a 16% decrease in SPAM calls.