Bharti Airtel Enhances AI-Powered Spam Detection for International Calls

Bharti Airtel has significantly upgraded its AI-powered spam detection functionality to include international calls and messages, aiming to combat a recent surge in spam from overseas. The company has also introduced spam alerts in ten Indian languages, improving user accessibility across the nation.

Comprehensive Spam Alerts in Regional Languages

The improved system will alert users to spam calls and SMS from both local and international numbers, with notifications now offered in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi, and Urdu. These alerts in various regional languages will initially be available for Android users, with the addition of more languages anticipated in upcoming updates.

Automatic Activation of New Features

All new functionalities will be automatically enabled and provided to Airtel customers at no additional cost.

Airtel indicated that this enhancement stems from a 12% rise in spam traffic from international networks over the last six months, as scammers attempt to circumvent stricter controls within the country. The expanded capabilities are intended to tackle this increasing issue effectively.

Executive Insights on the Spam Situation

Siddharth Sharma, Director of Marketing and CEO Connected Homes at Bharti Airtel, noted that the company, after thoroughly assessing customer feedback, has enhanced its solutions to cater to the linguistic diversity present in India. Furthermore, due to the escalating amount of spam traffic migrating to foreign networks, the decision was made to broaden the AI-driven tool’s scope to monitor all SMS communications and phone calls originating from international numbers.

Impact of Airtel’s AI Spam Filter

Airtel’s AI spam filter, launched in September 2024, has already flagged over 27.5 billion spam calls, averaging about 1,560 calls per second, based on statistics from the telecom operator. The company also asserts that this initiative has led to a 16% reduction in the spam calls encountered by its users.