Airtel Africa has entered a multi-year, multi-million dollar partnership with Xtelify, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, to deploy a cutting-edge, AI-powered software platform aimed at simplifying telecom operations and improving customer experience across its 14 African markets.
Through the deal, Airtel Africa will deploy the Xtelify Data Engine and Xtelify Work platforms to empower its 150,000 field agents with deep market insights that enable micro-targeted strategies.
The technology will also support critical functions such as spam detection and fraud prevention, enhancing overall customer protection.
Xtelify’s new platform, launched this week, is designed to address complexity in telecom operations by offering an end-to-end solution that enhances service delivery, reduces churn, and increases average revenue per user (ARPU).
Replicating India’s success in Africa
Airtel said it would deploy Xtelify IQ to drive secure, real-time, omnichannel customer engagement, thus positioning units to deliver hyper-personalized experiences and boost customer satisfaction.
“This partnership marks a transformative leap in our mission to build Africa’s digital future. By harnessing Airtel’s AI platforms that have proven scale in India, we are simplifying operations and accelerating personalized experiences across our 14 African markets,” said Group Chief Information Officer at Airtel Africa, Jacques Barkhuizen.
Bharti Airtel described the partnership as a strategic move that highlights the internal synergy between its African operations and its digital innovation arm.
“We are thrilled to partner with Airtel Africa. Combining our Xtelify platform with Airtel Africa’s vision will allow us to address industry-wide challenges like spam and fraud while ensuring customer protection and digital transformation,” said Chief Business Officer, Global Business, Bharti Airtel, Binod Srivastava.
Airtel cloud
In addition to the Xtelify platform, Bharti Airtel also unveiled the ‘Airtel Cloud’, a sovereign, telco-grade cloud platform capable of handling up to 140 crore (1.4 billion) transactions per minute.
Initially built for Airtel’s operations in India, the platform is now being expanded to support businesses in the Indian market.
Hosted on next-generation sustainable data centers and managed by over 300 certified cloud experts, Airtel Cloud offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), advanced connectivity, and Gen-AI powered provisioning.
Telcos embrace AI
The move by Airtel comes as the latest in the race to leverage AI for transformation by African telecommunications operators.
- Just recently, MTN Group also announced that it had begun deploying AI solutions to optimise network traffic and enhance service delivery in Nigeria, as part of a broader continent-wide strategy to transform its operations using responsible AI technologies.
- The Group said AI is now being operationalised at scale across its operations under the “MTN Genova” transformation programme.
- According to MTN, the deployment in Nigeria is part of a series of targeted AI use cases across key domains, including intelligent fuel consumption management for data centres in South Africa, dynamic energy management in Benin, and fibre cut sensing in Côte d’Ivoire.
