TLDR: Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Secretary Neeraj Mittal announced that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will significantly enhance India’s telecom networks, enabling them to become ‘self-healing’ and boosting customer services, particularly with the upcoming transition to 6G. Speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2025, Mittal highlighted AI’s crucial role in network intelligence, fraud prevention, and India’s ‘AI for Good’ vision, while also cautioning about the risks of AI misuse.
New Delhi, October 11, 2025 – India’s telecom landscape is on the cusp of a major transformation, driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), which promises to introduce ‘self-healing’ networks and significantly elevate customer services as the nation moves towards 6G. This was articulated by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) Secretary Neeraj Mittal during his address at the India Mobile Congress 2025.
Mittal emphasized the profound impact AI will have on network intelligence. “As we move from 5G to 6G, there is a tremendous role for AI to improve the intelligence in the networks, make them self-healing, move from generative AI to agentic AI, where both in the front end, deep in the network, and in the middle part of the network, there will be a lot of functions which AI will replace, make the customer service better,” he stated. This shift towards agentic AI signifies a deeper level of automation, extending beyond surface-level applications into the core network layers, allowing systems to detect failures, optimize bandwidth, and personalize user experiences without direct human intervention.
Industry experts anticipate 6G trials to commence around 2028, with commercial deployment expected to follow some time after. India is actively preparing for this future, with the government striving to keep pace with the rapidly evolving technological landscape. Mittal highlighted India’s collaborative efforts with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to harmonize AI and telecom developments for global good.
Beyond network enhancements, AI is also being leveraged for national priorities and security. Mittal underscored India’s commitment to the ‘AI for Good’ vision, supported by the ambitious $1.25 billion India AI Mission. This initiative aims to foster innovation, build skills and capacity, and establish robust governance and standards to ensure trusted, impactful, and accessible AI solutions. India is also playing a leadership role in global AI governance through its contributions to the ITU’s AI standardization framework and participation in events like the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24).
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However, Mittal also issued a cautionary note regarding the potential misuse of AI. “While AI is being used for good, there is also risk associated with AI for its bad usage and hence there is need to remain vigilant about the use of technology,” he warned. He cited concerns over AI-aided tools leading to deepfakes, voice cloning, financial fraud, and the bypassing of voice and video identity verification. To combat these threats, the DoT has already developed an AI-based fraud risk indicator tool, which has successfully helped payment platforms like PhonePe and Paytm prevent scams exceeding ₹200 crore by blocking 48 lakh suspicious transactions. Mittal stressed the importance of regulatory vigilance to adapt telecom systems to counter these emerging security risks.
