Bharti Airtel has reported significant progress in combating cybercrime on its network, thanks to its AI-powered spam detection system introduced in September 2024. According to figures from the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (MHA-I4C), Airtel saw a 68.7% reduction in financial fraud losses and a 14.3% decline in overall cybercrime incidents between September 2024 and June 2025.
The AI solution has already screened billions of communications, identifying more than 48.3 billion spam calls and blocking 320,000 fraudulent links. Airtel’s vice chair and MD, Gopal Vittal, emphasized that while these results are encouraging, the fight against digital scams is ongoing and will require continued innovation and heavy investment.
Airtel’s proprietary algorithm operates at both the network and IT systems layers, analyzing usage patterns, call frequency, and durations in real time to flag suspicious behavior. It also cross-references links in text messages against a central blacklist and can detect anomalies such as frequent IMEI changes, a common fraud indicator.
Since April 2025, the system has been screening international voice calls and SMS traffic. In May, Airtel further enhanced its protection capabilities by rolling out a real-time solution that blocks malicious links across all forms of communication on its network.
