Telecom operator Vodafone Idea has announced the launch of Vi Intelligence, a strategic artificial intelligence initiative aimed at driving AI-led transformation across its own operations while helping enterprises adopt next-generation AI technologies. As part of the initiative, the company has partnered with PwC India to establish the Vi Intelligence Lab, which will focus on developing, incubating and scaling enterprise AI solutions.
In addition, AI skilling and workforce capability-building programmes will be launched to help accelerate AI adoption within organisations.
The company said the new initiative is designed to help businesses harness the power of AI and prepare for a future increasingly shaped by intelligent and autonomous systems. The lab will serve as a global innovation gateway connecting AI companies, startups, research ecosystems and enterprises to solve real-world business challenges through artificial intelligence, according to Vi. The companies said the partnership aims to accelerate AI innovation, enterprise transformation and global collaboration around emerging AI technologies. Vi said the Intelligence Lab will be built around three strategic pillars: Agentic AI, Assistive AI, and Sovereign & Responsible AI. The company said the lab’s objective is to help organisations move beyond traditional automation towards intelligent and increasingly autonomous business processes. Jagbir Singh, Chief Technology Officer at Vi, said telecom networks have historically connected people, businesses and devices, but the next phase of growth would be driven by intelligence. He said the company is bringing together global AI expertise, strategic partnerships and digital infrastructure to unlock the full potential of AI, adding that the lab would support organisations in adopting AI at scale across customer engagement, service experiences and business processes. Vi said the broader objective of the initiative is to help organisations modernise operations, improve customer experiences and unlock new growth opportunities through AI-powered innovation.
At the heart of the programme is the Vi Intelligence Lab, which will combine Vi’s digital infrastructure with PwC India’s transformation expertise to create an innovation platform for enterprise AI adoption. As part of the collaboration, PwC India will establish a dedicated Centre of Excellence team that will be co-located with Vi in Mumbai. These pillars will guide the development of AI-driven use cases across consumer, enterprise and operational domains. Vi added that all AI use cases developed through the initiative will be governed by its GRACIE Responsible AI framework, which is intended to promote ethical and secure use of data, intellectual property and AI systems. The Vi Intelligence Lab will operate through several programmes, including incubation projects focused on solving business challenges, development of proprietary AI capabilities, innovation challenges and hackathons designed to attract participation from global AI startup ecosystems. The company also plans to establish a transformation AI factory to rapidly move ideas from experimentation to pilot deployments. With enterprises increasingly exploring agentic AI systems capable of making decisions and executing tasks with minimal human intervention, the telecom operator believes the Vi Intelligence Lab can play a key role in helping businesses adopt these technologies in a scalable and responsible manner. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.