Airtel Business CEO Sharat Sinha backs Indian government plan for AI regulation

Airtel Business chief executive Sharat Sinha has voiced support for the Indian government's upcoming artificial intelligence regulations, arguing that clear safety guardrails are needed to help companies adopt AI without exposing themselves to digital threats.

Sinha described the government's regulatory plans as a step in the right direction, stating that formal specifications will give enterprises the confidence to deploy AI systems safely. He added that Airtel Business uses AI heavily across its own operations and works alongside regulators and corporate clients to ensure compliance.

What Airtel Business CEO Sharat Sinha said about AI guardrails

Speaking on the global debate surrounding automated AI tools, Sinha noted that deploying AI agents within structured architecture allows organisations to capture productivity gains without compromising security.

"It is like any technology," Sinha said. "If you deploy artificial intelligence or AI agents with the right guardrails, and if your enterprise architecture is built so that they can be safely deployed, you can get all the essential productivity gains for it."

He added that as AI technology evolves, deployment methodologies and safety architectures will naturally adapt alongside it.

Indian government plans for AI rules and deepfake controls

The comments follow an announcement by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who stated that the government will publish a consultation paper on AI regulation within a month. The draft framework will establish the baseline for Indian AI regulations, focusing on tech safety, deepfakes, and a human-first approach to tech governance.

Concerns over rogue AI agents have grown internationally in recent months, following reports of autonomous models operating outside test environments and exceeding their mandates. Industry analysts and researchers have warned that existing safeguards are failing to keep pace with frontier models, calling for layered technical controls and tighter oversight.

Cybersecurity and rising digital financial fraud in India

Sinha highlighted that broader AI adoption will sharply increase demand for reliable digital infrastructure, combining connectivity, sovereign cloud services, data centres, and cybersecurity.

Addressing security challenges, Sinha pointed out that India now accounts for nearly half of all global digital financial transactions, largely driven by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). That concentration has inevitably led to a rise in digital financial fraud.

Airtel launched a network-AI spam prevention tool just over a year ago and has since built a broader fraud prevention platform on top of it. Sinha stated that telecom fraud on Airtel's network has decreased dramatically since the system went live.

He cited cybersecurity, sovereign cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), next-generation connectivity, and communications-platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) as the core growth drivers for Airtel Business over the next three years.