Ambani throws Reliance’s weight behind ‘democratizing’ AI

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday emphasized the crucial role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the company’s future, while presenting the conglomerate’s broader mission to make AI “as accessible across India as its broadband services.”

India’s richest man also talked of his company’s commitment to democratizing AI, saying that the technology is “not a luxury reserved for a select few,” but has to be “accessible on all devices, not just expensive, high-end” ones.

“AI has become integral to everything we do,” said Ambani during his speech to shareholders at the company’s 47th annual general meeting.

“To achieve this (democratizing AI), we are laying the groundwork for a truly national AI infrastructure. We plan to establish gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centers in Jamnagar, powered entirely by Reliance’s green energy, reflecting our commitment to sustainability and a greener future,” Ambani said.

The RIL chairman said that “as the only company with access to such green power,” Reliance also plans to create multiple AI inference facilities across its captive locations throughout the country, “which we will scale up to support the growing demand. “In parallel, we will partner with leading global technology companies and innovators to bring the most advanced AI models and solutions and tools to India.”

“By leveraging our expertise in infrastructure, networking, operations, software, and data and by collaborating with our global partners, our goal is to create the world’s lowest AI inferencing cost, right here in India. This will make AI applications in India more affordable than anywhere else, making AI accessible to all,” he added.

AI can optimize inventory in retail, improve disease diagnosis in healthcare, personalize content in entertainment, enhance farm productivity in agriculture, and offer personalized learning in education, Ambani said.

Ambani also said RIL is embedding AI into all of its processes and offerings, by creating end-to-end workflows with real-time, data-driven insights and automation.

Reliance’s telecom venture Jio is implementing a comprehensive suite of AI tools and platforms under an initiative dubbed ‘Jio Brain,’ Ambani pointed out.

The initiative will focus on accelerating AI adoption, enhancing customer service and streamlining workflows through real-time, data-driven insights.

“Jio Brain enables us to accelerate AI adoption across Jio, driving faster decisions, more accurate predictions, and better understanding of customer needs. We are also starting to use Jio Brain to drive a similar transformation across other Reliance operating companies, and to fast-track their AI journey as well,” he said.

Reliance is working on finetuning Jio Brain to help other Reliance operating companies fast-track their AI journey, Ambani said, adding that plans are afoot to offer Jio Brain as a service platform to other enterprises.

Stressing on Reliance’s commitment to keeping the AI services within India’s borders, Ambani said: “These AI models and services will be hosted within India’s borders. They will comply fully with Indian data and privacy regulations, ensuring the security and privacy of our citizens are always protected.”

Ambani said to make democratization possible, Reliance will require “a delivery model where AI services and the data processed by AI are both hosted in the cloud, allowing every user to access their data and AI services from anywhere, on any device, over low-latency broadband networks. This is the only way to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their socio-economic background, will benefit from AI. We call this concept Connected Intelligence.”

“As a first step to Connected Intelligence, every user needs ample and affordable data storage capacity in the cloud, with the highest levels of privacy and security. With data safely stored in the cloud, AI can deliver intelligent, personalized services over the network,” he added.

“We plan to launch the Jio AI Cloud Welcome offer, starting Diwali, bringing a powerful and affordable solution where cloud data storage and data-powered AI services are available to everyone everywhere. Jio users will get up to 100 GB of free cloud storage, to securely store and access all their photos, videos, documents, all other digital content, and data,” Ambani said at the AGM.

“And we will also have the most affordable prices in the market for those needing even higher storage,” he added.

RIL is also transforming itself into a deep tech company, the company’s chairman said as he termed AI as a “transformative tool in the evolution of the human race that is opening up avenues to address complex problems facing mankind.”

In a statement to the exchanges just before the AGM, Reliance said that it would weigh a bonus issue of shares at a ratio of 1:1 to its investors at a board meeting on 5 September.

Shares of Reliance rose about 2.5% on the announcement, before settling 1.51% up from the previous session’s close to ₹3,040.85 on BSE. The broader Sensex index rose 0.43% to 82,134.61