Vi, one of India’s leading telecommunications service providers, has launched Vi Intelligence, a strategic AI initiative intended to drive AI-led transformation inside the company and across the enterprises it serves. The move positions the operator as more than a connectivity provider, casting it as a development and incubation partner for organizations trying to put next-generation AI to practical use.
A lab at the center
The centerpiece of the initiative is the Vi Intelligence Lab, built in partnership with PwC India. The Lab is meant to act as an innovation engine for developing, incubating and scaling enterprise AI solutions. It pairs Vi’s digital infrastructure with PwC India’s transformation expertise, and the companies describe it as a global gateway that connects AI leaders, startups, research ecosystems and enterprises around real-world business problems.
PwC India will set up a dedicated Centre of Excellence team co-located with Vi in Mumbai, giving the partnership a physical home and a standing group of practitioners rather than a purely advisory arrangement.
From connectivity to intelligence
Jagbir Singh, CTO of Vi, framed the launch as a natural evolution for a company whose business has long been about linking people, businesses and devices. “The future belongs to intelligence,” he said, adding that the Lab brings together global AI expertise, strategic partnerships and Vi’s digital infrastructure to help unlock the full potential of AI. Singh said the Lab will support organizations as they adopt AI in practical and scalable ways, from improving customer engagement and service experiences to rethinking processes that span multiple functions. He described it as a commitment to building future-ready capabilities across the enterprise ecosystem.
PwC India’s perspective emphasized the shift toward autonomy. Vinish Bawa, Partner and Leader for TMT at PwC India, said enterprises are approaching an era in which AI will change not only how organizations operate but also how they innovate, compete and create value for stakeholders. As companies move toward intelligent and autonomous processes, he said, they will need trusted ecosystems that speed up innovation while keeping AI adoption responsible. PwC India, he noted, will contribute its experience in agentic transformation to help organizations turn AI potential into capabilities they will need to survive and thrive.
Three pillars and a governance gate
The Lab is organized around three strategic pillars: agentic AI, assistive AI, and sovereign and responsible AI. Together they are meant to steer solution development across consumer, enterprise and operational domains, and to help enterprises move beyond conventional automation toward business processes that are increasingly autonomous.
For CIOs wary of deploying agentic systems without guardrails, the governance model may be the most relevant detail. Every use case in the Lab passes through GRACIE, Vi’s Responsible AI framework, which is built on governance structures intended to ensure the ethical and secure handling of data, intellectual property and AI systems.
How the Lab will work
Vi says the Lab will run through a mix of programs rather than a single product offering. Incubation projects will target complex business challenges, while a separate track will develop proprietary AI, technology and innovation capabilities to support future-ready enterprises. Vi AI Open hackathons and innovation challenges will draw experimentation and collaboration from top global AI startup hubs.
A transformation AI factory is designed to move concepts quickly from experimentation into pilot deployment, addressing the gap between proof of concept and production that stalls many enterprise AI efforts. The Lab will also run AI skilling and capability-building programs aimed at speeding adoption across the workforce.
What it means for enterprises
By combining global AI innovation with telecom expertise, Vi says the Lab aims to help organizations modernize operations, improve customer experiences and open new avenues for growth. For enterprise technology leaders, the pitch is access to a structured environment for testing agentic and assistive AI with a governance framework already in place, backed by a consulting partner and a pipeline of startup talent. How quickly the Lab moves from announcement to delivered pilots will be the real measure of the initiative.