Bharti Airtel has taken a new and innovative step in India. The company has partnered with AI-powered search and knowledge tools perplexity, under which more than 360 million (36 crore) of Airtel will get a 12-month subscription of Perplexity Pro for more free. The international value of this Pro plan is around Rs 17,000 annually, which Airtel customers will now be able to access without any extra charge.

According to Airtel, this offer is for the active users of mobile, broadband and DTH. Users can claim it through the Airtel Thanks app. Perplexity is an AI -word search and answer engine that claims to give the user not just web page listing, but to give real-time, well-ricated and to-the-point answer. Its interface is like a chat, where the user can question a fruit-up and the system of the tool itself improves its answers.

In Perplexity Pro, users get access to advance AI models like GPT-4.1 and Claude, as well as powerful features like image generation, file upload, deep research and model selection.

This partnership has been called by Airtel, India’s first telecom-AI collab. The company’s MD and VC Gopal Vittal say that “We want our customers to understand the upcoming digital changes easily and proceed with confidence in them. This partnership with Perplexity is part of the same vision.”

Perplexity co-founder and CEO Arvind Srinivas said that this partnership will give millions of people in India to professional-grade AI tools, whether they are students, professional or homemakers. The company says that this tool helps in finding information in real-time, learning and completing the work better.

Airtel has also shared the use-case of this tool, such as a research assistant for a student, kitchen for a housewife and home management support and travel planning tool for a busy professional. That is, this tool is not just a chatbot, but is an AI partner providing a practical help done by every user.