Airtel Africa has entered a multi-year, multi-million-dollar strategic partnership with Xtelify. The digital innovation arm of Airtel India, in a bold move aimed at accelerating its digital transformation journey across the continent.
The agreement will see Airtel Africa deploy Xtelify’s pioneering software platforms. Data Engine, Work, and IQ across its operations in 14 countries, marking a significant shift towards AI-led, customer-centric operations.
Transforming Telecom with AI and converged platforms
Xtelify, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, launched an AI-powered, future-ready software platform designed to simplify telecom operations and elevate customer engagement. The platform features a converged data engine for large-scale AI insights, a workforce platform for real-time task management, and a comprehensive experience platform for optimizioptimisingr journeys.
These tools aim to help global telcos reduce operational complexity, increase customer satisfaction, minimize cminimised boost average revenue per user (ARPU).
Empowering Airtel Africa’s field force and customers
Through this partnership, Airtel Africa’s 150,000-strong field team will benefit from advanced market insights and micro-targeting capabilities powered by Xtelify Data Engine and Work. These tools are also expected to bolster security for customers by enabling critical use cases like spam and fraud protection.
Additionally, Xtelify IQ, the platform’s customer engagement engine, will enable secure, real-time omnichannel communication to enhance both service quality and overall customer experience.
Leadership insights: ‘Airtel leveraging Airtel’
Jacques Barkhuizen, Group Chief Information Officer at Airtel Africa, hailed the partnership as a “transformative leap” in the company’s commitment to building Africa’s digital future.
“By harnessing Airtel’s AI platforms that have proven scale in India, we are not only simplifying our operations but also accelerating hyperhyper-personalisingur customers,” Barkhuizen said. “This is Airtel leveraging Airtel — a powerful synergy for sustainable growth, innovation, and unmatched value.”
Binod Srivastava, Chief Business Officer – Global Business, Bharti Airtel, echoed this sentiment:
“By combining our innovative Xtelify platform with Airtel Africa’s vision, we will address industry’s most complex challenges, like fighting spam and fraud, while ensuring utmost customer protection.”
Launch of Airtel Cloud: Sovereign, scalable, and sustainable
Xtelify also announced the launch of ‘Airtel Cloud’, a sovereign, telco-grade cloud platform originally designed for Airtel’s operations in India, capable of handling 140 crore transactions per minute.
Now being extended for broader business use, Airtel Cloud is hosted on next-generation sustainable data centres and includes Gen-AI-based provisioning.
Managed by over 300 certified cloud experts, the platform delivers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and advanced connectivity with secure migration, effortless scalability, and zero vendor lock-in.