Airtel has ramped up hiring by 150% in digital verticals as it is betting big on its digital segments.
Focus Shifted To Digital
The new hiring plans are part of its strategy to shift focus to digital processes and build more customer-centric products.
This development comes in the backdrop of rivals Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) and Vodafone Idea (Vi), turning to AI, machine learning, and IoT-based solutions to drive growth.
Airtel is following suit by reshaping its organizational structure to focus more on its digital operations and monetize them.
The company said, “over half of Airtel’s India business today flows through its digital channels as customers and partners look for frictionless and intuitive experiences on the go.”
Hiring Across Hierarchies
The new digital-oriented hiring strategy is happening across hierarchies.
Some senior executives inducted include Adarsh Nair, chief product officer with over 20 years of tech expertise, and Pradip Kapoor, Chief Information Officer from Merck UK.
Presently, 1,600 people have been employed in the digital services division who have been sourced from Silicon Valley, engineering colleges, and even NASA.
The hires include engineers and data scientists operating in Airtel’s technology startup, Airtel X Labs.
Roles And Work Involved
Their work involves developing solutions to “distributed computing, high performance mobile apps, voice bot, understanding customer behaviour, building recommendation systems,” as said by Sunil Goyal, Head, Digital Customer Experience Engineering for Airtel.
Labs have developed AI-enabled chatbots capable of communicating with customers and answering their queries in over 12 Indian languages.
Airtel’s digital portfolio products include Wynk Music, Airtel Xstream, and Airtel Thanks, all built in-house.
It has also launched Airtel IQ, a cloud communication suite that facilitates online customer interactions via phone calls, texts, mobile, or web.