Airtel-Perplexity to Jio-Gemini: Why global AI giants are offering free premium access in India

Over the last few months, Big AI has made big moves in India. First it was Aravind Srinivas’s Perplexity, which partnered with India’s second largest mobile network Airtel to offer their premium Pro version for free in India. They gave away a subscription priced around Rs 17,000 annually. That was in July. It set the ball rolling for more such deals.

The country’s largest mobile network, Jio, partnered with Sundar Pichai’s Google to offer for free 18 months of Gemini Pro—on paper worth around Rs 35,000—to users aged between 18 and 25 years. That was just as November dawned. Just days later, OpenAI, the company that started the generative AI revolution three years ago, offered one of their premium plans to users in India for free. As of now, the clock on the Airtel Perplexity deal will run out in a year, as it will in the OpenAI deal, with Jio-Gemini doing one better with their free offer of premium AI for 18 months. OpenAI users will be charged per usual once the free year is over.

Judging by the language in the press releases that announced these deals, the positioning is clear—it is a win-win-win for everyone. The big talk is of “democratising AI access and strengthening the digital foundation of India”. Ask tech watchers and they will tell you that this has played out before. It is the clasic bait and switch. First hook the users and then start charging once they can’t do without a higher quality of chatbot. Simply put, these companies are trying to…