Akash Ambani to lead Jio AI initiative, begins hunting for talents

After launching an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based feature Jio Interact, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm has begun hiring professionals for building its emerging technology team.

The telecom firm has already hired a few senior talents to build a team, which could be set up in Bengaluru or Hyderabad. The initiative will be led by Mukesh Ambani elder son Akash Ambani, said a Mint report.

Akash, who is also reportedly heading JioCoin project, would be responsible for building a team of young professionals to work on machine learning and blockchain technology.

After hiring process, the team would begin work on various blockchain products, according to sources close to the development. The telecom firm is aggressively pursuing its Internet of Things (IoT) project, where blockchain technology can be used.

Through its IoT project, Jio aims to cover 99 per cent of India population under its network. In May, Jio had piloted its enterprise IoT services.

The IoT network will support a variety of consumers and enterprises use cases which include vehicles tracking, smart appliances, smart metering, security, and surveillance. The new services will lead to more data consumption on its network that now runs on improved infrastructure, said the company.

In February this year, Jio had partnered with South Korean electronics giant Samsung to deploy a cellular IoT network. The firm claims to deploy around 8,000 to 10,000 towers every month.

At present, Jio claims to have around 186 million subscribers on its platform and 150 million smartphone users.

Earlier, Mukesh Ambani in his speech had emphasised that the fourth industrial revolution will happen in India and the foundation of this revolution will be connectivity, computing, data and AI.

Last month, Jio had launched an artificial intelligence-based platform for movie promotion and brand engagement, JioInteract. It has an auto-learning feature that helps improve the answering accuracy. In upcoming days, it plans to more services such as video call centres, video catalogue, and virtual showrooms to the forefront redefining customer experience.

Besides, Mukesh Ambani's firm in April announced an investment of around $180 million over the next three years into Bengaluru-based online education AI-based platform Embibe. It aims to connect more than 1.9 million schools and 58,000 universities across India with AI technology.