Airtel's AI-powered spam filter catches 8 bn calls and 0.8 bn SMS

Up to 6 per cent of all calls, 2 per cent of SMS noted as spam on the Airtel network

Airtel's Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered spam filter has flagged 8 billion spam calls and 0.8 billion spam SMS within 2.5 months of launching, the company said on Monday. It successfully identified close to 1 million spammers every day on Airtel's network, where 6 per cent of all calls and 2 per cent of all SMS have been noted as spam.

 

The telco was the first to launch a spam filter for its network in late September. Two and a half months since then, the AI-driven technology has successfully detected nearly 1 million spammers daily. "In this period, the company has notified around 252 million unique users about suspicious calls, leading to a 12 per cent reduction in the number of customers responding to them," it said.

 

Interestingly, it has been observed that a staggering 35 per cent of the spammers have used landline telephones, the company said.

 

Customers in Delhi have received the most spam calls, followed by those in Andhra Pradesh and Western Uttar Pradesh. The majority of these spam calls have originated from Delhi, followed by Mumbai and Karnataka. "In terms of SMS, the maximum number have originated from Gujarat, followed by Kolkata and Uttar Pradesh, while the maximum number of customers targeted have been from Mumbai, Chennai, and Gujarat," Airtel said.