Indian telecom technology company blackNgreen is expanding its AI strategy around a simple premise: AI does not have to begin with a smartphone or internet connection. Its AI On Call service lets users interact with AI through an ordinary phone call, while new voice-assistant and enterprise AI initiatives are extending the company’s focus across telecom networks, products and internal operations.
blackNgreen, an 18-year-old telecom technology company operating across more than 80 countries, is putting artificial intelligence at the center of its next phase of product development and hiring, with voice-based AI emerging as one of its main areas of focus.
The company’s approach is aimed at bringing AI services to people who may not regularly use mobile internet. Its AI On Call platform allows subscribers to access and speak with an AI system through a telephone call, eliminating the need for a smartphone application or conventional internet interface.
The proposition addresses a persistent global connectivity gap. According to the GSMA’s 2026 State of Mobile Internet Connectivity report, 3.4 billion people still did not use mobile internet at the end of 2025, even though more than 90% of them lived in areas covered by mobile broadband. The organization identifies handset affordability as the largest barrier to mobile internet adoption across surveyed low- and middle-income countries.
That makes voice an alternative interface for generative AI rather than simply another communications channel. GSMA research has separately highlighted interactive voice response (IVR) combined with generative AI as a way of delivering information services to people who lack internet access or face barriers to mobile internet use.
blackNgreen says AI On Call is now live in more than 24 countries and can potentially reach around 180 million subscribers through participating telecom networks. The company says the service currently processes approximately 60 million queries each month.
According to blackNgreen’s internal data, companionship and emotional support account for 22.8% of queries, followed by education and learning at 14.5%, news and current affairs at 12.5%, and sports and entertainment at 12.3%. Telecom and account services represent 10.8%, while health and medical queries account for 9.2%. Agriculture and farming represent 5.4% and financial guidance 4.3%.
The figures provide an indication of how consumers are using a voice-first AI interface, although they are company-reported usage statistics rather than independently audited market data. blackNgreen says users spend an average of approximately 28 minutes with AI On Call each month.
The company’s technology stack combines large language models (LLMs) with automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS), allowing it to adapt voice AI to different languages and telecom environments. blackNgreen says its telecom experience also allows the company to adapt services to operator requirements and local regulatory conditions.
This approach puts blackNgreen in a part of the AI market that differs from mainstream consumer assistants. Most generative AI interfaces are designed around smartphones, web browsers and dedicated applications. Voice over telecom infrastructure instead treats the telephone network itself as the access layer.
The company is extending that strategy with AI PA, a voice-based personal assistant designed to answer calls for subscribers when they cannot respond themselves. blackNgreen says the service currently handles more than 18% of subscriber calls and is planned for expansion into approximately 18 countries over the next year.
AI is also being applied to blackNgreen’s existing business software. The company says its AI outreach platform has replaced traditional outreach systems in 12 countries and is producing 2.5 times the conversions. Its SmartConnect platform’s AI-driven decision matrix, meanwhile, has contributed to a reported 40% increase in revenue.
Those figures are company-reported and do not establish how much of the changes can independently be attributed to AI. They nevertheless illustrate the broader shift among telecom technology providers toward embedding AI into customer engagement and operational platforms rather than treating it as a standalone product category.
Inside the company, blackNgreen says an AI-focused automation team has reduced operational effort from 7,200 to 2,200 man-hours. It also reports that feature development cycles have fallen from 15 days to one week and that its product R&D cycle for new launches has decreased from approximately one year to four months.
The company is now expanding the workforce supporting these initiatives. blackNgreen says its technology organization is expected to grow by 65% to 100% over the next 12 months, while sales and business development teams are expected to double within six to eight months. Around three-quarters of new positions will be based in India, with additional hiring planned across Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The hiring strategy reflects a broader telecom industry’s growing emphasis on AI. GSMA has described AI as a major driver of telecom transformation, with operators exploring applications spanning network operations, customer experience and new revenue models. At the same time, the organization has identified fragmented data, legacy infrastructure and workforce readiness as barriers to scaling AI across telecom environments.
For blackNgreen, the combination of telecom infrastructure and voice AI creates a different route into the AI market. Instead of requiring every user to adopt another application, the company is attempting to put AI behind an interface many subscribers already understand: the telephone call.
Whether that model scales will depend on factors including AI response quality, language coverage, network economics, privacy, regulatory requirements and the willingness of telecom operators to integrate AI services into subscriber offerings. But the underlying market gap remains significant, with billions of people still outside regular mobile internet use.
Market Landscape
The AI industry is increasingly exploring interfaces beyond smartphone apps and web browsers. GSMA’s 2026 data shows 3.4 billion people still do not use mobile internet, while 3.1 billion live within mobile broadband coverage but remain outside the mobile internet user base.
Voice-first AI provides one potential bridge. GSMA research on generative AI and IVR has documented how voice interfaces can deliver AI-powered information services to people without internet access or with limited digital skills.
For telecom companies, the opportunity extends beyond digital inclusion. AI can become a layer across customer service, network operations, subscriber engagement and new revenue-generating services. The challenge is integrating these systems with legacy telecom infrastructure while maintaining reliability, privacy and regulatory compliance.
Top Insights
- blackNgreen is using telecom networks as an access layer for AI through its voice-based AI On Call service.
- The company says AI On Call operates in more than 24 countries and processes approximately 60 million queries monthly.
- GSMA reports that 3.4 billion people still did not use mobile internet at the end of 2025.
- blackNgreen is expanding AI into call answering, customer outreach, business software and internal automation.
- The company expects technology hiring to increase by 65% to 100% over the next 12 months.
Power Tomorrow’s Intelligence — Build It with TechEdgeAI
