Perplexity, Gemini Bring Free AI to India in Jio Style
If there’s one thing the AI world is learning fast, it’s this: you can’t ignore India anymore. Not when a single move can put your platform in front of 360 million users overnight. That’s exactly what Perplexity did this week and it might just change everything.
The AI search startup inked a massive partnership with Bharti Airtel, giving every Airtel user a free 12-month subscription to Perplexity Pro. Usually $200 a year, the plan is now, effectively, free for a third of India’s population. Just let that sink in.
No surprise, then, that Perplexity zoomed to the #1 spot on India’s App Store, dethroning even ChatGPT. It’s the kind of momentum money can’t buy but a free AI plan, backed by a telecom giant, apparently can.
And the numbers tell their own story. According to Sensor Tower, Perplexity’s downloads in India jumped 600% year-over-year. Monthly active users grew 640%. Sure, ChatGPT still leads with 19.8 million Indian users, but Perplexity’s growth trajectory is nothing short of staggering.
If this feels familiar, it’s because it is. This move mirrors Jio’s early strategy — free data, free calls, and a complete shake-up of India’s telecom space. Just like Jio, Perplexity isn’t just launching an AI app. It’s launching a movement.
Google Wants the Students
While Perplexity aims for the mass market, Google is playing the long game and they’re betting on the minds of tomorrow.
This week, Google announced a special offer for Indian college students: a free year of Gemini AI Pro, its most advanced subscription. The goal is clear — get young Indians using Gemini now, and they’ll stick around long after they graduate.
Powered by Gemini 2.5 Pro, the plan isn’t just some watered-down trial. Students get access to powerful AI tools for homework, research, writing, and even job prep. There’s also 2TB of cloud storage thrown in, making it more than just an AI assistant—it’s a full productivity suite.
It’s a smart play. India has millions of college students navigating tough syllabi, competitive exams, and career anxiety. Offering AI as a study companion isn’t just generous — it’s strategic.
You can almost see the playbook: Google wants to become the AI they grow up with.
AI Agents Are No Longer Hype. They’re Here.
While India grabbed the headlines, something deeper is happening in the world of AI — and it’s big.
AI agents, once just a buzzword, are now very real. This week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Agent, and it changes how we think about what AI can do. This isn’t just answering questions or writing emails. The agent can now navigate websites, conduct deep research, build slide decks, and run virtual computers on your behalf. In short: it does things, not just say things.
And then came Amazon, with its own version — AgentCore. It’s not for casual users, but for developers who want to build secure, scalable agents without spending months on infrastructure. Think of it like AWS for AI agents.
So what does all this mean? We’re entering an “agentic era” — one where AI doesn’t just chat with you; it gets work done for you. From emails to support tickets to data workflows, agents will quietly take over more tasks in the background. The future isn’t just smarter tools, it’s autonomous action.
Everyday Apps Get a Dose of AI
While agents took the spotlight, productivity platforms weren’t sitting still.
Slack rolled out AI-powered upgrades, including transcriptions for Huddles, summaries for channels, and smarter search that looks across Google Drive, Salesforce, and other integrated tools. It’s clear Slack wants to be more than just a place for work chats, it wants to be your team’s thinking assistant.
Meanwhile, Google brought Gemini 2.5 Pro into AI Mode in Search, giving users more depth when it comes to solving math, reasoning, and coding problems. And Microsoft’s Copilot Vision got a visual upgrade. It can now “see” your entire desktop, meaning it can help across any app or screen, not just two at a time.
Each of these updates might seem small in isolation, but together they point to one thing: AI is no longer a side feature — it’s becoming the interface.
A Week That Signals the Real Shift
This week didn’t just bring new features. It brought a change in direction.
Perplexity’s Airtel deal and Google’s Gemini offer show that AI access is the new battleground. It’s not just about who has the smartest model anymore — it’s about who can reach the most people.
And with AI agents now live, we’re officially moving from chatbots to do-bots. The next time you ask your AI to handle a task, don’t be surprised when it just… does it.
India is where this is all playing out first. And if history tells us anything, what wins in India usually reshapes the global market.
We’re not just witnessing a product war. We’re witnessing an adoption race and AI, it seems, has just entered its next chapter.
