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India Today AI Summit 2026: India has phenomenal smartphone scale, Ericsson CTO says
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00:00Good evening once again. It's been a long set of sessions and very long lines of traffic and therefore I'm
00:10glad you could make it here.
00:12Let's try and get it to something that everybody here and those who are watching us know, which is their
00:20handset.
00:21And you as the company are behind the networks that actually power everything in the digital arena.
00:32I want to begin by asking you about what Ericsson calls the intelligent digital fabric.
00:40Can you give our audience a sense of what is that vision and what does it potentially promise to deliver?
00:47So, okay, well, I mean, we have very potent technologies now that are more and more being talked about in
00:57society.
00:58It's AI, it's a cloud, it is the mobile networks.
01:04And AI and cloud alone won't make it. You also need the mobile network there.
01:10You will be out and about wherever you are. You want to be able to use your AI-powered applications
01:18in the future.
01:19So that's part of a big system that will be truly important going forward.
01:25In that, we have lots of technology to manage, control, and steer it.
01:30There will be AI agents that are positioned in different parts of the network, having different roles and adding intelligence
01:40to it.
01:41All of this coming together is a fabric, fabric for the future that will drive efficiency and pleasure as well
01:49for people
01:50and lots of good value for industries, enterprises, and society as a whole.
01:54So, that's a good way of setting the stage for this conversation because people would understand AI through the apps
02:04that they have already on their phones.
02:07And we know that the numbers in India are staggering of hundreds of millions of smartphones
02:13and the amount of adoption of AI apps and other abilities is phenomenal.
02:23What will AI mean for the cell phone that I hold in my hand today, if I may ask you?
02:29Will it kind of make the phone smaller?
02:32Will it disappear the screen?
02:35Will the phone get embedded in me?
02:37What is the future of smartphones in an era of AI?
02:43Okay. Well, smartphones will be smarter.
02:47So, we talk in our industry about AI for the networks and AI or networks for AI.
02:58And one important thing is that the networks together with the smartphones supports your usage of AI-based algorithms and
03:09applications.
03:10And here, of course, it's very important how we design the networks for the future to make sure that the
03:18different characteristics of this kind of usage is very well supported.
03:24And there are some things that we trend and follow to make sure that we always are at the edge
03:30of what's possible to do.
03:32And that will continue, always continuing.
03:36And I think one thing that we talk quite a bit about is to perhaps be a bit technical about
03:43latency and delay.
03:45How quickly, when you push a button, how snappy is the system, if I put it that way, right?
03:51And here, we monitor again how AI usage on top of the system has a need for the system being
04:02responsive.
04:04And our research group works on this.
04:07Our product implementation people work on it, right?
04:10And we work on it together with the makers of smartphones through standardization and through alignment in the industry.
04:21So, that smartphone device will be snappier, better, going forward, I argue.
04:27But that's certainly not the end of it.
04:29It also opens up for new kinds of devices coming about.
04:34And here, I think media-intense devices will be there.
04:43And if I exemplify one, I'd say XR glasses.
04:46Already, we see that for industrial use.
04:50And we see it for very, I think, high-value use, like in healthcare, assisting surgeons in full commercial service,
05:01making sure they have a precision cut being assisted from AI-based applications
05:08and conveyed the information to the hologram lens.
05:11Now, that's a precursor for you and me as private persons being out and about again with glasses that are
05:20XR-capable.
05:22I mean, imagine for me, I live in Singapore and coming here to Delhi, I look at a building.
05:28I want to know what's the history of that.
05:30And all of a sudden, I can see it explained on my screen.
05:34And you're talking in one of your native tongues.
05:38I can get it real-time translated.
05:41There will be many applications where we as consumers, as professionals, will use this in the future.
05:49So, the future is a lot more than the smarter smartphones.
05:54And the future is already here.
05:56We've seen a demo that's been already done by Servam, which is India's first sovereign LLM.
06:03And it's getting rave reviews of a glass of the kind that Magnus just spoke about.
06:10You know, for many of the folks here, I stuck to the smartphone example to be able for people to
06:16relate to what your company does.
06:18But this is a company that powers networks across the world.
06:21Without the network, you won't have any of these functionalities available.
06:25So, now two more points.
06:28One, with the numbers that we have in India of smartphone usage and the network lies behind it,
06:35the common man is not able to touch and feel it.
06:38He only kind of looks at it and says, oh, my signal isn't very good in this area or I
06:44get these spam calls.
06:46I want you to try and explain to our audience here how AI is improving the network experience for the
06:55average user.
06:56And I ask you this question in the backdrop of the fact that some of the lowest ARPUs in the
07:04world are on Indian networks.
07:06And these subscribers, through a combination of companies like you and the service providers like Bharti or Jio or others,
07:15are delivering phenomenal experiences at very low price points.
07:20Therefore, what is AI doing for a better network experience for the end user?
07:26Okay, thank you.
07:27Well, there are many parts to this.
07:31I think one thing, let's say, before I go into AI, that you've hit upon the scale
07:41and the importance in a high technology business to really reach scale.
07:47And I think the mobile industry has it.
07:51And that is truly for the benefits globally to markets, and India is the role model in that.
07:58Q3 last year, 87% of all smartphones sold in India were 5G capable.
08:06And the lowest cost here, 70 to 110 US dollars, grew by 1600%.
08:14It's phenomenal.
08:16Say around 100 US dollars, you get a 5G potent smartphone, which from a technology point of view is extraordinarily
08:26complicated.
08:28That can be produced thanks to having scale, and India plays a vital role there in the world, and it's
08:38good for India, it's good for the world.
08:40So, I think the scale that India has here is phenomenal, and it's great.
08:47That also applies then on the application side.
08:52And I think as AI comes in more and more applications, that would be driving many benefits.
08:59I think for much innovation to come, where companies, Indian companies, can provide good value in India but also have
09:08a fantastic export opportunity.
09:12Okay.
09:13Now, the other part of the question was, how does AI help to ensure that the delivery of the services
09:21is better, always better?
09:24Yes.
09:24And that comes to the part where I talked earlier about AI for the networks.
09:31In other words, how do we work with AI to make sure that when we build the products, we leverage
09:38whatever technology has to give, the latest technology has to give?
09:43And there we work intensely, of course, using AI in all layers of our products.
09:53And all of our research and development staff are up-skilled in AI, 45,000 people, and they should use
10:01it daily, both in ways of working and in ways of how they derive new results for what goes into
10:09our products.
10:11And we've seen some results that are quite astonishing.
10:16One key result, a little bit techie, but it's what we call the spectrum efficiency.
10:23In other words, the radio spectrum that here in India is regulated through try and then through auction is awarded
10:30to the mobile operators.
10:32I know there's been a debate here and in many other countries, is the cost of radio spectrum too high
10:38or not?
10:39Okay, let's park that question.
10:41But it's a sizable investment for the operator.
10:44And what we've seen now, applying AI in some, let's say, core parts of the system, we can improve the
10:54efficiency, how much information you can stack in one piece of radio spectrum by 10%.
11:03In other ways, when you paid it for one amount of money, you now can get 10% more space
11:11in that.
11:12That's a huge value that is now being unleashed thanks to using AI in a very core part of our
11:22products.
11:22And that's for the benefit of the users.
11:25That's a good point that you make and I hope the regulator doesn't wake up and decide to start charging
11:31extra because he realizes that the equipment provider and the network is finding better ways to use the same spectrum.
11:39You know, again, to relate this to consumer audience here and at other places, one of the usage of AI
11:50that we've been seeing deployed in an Indian network is to cut down on these spam calls.
11:56It's, I mean, the numbers are again staggering in India.
12:01So anything good and bad, both has scale in India.
12:04So tell me, how does that work?
12:07Will you be able to kind of explain to the audience here that having lesser spam calls on their phone
12:15and hopefully lesser cyber frauds as a more serious issue on their phone, how is AI helping prevent that?
12:25Okay, so, and this is a very good area, I think.
12:30Now, to be fair, this is how AI is done or the network supports AI applications, right?
12:39This is an application that the mobile operators provide as a service to their customers.
12:45And the customers can be you as a consumer, it can also be an enterprise that then can buy information
12:55from the operator to provide a better service to their customers in turn.
13:00And let me give you an example there, an industry initiative a few years old now that Ericsson started is
13:09called network interfaces, network APIs.
13:13And we are driving together in the industry that there should be clearly defined interfaces northbound from the operator's network
13:27where the operator can expose information and then developers can buy that.
13:34And it's not coming to the market.
13:39In the United States, the three mobile operators there launched this late last year and the first of these interfaces
13:48that are in commercial use is to prevent financial fraud.
13:54So, financial companies can secure information to make a better judgment, is this transaction good or bad.
14:05And I think that's an excellent example of how mobile operators sits with information, information that they can process with
14:14the help of AI and then expose it in a controlled way so the right party,
14:20without compromising integrity, etc., can make a better call on if a transaction is good or bad.
14:30And in a way it's very similar to a spam call, it's a different area, but now the spam call
14:38is more directed to consumers.
14:40And there are of course similar ways where the operators with the information on what kind of calls from what
14:49originating number and so on can correlate that and then take a decision.
14:55This is likely a spam call.
14:58I have a couple of questions at the enterprise level, but before I do that, just one more consumer question
15:04if you permit me.
15:05For years, mobile phone customers in India and elsewhere in the world looked up to faster speeds, better bandwidth, better
15:17downloads.
15:18With the advent of 5G, that's no longer the, it's your phone's memory that becomes a constraint really.
15:25For a consumer, and we touched upon this, what will a 6G and obviously an AI-enabled network mean?
15:36So, we believe here that with 5G now, we're taking a very fundamental and big step in the industry.
15:47And that's to provide the ability for mobile operators to, what we say, differentiate traffic.
15:55Meaning that as a service is being transmitted to a user, be it a consumer, be it an enterprise, be
16:05it a government function.
16:07The service can be tailored for different needs.
16:10In the past, we have only talked about best effort.
16:16Now, we can tailor the service for certain needs.
16:22And let me give you an example.
16:24If you say, you have a car on the street and it's to a large degree autonomous.
16:33But the system so far, and I argue for a long time, will have the possibility to be assisted from
16:41the network.
16:42So, if a network now finds that it urgently needs to send a corrective signal to the car,
16:50it needs to be delivered there within a certain timeframe.
16:54That's a certain characteristics.
16:57Well, that service can now be produced by the mobile operator and provided to, let's say, the maker of the
17:04car,
17:05who then sells it to the owner of the car.
17:10And I think if you're walking on the streets, you would like that car to have that safety net to
17:19be able to be controlled.
17:21And that's an agreeable service that can then have special characteristics.
17:27And that goes for many other services, including for consumers.
17:31Already, in Singapore and the United States of America, operators are offering services at venues.
17:40Imagine going to see a rock star, whatever, and you're full of energy and you shoot a video.
17:47You quickly want to upload it to your friends.
17:51In those cases, you can buy, let's say, an event pass.
17:57For three hours, you have the possibility to stream your videos up to your friends with better quality.
18:07And that's a new possibility.
18:09You know, another way of trying to understand the future that we are going to see,
18:16and it's already playing out, is that earlier you thought that your mobile connectivity was limited to your phone.
18:23There was a chip.
18:23There was a radio.
18:24You had a network.
18:25And as long as there was a signal, you were connected.
18:29But increasingly, you have a ring that you wear that is connected.
18:33You have a glass which is connected.
18:35You have a watch already.
18:36I don't know how many of you here are wearing a smart watch, but that's also connected.
18:42And other devices increasingly, connected TVs.
18:45So, look around yourself in your day-to-day life, and imagine five years before, ten years before, fifteen years
18:51before.
18:52How much connectivity did you have?
18:54And therefore, that network and that vision that Magnus just outlined for us.
19:00As we wind down the conversation, I just want a bigger picture, a point from you.
19:06You've been a technologist.
19:08You've seen multiple phases of technology.
19:11How big a disruption is AI when it comes?
19:16Is it as big as the internet or is it bigger?
19:21Well, I'll tell you in a bit.
19:23I think, without a shallower doubt, AI is changing and will change a lot.
19:32And that needs to be treated with some great deal of respect.
19:36Inside of Ericsson, when we worked with generations of mobile systems, and as you said, it's really changing our lives.
19:44Because we quite often say we tend to overestimate how quickly the change will be.
19:54But we tend to underestimate the long-term effect of it.
19:57And I think that's part of AI also.
20:00It is changing life step-by-step.
20:04And as we get into it more and more, and understand more what can be done, we become more mature
20:11to take the next step.
20:13And after having taken a few steps, we moved ourselves in a space that we couldn't see at the beginning.
20:21And I think that's important in many ways because if you want to be a leader, you have to be
20:29at the edge.
20:31And you have to be that all the time.
20:33So get in now, use AI, and start to use it, manage how it's being applied, and take the next
20:42step and the next step.
20:44And I bet you the ones who do now, in five years to come, they will be the leaders.
20:50And for them, it's a small step to go into the future.
20:54But the ones who haven't started really, it's a gigantic leap.
20:58Magnus, when you saw the first SMS being sent from a phone, mobile phone to another phone, did you ever
21:04imagine that we would be living in a world of today?
21:08Thank you for bringing it up.
21:11And just a short reflection.
21:15Why did the mobile standard define an SMS, short message?
21:22It was intended for machine to machine communication.
21:26But the market grew rapidly with individuals sending short messages.
21:34And that business potential, we didn't see, right?
21:39But as it started to come, the market unleashed itself.
21:45And then the rest is history, so to say.
21:48So a similar moment with AI?
21:50All the potential for that, I think.
21:52And a very good one, right?
21:54You said before, it's fundamental.
21:56You have more and more connected devices.
21:59You have the network connecting it there.
22:01And then having the AI-based applications accessing the compute power in the cloud through the networks.
22:10That's changing our lives.
22:12It will be.
22:12And the only thing constant will be change in the future.
22:16Magnus, thank you very much for your time with us today.
22:18With that, it's a wrap on this session.
22:20A round of applause for the guests.
22:22Thank you very much for inviting me.
22:23Very much weekend.
22:23Thank you, Lash.
22:23Thank you very much for being here.
22:23And for the向 next day, thank you very much for speaking,
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