Sunil Mittal warns AI is going very fast, calls for guardrails to prevent 'accidents'

Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has urged governments to develop safeguards for artificial intelligence as the technology advances faster than regulation. He also outlined Airtel's plans to expand data centre capacity to 1 gigawatt and build a sovereign cloud for Indian businesses, government agencies and defence organisations.

Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has called for governments to establish safeguards for artificial intelligence (AI), warning that the pace of technological development is making it harder for policymakers to keep up.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Wednesday, Mittal said governments needed to begin addressing AI-related risks rather than wait for a serious incident to force action.

"The movement in the AI is so fast that the government is finding it difficult to catch up to put regulation. India is now putting out a consultation paper as to how to regulate, if at all, we call it regulation or put guardrails around how AI will operate," he said.

"The fact is, people are already using AI agents are proliferating. Are we going to wake up only when an accident happens?"

Mittal called for an approach that protects users without unnecessarily restricting innovation. He also stressed the importance of international cooperation, as AI development and deployment increasingly cross national boundaries.

Alongside the debate over AI governance, Mittal highlighted Airtel's growing focus on digital infrastructure. The company plans to increase its data centre capacity from around 300 megawatts to 1 gigawatt, with facilities being developed in southern India, near Mumbai and around Delhi.

Airtel is also working on a sovereign cloud intended to serve Indian enterprises, government departments and defence organisations. The initiative would allow the company to address domestic demand for cloud and computing infrastructure, although Mittal did not provide a completion timeline or disclose the total investment required.

"We are working feverishly towards setting up sovereign data cloud with which we can serve Indian enterprises, government and defence forces," Mittal said.

Mittal also called for India to reduce its reliance on China, arguing that geopolitical tensions had exposed the risks of concentrating supply chains in one country.

"The world let China become good with everything; when geopolitics turned those lines got fractured. That change must happen that we cannot be overdependent," he said.

He described India's foreign direct investment framework and policy environment as favourable for investors, identifying countries such as the UAE and Singapore as potential sources of capital. He also pointed to bilateral trade agreements as a factor supporting investment prospects.

Mittal further identified financial services as a growth area for Airtel in India, where it has started offering consumer loans. The wider group already operates Airtel Money across 14 African countries.

His comments place AI safeguards and digital infrastructure within a broader discussion about India's technology ambitions, investment climate and resilience against global supply chain disruptions.