Indosat is working to integrate AI more deeply into its core telecom business, while expanding into adjacent areas such as cloud, cybersecurity and AI-driven services
In sum – what to know:
AI integration – Indosat is embedding AI across operations to improve efficiency, customer engagement and capital allocation.
Beyond connectivity – The company is expanding into cloud, cybersecurity and AI services to diversify revenue streams.
Distributed compute – A nationwide AI infrastructure strategy aims to broaden access beyond major urban centers.
Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison is advancing its artificial intelligence strategy while continuing to return capital to shareholders, as the company positions itself for longer-term growth beyond traditional connectivity.
At its annual general meeting, the operator outlined progress in embedding AI across its operations, with a focus on improving customer engagement, operational efficiency and capital allocation. The carrier’s chief executive officer Vikram Sinha said the company is prioritizing execution of its “AI North Star” strategy as a foundation for sustained growth and shareholder value, including dividend distribution.
The company is working to integrate AI more deeply into its core telecom business, while expanding into adjacent areas such as cloud, cybersecurity and AI-driven services. This reflects a broader shift from a connectivity-focused model toward a more diversified digital services approach.
A key element of this transition is a strategic collaboration with Nvidia, aimed at supporting the development of AI capabilities in Indonesia. The partnership includes the use of accelerated computing platforms and open models to enable local AI applications and support the development of sovereign AI infrastructure.
Indosat is also building a distributed AI computing framework, leveraging its national network and data center footprint to extend access to AI resources beyond major urban centers. The approach is intended to support wider adoption of AI across enterprises, developers and public sector use cases.
Alongside its AI initiatives, the company emphasized financial discipline and resilience in a challenging macroeconomic environment, maintaining a focus on operational execution and shareholder returns.
In a previous interview with RCR Wireless News, Indosat’s director and CTO Desmond Cheung said the company’s AI-RAN Research Center is the engine behind the firm’s AI transformation, enabling Indosat, Nokia, and Nvidia to build what he calls a nationwide AI Grid that brings real-time AI processing directly into the network.
“The AI-RAN Research Center fundamentally shifts Indosat’s network strategy from being connectivity-led to AI-native,” Cheung said, explaining that the AI Grid will connect AI hubs across the country using Indosat’s RAN footprint and centralized AI Factory. With more than 56,000 sites, he added, Indosat is positioned to “activate an AI Grid quickly and efficiently.”
Cheung described the AI Grid as a system designed to run both “real-time AI processing closer to customers and heavier AI workloads in our central AI Data Center,” supporting use cases ranging from AI-for-RAN automation to Vision AI and, eventually, Physical AI for industrial sectors.
In July 2025, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison had partnered with Cisco and Nvidia to support the creation of Indonesia’s AI Center of Excellence (CoE).
