DeepSeek powers global AI ambitions: CP Gurnani-led AIonOS and Indosat partner to upskill 1M Indonesians

Former Tech Mahindra head CP Gurnani-led AI venture, AIonOS has signed an MoU with Indonesian telecom major Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison to develop AI solutions based on Chinese open-source AI research lab DeepSeek, the companies announced in New Delhi on Monday.

The partnership aims to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Jakarta and leverage DeepSeek’s open-source models to build enterprise-scale AI use cases, particularly in sectors like TTLH, agriculture. The Centre aims to upskill over 1 million Indonesians in AI by 2030.

AIonOS is a joint venture between CP Gurnani’s Assago Group and InterGlobe Enterprises (parent company of Indigo).

Speaking at a select media briefing, AIonOS co-founder CP Gurnani described DeepSeek as a "promising piece of technology."

China-based DeepSeek recently launched its open-source AI model, DeepSeek-R1, which is being positioned as a rival to leading AI models from OpenAI and Meta. The research lab today led to the plunder of tech stocks on the US exchanges. The platform boasts advanced capabilities in mathematical reasoning and code generation, while being more cost-effective and requiring less computational power.

“The reason we chose DeepSeek is because of its adaptability—it’s similar to Meta’s Llama. These are open-source and can run on proprietary hardware where you need to meet customer requirements. That’s where our whole IP stays, wherein we deploy them and run it at scale, bringing efficiencies for specific use cases,” said Raghav Kumaria, Head of Technology & CX Transformation at AIonOS.

“AI is not free. Ultimately, there is a cost of AI, and that becomes much, much cheaper,” Gurnani added, highlighting the efficiency of DeepSeek’s technology.

While AIonOS is not developing its own foundational large language models (LLMs), it is focused on creating super-agentic AI tailored to specific industries. These super-agents are designed to have domain knowledge, reasoning capabilities, and the ability to transact across federated ecosystems.

“So, it’s irrespective of (which platform) you’re hosting on or whichever customer stack you’re running for, (the agentic AI) will have the power to reason, plan, and action. And then when we couple this with (DeepSeek), suddenly the same agentic AI is much more cost-effective, faster, and much more used by people like us at large,” Kumaria explained.

While AIonOS will use DeepSeek only for its collaboration with IndoSat, the company is only collaborating with major players like Meta, Google, and OpenAI in India. Gurnani noted that the company is working with DeepSeek to compete with US-dominated engines, bringing cost-effective and scalable solutions to global markets.

Gurnani also highlighted the initiative's focus on building a technology ecosystem spanning government-to-government (G2G) and business-to-business (B2B) collaborations.

“We quickly coined the term AI³ (AI cube), which positions AI as an enabler with Indosat and AIonOS as key pillars for this partnership,” said Gurnani. The AI³ strategy targets transformative solutions in travel, transportation, logistics, and hospitality (TTLH), the knowledge economy, and sustainable agriculture.

As part of the partnership, AIonOS aims to upskill over 1 million Indonesians in AI by 2030, while IOH, Indonesia’s second-largest telecom provider led by Vikram Sinha, has committed $250 million to develop a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to bolster the country’s AI ecosystem. This initiative seeks to empower Indonesians with AI skills, enhance key sectors like tourism and agriculture, and strengthen Indonesia’s digital transformation efforts.

The MoU marks the first large-scale AI-focused partnership between India and Indonesia.

The collaboration was launched on the sidelines of the Indonesian President's visit to India during Republic Day week, commemorating 75 years of bilateral relations.