Ericsson ConsumerLab research projects daily use of AI across text, voice, images and video in India to nearly double, increasing demand for responsive mobile networks and greater uplink capacity.
Daily use of multimodal artificial intelligence (AI) in India is expected to reach 43% by 2030, up from 22% today, according to new research from Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) ConsumerLab. The projected figure is higher than the global forecast of 30%, highlighting India’s potential for strong growth in AI usage across different formats.
The findings point to a shift from occasional AI interactions towards more frequent usage across devices and locations. This transition is expected to create new demands on mobile networks as consumers increasingly rely on AI services for text, voice, images and video.
As people use AI while travelling and share more multimedia content with AI services, network traffic is expected to become more upload-intensive and unevenly distributed. These changes will increase the importance of network responsiveness and uplink capacity, particularly in areas where demand is already high.
“AI is becoming an integral part of how consumers search, create and communicate today. As AI becomes more multimodal and mobile, consumers will expect these experiences to work reliably across devices and wherever they are,” said Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India.
“India’s strong digital foundation provides an opportunity to support this next phase of AI adoption. High-performing networks will be important to delivering the responsiveness, capacity and reliability that emerging AI experiences will require”, he added.
AI Super Users Set to Drive a Greater Share of Network Activity
Ericsson’s research identifies AI super users as an early indicator of how consumer AI habits could develop worldwide. Currently representing approximately 10% of consumers, this group is projected to account for 30% of consumers by 2030 while generating more than 80% of all AI activity.
Their behaviour indicates a growing pattern of frequent AI interactions across multiple devices and locations, with greater dependence on mobile connectivity.
For AI super users, response time has 2.5 times the influence on network satisfaction compared with average users. This highlights the importance of delivering responsive and reliable connectivity as AI becomes increasingly integrated into everyday activities.
Globally, daily multimodal AI usage is expected to rise from 10% today to 30% by 2030. The increasing exchange of images, videos and voice with AI services is likely to drive additional uplink traffic and short bursts of network demand.
By 2030, daily multimodal AI usage, multi-device AI usage and the number of locations where consumers use AI while on the move are each projected to triple.
Agentic AI Could Change How Consumers Use Mobile Networks
The research also highlights the anticipated growth of agentic AI, which can perform tasks on behalf of users, including making bookings, comparing products and managing schedules.
Across the markets surveyed, 38% of smartphone users expect to use agentic AI by 2030, compared with 4% today. Consumers anticipate that these AI-powered services could save them approximately one hour of screen time each day.
As agentic AI becomes more widely adopted, services may generate increased background activity across applications and connected systems. This could make predictable network performance, low latency and reliable connectivity more important for supporting automated tasks.
Trust and AI Assistant Verification Remain Important
As AI systems gain greater autonomy and begin acting on behalf of users, trust is becoming an increasingly important consideration.
More than half of daily AI users surveyed expressed strong concerns about fake or compromised AI assistants. According to the research, communications service providers rank as the most trusted ecosystem participants for verifying the identities of AI assistants.
These findings highlight the importance of trust and verification alongside network performance as AI services become more deeply integrated into consumer activities.
About the Ericsson ConsumerLab Report
The research draws on responses from more than 43,000 smartphone users aged 15–69 across 27 markets. The surveyed markets include India, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
The report’s 2030 figures represent anticipated usage patterns rather than current adoption levels.