What Apple Can Learn From Airtel

Dear Subscriber,Welcome to Beyond Tomorrow!We are in week seven of our new weekly newsletter, crafted to keep you at the forefront of AI advancement. Every week, we’ll bring you a round-up of the most impactful AI stories, highlight how they shape our world, and provide insights into what’s next in the ever-evolving AI landscape. If you’d like to receive Beyond Tomorrow in your inbox every week, click here to subscribe.Some time ago, Airtel Payments Bank became the preferred partner for the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) used for payments on the Delhi Metro. Counters selling Airtel NCMC cards quickly popped up on Delhi Metro stations. On paper there seems to be no difference between the smart cards Delhi Metro used to issue and the new Airtel NCMC cards. In fact, NCMC cards can be used across transit systems in India, and for shopping too, and are more secure as they can be blocked if lost.However, ever since the Airtel NCMC card was launched on the Delhi Metro it has generated tremendous hatred among users, and on online forums many seem willing to pay a premium for the old Delhi Metro cards. Such is the aversion that commuters are unwilling to appreciate the advantages of NCMC cards over the older cards Delhi Metro issued. In effect, one negative has overshadowed many positives.The reason was simple. Thanks to the way the system is designed, after you add funds to the card you have to validate the same before you can use the funds on the card to travel. It's a great example of poor customer experience but it is what it is on the Delhi Metro. Now, for Delhi Metro cards you could get this recharge validation done at a machine in every station, which takes a few seconds. But Airtel NCMC card users have to queue up at the manned customer service counter, which means many precious minutes lost. Needless to say, queues are always a pain for commuters, and thus the angst.Things have changed though. Airtel Payments Bank has finally come up with an option where this recharge validation can be done using an Android NFC enabled smartphone and that should drastically reduce the dislike for Airtel NCMC cards on the Delhi Metro. However, do note that Apple iPhone users can't use this feature because Apple has not opened NFC completely in India. As a result, Airtel is likely to remain under scrutiny from some Delhi Metro users over its NCMC card, even though the issues are not of its making.Apple Intelligence Faces Flak From UsersAnd speaking of the iPhone, Apple Intelligence has often been ridiculed as alerts generated by this feature have been mangling some headlines, and more, from reputed news organisations like the BBC. Some of the alerts have not just changed the core message of a story but could even have other dangerous implications. What has made this problem worse is that Apple has hyped up Apple Intelligence and made the feature the USP for its latest smartphones. And this latest problem comes on top of the delays in launching Apple Intelligence. Suffice it to say that Apple Intelligence has not been a win for Apple since it was launched.Having said that, there's a lot that's very useful and transformative about Apple Intelligence. But Apple risks losing the trust of many of its users as this problematic feature may well overshadow much else that's great. The hope is that Apple, which prioritises user trust, will transparently deal with the issue, and quickly.Apple’s AI Is Proving It’s Anything But IntelligentHere are some of the other top stories around AI this week. You will notice some about smartphone launches with AI at the core. OnePlus has chosen Google's Gemini to power AI for its latest OnePlus 13 flagship. And Samsung promises amazing things in AI in its upcoming Galaxy S25 flagship.India Must Lead In AI Frontier Work, But Investment Remains Key Barrier, Says NadellaWhile Generative AI Simplifies Tasks, Challenges Abound For Developers: IBM SurveyDanger Of AI: US Soldier Used ChatGPT To Plan Tesla Cybertruck Attack In Las Vegas, Police SayAs Retailers Eye AI, Spending To Surge 52%: IBM StudyMicrosoft, MeitY In Pact To UpSkill 5 Lakh Students, Teachers In AI, Set Up Centre Of ExcellenceNvidia Slides After Unveiling Leaves Investors Wanting MoreCES 2025: Google Gemini AI To Be Integrated Into Select TVs; Check Out Which OnesNvidia Says Samsung Faces Challenges With AI Memory Chip DesignCES 2025: Intel Unveils New Core Ultra Series 2 Processors For AI Workloads, Edge ComputingNvidia GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs Unveiled At CES 2025; Deliver AI-Powered RenderingOnePlus 13, OnePlus 13R, And Buds Pro 3 Launch In India: Prices, Features, Specifications, And MoreSamsung Galaxy Unpacked 2025: Galaxy S25 Series Launch Date, Pre-Booking, Features And More See you next week,Ivor Soans

What Apple Can Learn From Airtel

Airtel Payments Bank ran into trouble with its NCMC cards as users found it lacked critical, user-friendly features. Airtel did deliver a solution and there may well be a lesson in it for Apple.

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