Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are playing a pivotal role in closing the artificial (AI) language gap in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a move aimed at ensuring that more people benefit from the immense opportunities that come with the technology.

According to a new Global System for Mobile Telecommunications Association (GSMA) report, which revealed this development, it noted that with most AI systems trained on English and other high-resource languages, billions of people who speak local or underrepresented languages remain excluded from the digital revolution.

The report, ‘Bridging the Language Gap,’ outlined how MNOs are uniquely positioned to drive inclusion by integrating local language AI into customer services, convening ecosystems, and even enabling sovereign AI infrastructure.

The study identifies three clear pathways. Firstly, the service providers, when they are using AI to deliver customer support in local languages, create real-world environments for testing and iteration.

Secondly, there are ecosystem conveners. They build partnerships between governments, academia, and technology providers to align incentives around language inclusion.

Thirdly, the sovereign AI enablers invest in compute, cloud platforms, and model-hosting environments to embed local language AI into national digital infrastructure.

GSMA cited case studies across LMICs, including Orange (Senegal), which introduced hybrid language systems to support customers in Wolof through conversational and speech-enabled interfaces.

There is also Dialog Axiata (Sri Lanka), which leveraged prompt-based techniques to empower women entrepreneurs with no-code digital creation tools in Sinhala.

Beeline (Kazakhstan) also spearheaded KazLLM, a multi-stakeholder initiative to build open-access Kazakh language models for public-sector use.

The telecom advocacy body also listed Indosat (Indonesia), which invested in sovereign compute and open language models to strengthen national AI capacity across industries and public services.

Nonetheless, the GSMA warned that without inclusive AI, LMICs risk widening digital divides and losing cultural and linguistic diversity. While community-led initiatives provide linguistic depth and data creation, MNOs bring scale, infrastructure, and institutional leverage.

Together, they form complementary roles in ensuring AI reflects the world’s vast linguistic diversity.

The report concluded: “Closing the AI language gap will depend on how effectively institutions align incentives, share risk, and build partnerships that translate linguistic innovation into sustainable and large-scale impact.”