New Delhi, February 19 As Artificial Intelligence is accelerating rapidly, there is a need to address issues related to governance, accountability, human impact, and cybersecurity, said Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora on Thursday.
Expressing confidence, Arora also said that he was deeply optimistic about addressing these issues, given the unprecedented strength and progress that has occurred in recent years.
While there is increasing use of AI in various areas, there are also concerns regarding ethical and transparency issues related to implementing the technology.
"AI is accelerating faster than our institutions, our governance frameworks, and even our intuition… this widening gap, if not handled correctly, is going to become a tangible threat to national security, economic stability, and social cohesion, making it a defining challenge of our era," Arora said.
Speaking at a session of the AI Impact Summit 2026 in the national capital, the Palo Alto Networks Chairman and CEO mentioned that these issues should be addressed for inclusion, trust, and safety while continuing to make advancements in AI.
"I would say at the current moment, the balance is tilted, not in favor of trust, inclusion, and security. It is actually tilted in favor of speed," Arora said.
Palo Alto Networks is a cybersecurity firm.
"We need to solve the problems of governance and accountability. We need to solve the problems related to social and human impact, and we need to solve the problem of cybersecurity or safety as we build this AI model. However, despite the complexities, I remain deeply optimistic. I believe this optimism is because of the unprecedented strength and progress we have seen," he said.
According to him, India has already shown the world what is possible when innovation is paired with inclusion through digital public infrastructure systems like Aadhaar and UPI.
Such developments demonstrate how technology deployed with the public good in mind and scaled across a vast population can leapfrog traditional development methodologies. "I hope we can apply the same energy in India to solving the problem of AI, to make it more inclusive, more fair, more social, and more trustworthy," he said.
