New Delhi, February 15 India is set to host the AI Impact Summit, a high-profile gathering of global leaders and industry experts in Artificial Intelligence—a technology widely seen as one of the biggest disruptors since the advent of electricity.
The summit, at the grand 'Bharat Mandapam' from February 16-20, will bring together policymakers, industry leaders, and technology innovators at a time when nations are racing to define their AI agenda.
For India, the event is as much about showcasing its capabilities as it is about intent—highlighting its deep talent pool, expanding digital public infrastructure, and growing startup ecosystem, while positioning itself as a key architect of responsible, scalable, and inclusive AI solutions for the world.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has moved far beyond research labs and boardroom buzzwords—it is reshaping healthcare delivery, transforming agriculture, recalibrating financial markets, redefining education systems, and rewriting corporate strategy, even as it alters the very nature of work and, increasingly, everyday life.
For India, the global summit underscores the nation's intent to not merely be a participant, but a key architect in shaping the rules, standards, and opportunities of the AI age.
At its core lies the ambition to secure a seat at the global high table of technology leadership and help shape the next phase of Artificial Intelligence development.
"The key message we want to send is that whatever happens with AI needs to be human-centric and inclusive. There needs to be democratic access to AI resources, and it needs to be done in a way where people are at the centre of this process," IT Secretary S Krishnan told PTI.
At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, many global leaders are scheduled to attend the AI Impact Summit, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Lula da Silva—the presence of these heads of state underscores the high-level international engagement and interest around the AI agenda.
Ministerial delegations from over 45 countries would be participating in the summit. The UN Secretary General and senior officials from several international organisations will also join the deliberations.
Prime Minister Modi will address the Summit, visit the Expo, and engage closely with the CEOs. The event will be closely watched globally as it unfolds, given that some of the biggest names shaping the tech narrative are slated to be part of it.
Why this summit matters:
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While earlier global gatherings—including the UK's AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park (2023), the Seoul Summit (2024), and the Paris meet (2025)—placed significant emphasis on frontier risks, safety guardrails, and voluntary commitments, India is widening the lens to foreground AI's developmental impact and real-world applications that can drive economic growth, social inclusion, and sustainability. In essence, People, Planet, and Progress.
India is the architect of one of the world's largest digital public infrastructures, which has drawn global recognition, and is home to a fast-growing startup ecosystem.
Backed by the IndiaAI Mission's push for compute capacity, datasets, and skilling, the summit will signal New Delhi's strategy for harnessing Artificial Intelligence while balancing rapid innovation with appropriate safeguards.
Governments, captains of the global tech industry, researchers, startups, students, and citizens from across the world will tune in to high-voltage deliberations for a peek into the future and what it would look like in the AI era.
The big themes to watch:
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Seven thematic working groups, co-chaired by representatives from the Global North and Global South, will present concrete deliverables, including proposals for AI Commons, trusted AI tools, shared compute infrastructure, and sector-specific compendiums of AI use cases.
Power-packed sessions, over 700 planned over five days, will address AI safety, governance, ethical use, data protection, and India's approach to sovereign AI, including the development of indigenous foundation models for strategic sectors.
The summit will have deep dives into how AI is impacting professions and industries, the new skill requirements for the evolving job market, and the role of AI in supporting farmers, small businesses, and individuals.
AI and the future of work:
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As automation reshapes industries, workforce readiness will come under the spotlight. India has one of the youngest workforces in the world, with over 65 per cent of the population under 35, giving the nation a substantial edge in the new era.
Given the favourable demographic profile, the tech-savvy talent base can be trained and adapted for AI-driven industries, creating a foundation for innovation, digital services, and future-ready jobs.
Technology stocks have, in recent months, turned volatile, even nervous, amid concerns that advances in Artificial Intelligence tools could disrupt traditional outsourcing and software services models.
Reskilling initiatives, AI-focused training programmes, and the broader implications for India's vast IT services sector are likely to feature prominently in the discussions in the coming days.
India's AI rulebook—balancing innovation and regulation:
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Recent amendments to IT rules and FAQs around AI-generated content and labelling is the huge talking point in the industry at the moment, as is increased accountability of social media platforms and AI tool providers.
The summit will offer insights into India's approach to tackling deepfakes and AI misinformation.
Unlike the EU's regulation-heavy AI Act or the US' market-driven approach, India has opted, and indeed advocated, for an innovation-first approach. A development-first model focused on scaling benefits across emerging economies.
"Concerns of each society and each country are different in where the negative impact could lie, and so we need to understand that our approach to regulate AI will depend on the objective situations we find ourselves in.
"If we need to legislate and regulate, we can do it quickly and do it in a way that does not impact innovation. Which is why we say innovation-first is the approach, we stand ready to regulate when the need arises, and to the extent possible, we will use existing legislation and regulations," Krishnan said.
Bringing the Global South to the AI high table:
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The India AI Impact Summit 2026 will be the first global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South.
India has consistently championed the voice of developing economies in digital policy forums. The summit will push for equitable access to AI resources and fair rule-making.
Having cemented its reputation with digital public infrastructure like UPI and Aadhaar, the attention now shifts to the summit to see how the country can extend that storied legacy to the realm of Artificial Intelligence and set the global benchmarks for responsible AI at scale.
Host India expects that the event will build consensus on key issues around Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly spotlighting the inclusion agenda and democratisation of AI resources. A joint declaration, a framework for responsible AI deployment in developing economies, or a roadmap for shared research and compute infrastructure would be keenly watched.
The 'Power List' of tech CEOs:
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The summit has a blockbuster lineup of CEOs headlined by Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google), Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), Demis Hassabis (CEO of DeepMind Technologies), Dario Amodei (Anthropic CEO), and Brad Smith (Microsoft president), among others.
The collective presence of these influential tech voices under one roof elevates the summit proceedings to a centre of gravity for global tech deliberations.
Audiences will keep a close eye on frontier AI labs (OpenAI, Anthropic) and leading players (Microsoft, Google) for cues and company-related updates and announcements.
Indian startup founders building indigenous models will share the summit stage, highlighting the country's growing role in the AI stack.
Spotlight on Sovereign AI:
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In preparation for the India AI Impact Summit 2026, 12 Indian AI start-ups selected under the Foundation Model Pillar recently engaged in a roundtable chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and presented their ideas and work.
These startups are working in a diverse set of areas, including Indian language foundation models, multilingual LLMs, speech-to-text, text-to-audio, and text-to-video; 3D content using generative AI for e-commerce, marketing, and personalized content creation; engineering simulations, material research, and advanced analytics for data-driven decision-making across industries; healthcare diagnostics and medical research, among others.
As the world navigates twin realities of AI's transformative promise and fears around disruptive potential, the India AI Impact Summit 2026 arrives as more than a global-scale event. The deliberations from Bharat Mandapam will influence how AI is built, governed, and deployed across the world in the years ahead.
