Having already unveiled a very people-inclusive, futuristic vision for leveraging the rising waves of artificial intelligence, India is rearing to host in February India-AI Impact Summit 2026 that is hailed as the first of its kind initiative in the Global South- signalling a broader move towards a more inclusive global AI dialogue.
The five-day global event would be held from 16-20 February at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
That AI being evidently seen rapidly overlapping with the AV industry dynamics globally, this initiative is assumed to have a significant bearing on how Indian AV negotiates the emerging trends and stands to gain.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key enabler of India’s development journey, strengthening governance and improving public service delivery. For India, AI supports inclusive growth at scale and aligns with the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047. India’s linguistic and cultural diversity positions it strongly for advancing multi-lingual and multi-modal AI systems tailored to diverse public needs.
Building on India’s development-focused approach to AI, the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 is scheduled to be held on 16–20 February 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. The summit will be the first global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South. It will bring together global leaders, policymakers, technology companies, innovators, and experts to showcase and deliberate on the transformative potential of AI across governance, innovation, and sustainable development.
Taking forward outcomes from major international AI forums, India’s approach through the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 will focus on translating global discussions into development outcomes aligned with national priorities under the IndiaAI mission and Digital India Initiative. It will strengthen multilateral cooperation while advancing practical, people-centric AI frameworks relevant to India’s governance, economy, and society.
Significance of AI for India: AI has emerged as a transformative force with the potential to accelerate India’s economic growth, strengthen governance and improve the quality of life of citizens, anchored in the principles of People, Planet, and Progress.
Further, the Summit will focus on strengthening global collaboration, promoting responsible and ethical AI, and accelerating AI adoption across priority sectors of the economy. The Summit is expected to play a catalytic role in positioning India as a global hub for AI innovation and deployment, aligned with the vision of a digitally empowered and technology-driven India.
Foundational Pillars – The Three Sutras and Seven Chakras Driving Global Collaboration of AI Impact: The India–AI Impact Summit 2026 aims at advancing an impact-oriented and people-centric approach to Artificial Intelligence, with emphasis on delivering measurable social and economic outcomes. The Summit will be anchored on three foundational pillars, known as ‘Sutras‘—a Sanskrit term meaning guiding principles or essential threads that weave together wisdom and action. These Sutras define how AI can be harnessed through multilateral cooperation for collective benefit.
Building on the three foundational Sutras, the deliberations at the AI Impact Summit will be structured around 7 Chakras. These Chakras represent key areas of multilateral cooperation that channel collective efforts towards inclusive and sustainable societal outcomes.
- Human Capital: This chakra focuses on building an equitable AI reskilling ecosystem through targeted skilling. For India, this strengthens workforce readiness for the AI economy, aligned with national development priorities.
- Inclusion for Social Empowerment: This chakra focuses on enabling inclusive participation through shared AI solutions and scalable models. This supports delivery of citizen-centric AI solutions and strengthens last-mile services in India.
- Safe and Trusted AI: This chakra focuses on translating global principles for responsible AI into practical, interoperable safety and governance frameworks. For India, this strengthens domestic AI governance, supports safe deployment of AI across public platforms and builds public trust while enabling innovation.
- Resilience, Innovation and Efficiency: This chakra focuses on addressing the growing environmental and resource challenges posed by large scale AI systems, which risk deepening the global AI divide. For India, it supports sustainable AI adoption, ensuring AI growth remains environmentally responsible and socially equitable.
- Science: This chakra focuses on harnessing AI to accelerate discovery while correcting deep inequities in access to data, compute, and research capacity. For India, it strengthens research ecosystems, accelerates solutions in health, agriculture, and climate, and positions India as an active contributor to global scientific advancement.
- Democratizing AI Resources: This chakra envisions a global AI ecosystem where access to foundational enablers of AI development is equitable and affordable for all. For India, it expands access for startups, researchers, and public institutions while ensuring equitable participation in global AI value chains.
- AI for Economic Growth & Social Good: This chakra explores approaches to harness AI’s potential for truly inclusive growth, recognising and supporting high impact use cases that become exemplars of AI for both economic growth and social good.
Together, these Chakras provide a comprehensive framework for countries, international organisations, and stakeholders to align AI strategies, promote shared learning, and deploy AI solutions that maximise collective benefits while addressing common challenges.
The objectives of the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 are operationalised by the AI Impact Events. The events provide structured platforms to present Indian AI initiatives, sectoral use cases, and institutional frameworks, while enabling feedback, peer learning, and international benchmarking.
· The India–AI Impact Summit 2026 will be the first global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South.· It will be anchored on three foundational pillars, or ‘Sutras’: People, Planet and Progress.· The India AI Impact Expo is expected to feature over 300 exhibitors, from 30 Countries, across more than 10 thematic pavilions. |
Pre-Summit Events: Pre-Summit Events have been organised as part of the preparatory process for the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 to facilitate early consultations and focused thematic discussions. These engagements, held in India and abroad, bring together governments, academic and research institutions, industry, startups, and civil society.
Regional AI Conferences: Regional AI Conferences are being organised as part of the lead-up to the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 to align national AI priorities with regional needs. Eight conferences held between October 2025 and January 2026 across Meghalaya, Gujarat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, and Telangana, partnered with state governments will identify region-specific AI use cases, policy inputs, and capacity gaps. The deliberations will inform the agenda and outcomes of the India–AI Impact Summit 2026.
Main Summit: The Main Summit will be organised across the seven Chakras of the Summit. These sessions will bring together industry, academia, and international partners to examine use cases, share policy experiences, and identify practical approaches for development-oriented deployment of AI. The strong global response to the Summit is reflected in the receipt of over 700 proposals.
AI Compendium: The AI Compendium is a key knowledge output of the India–AI Impact Summit 2026 and will be released during the Summit on 17 February 2026. It comprises a set of thematic casebooks documenting real-world applications of Artificial Intelligence across priority sectors. It will serve as a reference resource for practitioners, and stakeholders, and support continued collaboration and adoption of responsible and development-oriented AI solutions beyond the Summit.
