Aim for substance beyond the spectacle
Governments love global summits. They signal ambition, draw CEOs and leaders, and create the impression of shaping the future rather than chasing it. India’s ongoing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Summit fits that template. New Delhi has sought to position it as a platform to cement AI leadership across the Global South—developing economies that seek both access to AI and strategic autonomy. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared in an X post: “Bringing the world together to discuss AI!”
Leaders and tech executives are expected to advance AI software and infrastructure partnerships, formalize new collaborations and deepen existing ties. The agenda includes how AI can accelerate development, from agriculture and healthcare to education and governance, while also confronting the carbon cost of the data centres that power these systems.
That said, AI is geopolitically sensitive and commercially guarded, with countries posturing as much as they collaborate. Done well, such gatherings can shape agendas and influence policy.
The UK’s 2023 AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park produced the Bletchley Declaration and made a clear case for the oversight of frontier models. The G-7 Hiroshima AI Process sought voluntary guardrails for advanced AI developers. The EU translated years of debate into its AI Act.
India hopes to embark on a different pathway with inclusive policies anchored in open-source models and digital public infrastructure (DPI). The country sees itself as an emerging AI power, even if it trails the US and China.
Stanford’s Global Vibrancy Tool ranked India third in 2025. The government estimates that AI adoption could add $1.7 trillion to the economy by 2035 by lifting productivity and efficiency across industries, strengthening its ambition to become a global innovation hub.
Moving up the value chain is a key aim. It has approved 10 semiconductor plants, is pursuing advanced chip-design partnerships and has an AI chip subsidy for startups building Indian-language and voice models—critical in a nation where millions remain non-literate. The AI Kosh repository hosts nearly 10,000 local datasets and 273 models, offering a data backbone linked to our DPI. We could expect our large technical workforce, expanding R&D base and growing digital capabilities to all chip in.
Yet, we must keep our optimism tempered. As the UNDP cautions, while AI could lift global GDP growth by around two percentage points and raise productivity by up to 5% in major sectors, these gains are unlikely to be evenly shared.
India, the UN believes, is well placed to push inclusive AI adoption. We have initiatives such as the Digital ShramSetu Mission, which deploys AI tools to boost the productivity and resilience of informal workers while widening access to healthcare, education and finance. Indian policy has also been tightening. Alongside the AI Governance Guidelines and Digital Personal Data Protection Act, the amended IT Rules of 2026 impose some of the world’s strictest compliance timelines.
Still, summits can easily slip into spectacle with headline speeches, choreographed fireside chats and promises of ‘inclusive innovation’ without budgets, timelines or enforcement. Smaller firms, civil society, independent researchers and AI critics must also be heard at such summits. Else, even the grandest AI show risks becoming just another memorable example of pageantry.
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