India Stakes Claim as AI Adoption Leader, Despite Innovation Gaps
New Delhi – India recently hosted the Global AI Summit from February 16-20, 2026, drawing over 250,000 registered attendees, representatives from more than 100 countries, and tech industry giants like Google’s Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. While the summit, the fourth in a series that began in the UK in 2023, was lauded as a success in terms of scale and geopolitical positioning, experts question whether it delivered substantial breakthroughs in artificial intelligence research or regulation.
The summit series, which previously convened in the UK (2023), Seoul, South Korea (2024), and Paris, France (2025), has evolved in focus. Initial discussions centered on AI safety, then shifted to innovation. India’s iteration emphasized “impact” and a “human-centric approach,” framed around the principles of “People, Planet, and Progress.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his opening address, positioned India as a pivotal force in the future of AI, highlighting the nation’s vast youth population as the world’s largest talent pool. “This is a turning point for AI research in terms of its scale and trajectory,” Modi stated. Watch the full address here.
However, the event faced criticism for being more “spectacle than substance,” with limited concrete commitments emerging in terms of research, regulatory clarity, or infrastructure development. Reports suggest event management was also chaotic, raising questions about the practical execution of ambitious goals.
Despite these concerns, analysts say India is strategically leveraging its strengths – demographic scale, a burgeoning market, and a desire for international recognition – to carve out a unique role in the global AI landscape.
Demographic Dividend Fuels AI Adoption
India’s advantage isn’t necessarily in creating foundational AI models, but in adopting and deploying them at scale. The country boasts one of the world’s largest digitally connected populations, with a rapidly expanding tech-savvy workforce. According to Anthropic Research, India has the fastest-growing number of AI users globally, experiencing a 15x increase in productivity among those utilizing AI tools. A 2024 Microsoft and LinkedIn Work Trend Index found that 92% of Indian knowledge workers are already using AI in their jobs.
This rapid adoption is underpinned by widespread smartphone usage, affordable high-speed internet, and the government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a revolutionary digital payment system. The UPI system, connected to over 500 million users and processing over 20 billion transactions monthly, serves as a prime example of India’s digital infrastructure. Learn more about UPI here.
A Market Too Big to Ignore
India’s massive consumer base is attracting significant investment from global tech companies. Microsoft pledged $17.5 billion in December 2025 to expand cloud and AI infrastructure, while Amazon plans to invest over $35 billion by 2030, and Google is committing $15 billion to AI data centers and digital connectivity. The summit itself pitched India as a “testing ground” for large-scale AI deployment.
The country’s diverse socioeconomic landscape – ranging from urban digital ecosystems to semi-connected rural markets – provides a unique environment for testing and iterating AI technologies across sectors like finance, healthcare, agriculture, and governance.
Strategic Positioning in a Shifting Global Order
While India currently functions more as an AI application and deployment partner than a global innovator, a growing domestic ecosystem is emerging. Companies like Sarvam AI, Krutrim, Haptik, and Fractal Analytics are developing foundational models and enterprise applications.
However, India’s approach appears less focused on direct competition with AI powerhouses like the US and China, and more on strategic participation and influence. Modi emphasized that the summit’s location in India was a moment of pride for the Global South, signaling India’s ambition to represent the interests of developing nations in the emerging technological order.
Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, acknowledged this dynamic, highlighting the US vision of AI sovereignty through partnerships with countries like India. Read his remarks here.
Experts like T.V. Paul characterize India as a “status-seeking” power, leveraging diplomatic visibility and normative positioning to compensate for material gaps. This strategy aligns with emerging assessments of a potential “mercantilist AI” order, where influence is determined not only by technological innovation but also by control over data ecosystems and supply chains.
Challenges Remain
Despite the optimism, India faces significant challenges. Its semiconductor ecosystem remains underdeveloped, hampered by supply chain issues, infrastructure limitations, and competition from established players like China and Taiwan. While the renewed India Semiconductor Mission of 2021 aims to address these issues, its impact remains to be seen.
Ultimately, the AI Summit in India underscored a crucial point: power in the AI era extends beyond technological breakthroughs to encompass scale, optics, and the ability to shape how AI is integrated into everyday life. India’s focus on adoption and deployment, coupled with its strategic positioning, may prove to be a powerful force in the years to come.
