AI Impact Summit 2026: India at the Centre of Global AI Talks

The AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, will bring together global technology leaders, policymakers, researchers and enterprise executives at a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping both markets and governance.

The timing is significant. As generative AI moves from experimentation to enterprise deployment, governments are reassessing regulation, infrastructure readiness and talent pipelines. India, by hosting the summit, is signalling that it intends to shape that conversation rather than follow it.

Organised under the Government of India’s IndiaAI Mission, the summit aims to align innovation with accountability, a balance that has become central to global AI discourse.

A Gathering of AI’s Most Influential Voices

The confirmed attendee list underscores the summit’s scale. Leaders expected in Delhi include Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer, Google; Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer, OpenAI; Jensen Huang, Founder, Nvidia; and Demis Hassabis, Chief Executive Officer, DeepMind.

Also slated to participate are Yoshua Bengio, Founder & Chair, Mila Institute; Prativa Mohapatra, Managing Director, Adobe India; Alexandr Wang, Chief AI Officer, Meta; and Aparna Bawa, Chief Operating Officer, Zoom.

Indian industry will be represented by senior executives from Reliance Industries, Tata Sons and Infosys, among others. Political participation adds another layer, with French President Emmanuel Macron expected to be in Delhi during the summit. Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Sattar Hashemi, has also been listed among attendees.

The composition reflects a deliberate multi-stakeholder format, where regulators, platform architects, infrastructure providers and researchers share the same table.

What’s on the Agenda

The summit is structured around three pillars: People, Planet and Progress, spanning seven thematic areas that include workforce development, trusted AI systems, sustainability and economic growth.

Sessions are expected to explore applied use cases across healthcare, education, agriculture and public services. For instance, AI-enabled diagnostics in rural healthcare, adaptive learning systems in public education, and precision tools for agricultural productivity are likely to form part of the discussion matrix.

At the same time, regulatory frameworks and ethical safeguards will remain central. As AI systems increasingly influence decision-making, policymakers are grappling with issues around bias, transparency and accountability. The Delhi summit aims to move that debate toward workable frameworks rather than broad principles.

India’s Strategic Positioning in the AI Race

India’s role as host is not merely ceremonial. The country has emerged as one of the top three nations in the global AI ecosystem, following the United States and China. It is home to more than 4,000 AI startups, with deployments spanning healthcare, agriculture, education and governance.

The IndiaAI Mission, launched in 2025 with an outlay exceeding Rs 10,000 crore, focuses on research support, data infrastructure and talent development. The recently announced 2.0 version of the mission signals continued policy momentum.

India’s digital public infrastructure, including large-scale identity and payments systems, offers a testing ground for AI applications at population scale. By convening global leaders in Delhi, the government appears intent on positioning the country as a bridge between advanced economies and the Global South on AI governance.

Unlike purely academic conferences or corporate showcases, the AI Impact Summit integrates innovation demonstrations with policy dialogue. Innovation showcases will highlight deployable AI systems developed in India and internationally, linking regulatory ambition with operational execution.

The larger question, however, is whether such summits can translate dialogue into durable collaboration. With AI investment accelerating and geopolitical competition intensifying, structured cooperation remains complex.  Yet the very convergence of figures such as Sundar Pichai and Sam Altman alongside policymakers and researchers suggests a recognition that AI’s next phase cannot be shaped by companies or governments alone.

As artificial intelligence becomes core to productivity, public service delivery and digital infrastructure, platforms that combine policy clarity with enterprise capability are gaining relevance.  For India, hosting the AI Impact Summit 2026 is both a statement and a test: a statement of intent to lead in responsible AI development and a test of its ability to convert convening power into sustained influence in the evolving global AI order.