Davos Takeaway: Why India’s AI Push Is Shifting From Promise to Power

Artificial intelligence has crossed a threshold where delay carries real consequences. For businesses and governments alike, adoption is no longer a strategic choice but a baseline requirement. That was the central argument made by Jack Hidary, Chief Executive Officer, SandboxAQ, in conversations on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Hidary said India is moving in the right direction, with AI offering a path for Indian companies to scale beyond domestic markets, secure critical infrastructure, and transition from consuming global intellectual property to creating it.

From Alphabet Experiment to Enterprise Focus

SandboxAQ began inside Alphabet as a research initiative exploring artificial intelligence and quantum technologies. Hidary launched the group in 2016, and it was spun off as an independent company in 2022. Today, SandboxAQ operates as a B2B enterprise technology firm, backed by investors including Eric Schmidt, Chairman, SandboxAQ; Marc Benioff, Chief Executive Officer, Salesforce; and T Rowe Price.

The company’s name reflects its roots. A “sandbox” is a secure testing environment where ideas can be built, tested, or dismantled without real-world fallout. That philosophy now underpins SandboxAQ’s enterprise platforms, which are designed to be deployed in high-stakes environments across industries.

AI Moves Into the Physical Economy

Unlike consumer-facing AI models, SandboxAQ focuses on applied systems where digital intelligence meets the physical world. Its tools are used in drug discovery, materials science, navigation, energy systems, and cybersecurity, serving corporations and governments.

Hidary described the current phase of AI adoption as a broad inflection point across industries. In healthcare, AI-driven molecular modelling has reduced drug discovery timelines that once stretched beyond 15 years, including for complex diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. In energy, AI-powered catalysts are enabling companies to convert oil and gas into new energy products more efficiently.

For India, this matters because a large share of economic activity sits outside the purely digital domain. Around 80 per cent of the economy operates across sectors such as railways, energy, telecom, and infrastructure, making applied AI more impactful than incremental digital automation.

Cybersecurity Becomes a Boardroom Issue

Cybersecurity featured prominently in Hidary’s remarks, particularly as the World Economic Forum has identified it as India’s most immediate risk. As AI systems expand, so do the attack surfaces they create.

Critical infrastructure, including banking, telecommunications, and public utilities, remains vulnerable. Indian IT services companies such as Infosys, Wipro, and TCS manage vast volumes of global customer data, making resilience a shared responsibility between enterprises and governments.

Hidary said AI must also be used to defend AI-driven systems. SandboxAQ’s platforms are already deployed by banks, corporations, and governments globally, including in the United States, to manage emerging AI-related risks.

Beyond efficiency and security, Hidary highlighted intellectual property creation as a defining opportunity for India. AI-driven molecular design, he said, could help shift the country’s role from an IP consumer to an IP creator, particularly in life sciences.

SandboxAQ’s work spans physics, mathematics, chemistry, materials, and medicine, areas closely tied to India’s industrial and scientific capabilities. These disciplines, Hidary noted, are critical for transforming sectors that sit at the core of the physical economy.

As AI reshapes global competition, the message from Davos was clear. India’s advantage will not come from adopting AI faster alone but from applying it where it counts most, across infrastructure, security, and science, to build lasting economic and strategic leverage.