India AI Impact Summit 2026, Stands Apart With Its Focus on Impact

The India AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, is being positioned not as another forum for declarations, but as a checkpoint on how artificial intelligence is actually being used and who it is working for. Hosted by the Government of India under the IndiaAI Mission, the summit places “impact” at the centre of the agenda, reflecting a broader shift in global thinking around AI.

When global leaders first gathered to discuss artificial intelligence in late 2023, the dominant question was one of control: how to contain the risks of powerful new systems before they spiraled beyond regulation.

By the time policymakers, companies, and researchers meet in New Delhi this month, the conversation will have clearly evolved.

India AI Impact Summit 2026 Shifts Focus to Outcomes

Earlier global AI meetings were shaped by a shared anxiety around frontier models and long-term safety. The AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the UK in November 2023 set that tone. Governments focused on risks such as misinformation, bias, and extreme misuse, resulting in the Bletchley Declaration, which called for cooperation on safety research and testing.

That summit, however, was narrow by design. It was largely government-led, with limited discussion on how AI would be deployed in economies where access, affordability, and public service delivery are more pressing than existential risk.

The AI Seoul Summit in May 2024 broadened participation to include industry, academia, and civil society. While safety remained central, Seoul began to acknowledge innovation and governance as parallel priorities. Voluntary transparency commitments by major AI companies signalled incremental progress, but the focus was still largely upstream on models and frameworks rather than outcomes.

Paris Marked the Turn Towards Action

The shift became more visible at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025, co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With over 1,000 participants from more than 100 countries, Paris reframed the debate around implementation.

Discussions moved into areas such as public-interest AI, digital public infrastructure, skilling, sustainability, and trust. The joint declaration on “Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet” reflected that broader scope, even as differences remained among major economies on regulation and security.

Paris set the stage for the next question: if principles are agreed upon, how does AI translate into measurable economic and social outcomes?

How New Delhi Is Positioning AI Policy

Unlike earlier meetings, this is the first in the series to be hosted in the Global South. Indian officials have framed the summit as a platform to rebalance the AI conversation, giving greater voice to countries that are more likely to deploy AI at scale than to build frontier models themselves.

Scale is a defining feature. Government briefings indicate more than 35,000 registrations from over 100 countries. Heads of government, ministers, and senior executives are expected to attend, alongside technology leaders such as Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Bill Gates.

But the more meaningful distinction lies in structure. The agenda is organised around impact areas, employment, trust, safety, and sectoral use cases, rather than abstract governance alone.

From Discussion to Deployment

Alongside policy sessions, the summit will host the India AI Impact Expo, where startups, research institutions and technology firms will showcase deployable AI systems. The emphasis is on solutions already in use or ready for rollout, particularly in healthcare, education and governance.

This focus reflects India’s broader pitch: that AI’s next phase will be defined not by who builds the most powerful models, but by who can apply them effectively across large, diverse populations.  Labour markets, skilling and workforce transitions are also expected to feature prominently, acknowledging that AI’s economic impact will be uneven without deliberate policy intervention.

In many ways, the New Delhi summit does not replace earlier global AI meetings; it builds on them. Safety, trust and governance remain on the agenda. What changes is the centre of gravity.

By hosting the summit in New Delhi, India is shifting attention to how AI is adopted outside a handful of advanced economies. The discussions are expected to reflect the constraints and priorities of countries where AI is more often deployed than designed.