New Delhi, February 16, 2026: The India AI Impact Summit 2026 commenced today at Bharat Mandapam, bringing together world leaders, technology pioneers, policymakers, startups, researchers, and innovators from across the globe to shape the future of artificial intelligence. The five-day global summit, being held from February 16 to 20, aims to position India as a key force in responsible and inclusive AI development.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the event, emphasizing the summit’s guiding theme, “Sarvajan Hitaya, Sarvajan Sukhaya” (Welfare for All, Happiness for All), and highlighting India’s vision of harnessing AI for social good and inclusive growth.
India looks forward to welcoming the world to the AI Impact Summit in February 2026. We have picked the theme of Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya or welfare for all, happiness for all.
Shri Narendra Modi
Hon’ble Prime Minister of India
A Global Platform for AI Collaboration
The summit has attracted tens of thousands of delegates, including heads of state, global technology companies, and leaders from academia and industry. Discussions focus on AI governance, safety, ethics, data security, and the transformative role of AI across sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, finance, manufacturing, and governance.
Executives from major global technology firms—including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI, and DeepMind—are participating alongside international leaders, reinforcing India’s growing influence in global AI governance and deployment.
Expo Showcases AI at Scale
Running alongside the summit, the India AI Impact Expo 2026 presents live demonstrations, global collaborations, and real-world AI solutions across multiple sectors. Spread across more than 70,000 square metres, the expo features hundreds of exhibitors, over 600 startups, and thematic showcases focused on people, planet, and progress.
Innovation, Investment, and Impact
The summit highlights India’s application-led AI innovation model and its potential to drive large-scale digital transformation. Technology leaders have pledged major investments in AI and cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, underscoring the country’s rapidly expanding role in the global AI ecosystem.
India’s AI strategy is based on the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to democratize the use of technology. It aims to address India centric challenges, create economic and employment opportunities for all…
Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw
Hon’ble Minister of Electronics & IT, Government of India
Strengthening Global Cooperation
With participation from numerous countries and thousands of experts, the India AI Impact Summit 2026 aims to foster global partnerships, accelerate responsible AI adoption, and ensure that artificial intelligence delivers meaningful societal and economic benefits worldwide.
About India AI Impact Summit
The India AI Impact Summit is a premier international platform dedicated to advancing responsible, inclusive, and scalable artificial intelligence. It brings together policymakers, researchers, industry leaders, and innovators to shape the future of AI for global good.
About the Summit
Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands at the threshold of fundamentally reshaping human civilization, pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve. This technological revolution opens unprecedented opportunities for advancements across every domain of human endeavor, while profoundly challenging the very foundations of society in an increasingly complex and evolving geopolitical order. For developing countries, AI offers an unprecedented opportunity to leapfrog traditional developmental pathways. The multi-modal and multi-lingual capabilities of AI create new possibilities through which access to benefits can be made available at scale. As a result, AI is seen not merely as a technological advancement but as a strategic tool to enable inclusive growth and expand access to opportunities that have historically been out of reach for large segments of the population.
Recognizing this transformative potential, the past four years have witnessed a remarkable surge in multilateral initiatives dedicated to harnessing AI’s potential responsibly and equitably. From the G20 AI Principles to the UN and Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) Resolutions on AI, the African Declaration on AI, and most recently, the Hamburg Declaration on Responsible AI, these efforts reflect unprecedented international recognition that AI’s transformative impact transcends borders and requires coordinated global action.
Despite these high-level commitments, a fundamental gap persists between global aspirations and the reality on the ground. The Global AI Divide continues to widen, with AI resources and capabilities concentrated among select nations and corporations. This concentration fundamentally limits the development of social, cultural, and linguistically contextual AI solutions, constraining AI’s potential to accelerate progress toward our collective development goals, especially for the Global South.
Simultaneously, AI’s rapid proliferation across society is creating new challenges that demand urgent attention: disrupting traditional employment patterns, exacerbating existing biases, and driving exponential increases in energy consumption. These developments underscore the urgent need to move beyond aspirational frameworks toward concrete, measurable impact that addresses both AI’s promise and its perils.
The Mantra: A Time for Impact
The India–AI Impact Summit 2026, announced by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit and scheduled for February 19–20 in New Delhi, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Building on the momentum of leading international forums such as the UK AI Safety Summit, the AI Seoul Summit, the France AI Action Summit, and the Global AI Summit on Africa, this high-level convening marks a critical inflection point. It will strengthen existing multilateral initiatives while advancing new priorities, deliverables, and cooperative frameworks—moving from high-level political statements to demonstrable impact and tangible progress in global AI cooperation.
The Summit charts a path towards a future where the transformative power of AI serves humanity, drives inclusive growth, fosters social development, and promotes people-centric innovations that protect our planet. It also seeks to amplify the voice of the Global South, ensuring that technological advancements and opportunities are shared broadly, not concentrated in a few regions.
At the same time, AI’s rapid proliferation across society poses urgent challenges—disrupting traditional employment patterns, exacerbating biases, and accelerating energy consumption. These developments highlight the pressing need to go beyond aspirational frameworks and deliver measurable, concrete impact that addresses both the promise and the perils of AI.
