India’s AI Strategy: Scaling Adoption and Shaping the Global South
India recently hosted the AI Impact Summit from February 19-20, 2026, building on a series of global AI summits that began in the United Kingdom in 2023. Even as initial assessments suggest limited immediate breakthroughs, the summit underscored India’s strategic positioning as a key player in AI adoption, market expansion and a representative voice for the Global South.
From AI Safety to Impact: A Shifting Global Agenda
The inaugural AI summit in the United Kingdom in 2023 focused primarily on AI safety. The second summit, held in Seoul, South Korea, in 2024, continued this emphasis. The 2025 Paris summit shifted towards innovation, while the 2026 India summit prioritized impact and a human-centric approach to artificial intelligence. The India summit convened over 250,000 registered attendees, representatives from over 100 countries, and technology leaders including Sundar Pichai of Google, Dario Amodei of Anthropic, and Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Leveraging Demographic Scale for AI Growth
Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted India’s youth as the world’s largest talent pool, framing the summit as a turning point for AI research. India boasts one of the largest populations of digitally connected users and a rapidly expanding technology-led workforce. According to a report by Anthropic Research, India has the fastest-growing number of AI users globally, with AI integration leading to a 15x speedup in productivity among Indian users. A Microsoft and LinkedIn 2024 Work Trend Index reported that 92% of Indian workers are already using AI or its integration in the workplace.
This advantage is fueled by widespread smartphone usage, affordable high-speed internet access, and the Indian government-backed Unified Payments Interface (UPI). A 2025 study by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that UPI connects over 500 million users and processes over 20 billion transactions monthly. This demographic strength positions India as a strategic hub for data generation, model training, and large-scale AI deployment.
India as a Large-Scale Market for AI Deployment
The UPI interface connects over 500 million users and 65 million merchants, accounting for 84% of retail payments in the country. India’s vast consumer base makes it an attractive market for global technology companies seeking growth. Microsoft pledged a US$17.5 billion investment to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India in December 2025, while Amazon plans to invest over US$35 billion by 2030, and Google intends to invest US$15 billion in AI data centers and digital connectivity. The 2026 AI Summit positioned India as a “testing ground” for large-scale AI deployment.
India’s diverse income levels, widespread English usage, and varying levels of access provide a unique environment for testing AI technologies across different contexts, from urban digital ecosystems to semi-connected rural markets. This creates opportunities for large-scale consumption and iterative adaptation of AI systems in sectors like finance, healthcare, agriculture, and governance.
A Growing Domestic AI Ecosystem
While currently more of an application and deployment partner than a global innovator, India is fostering a growing ecosystem of domestic AI firms. Companies like Sarvam AI and Krutrim are working on foundational models and India-focused AI infrastructure, alongside Haptik and Fractal Analytics in enterprise applications. Arya.ai and Perfios in financial intelligence; Niramai and SigTuple in healthcare diagnostics, KissanAI in agriculture, Locus and Minus Zero in logistics and mobility, and Tata Elxsi and Ksolves in applied industry solutions. However, the scale, global competitiveness, and long-term impact of these firms are still developing.
Strategic Participation and Influence in the Global South
India’s AI strategy emphasizes welfare, development, and norm-based positioning in global politics. Prime Minister Modi stated that the summit being held in India was a matter of pride for the Global South, positioning India as a representative of developing nations. This approach aligns with T.V. Paul’s characterization of India as a status-seeking power, compensating for material gaps through diplomatic visibility and normative positioning.
Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, highlighted the United States’ vision of AI sovereignty through strategic partnerships with developing economies like India as key adoption partners within a U.S.-led technological ecosystem.
Beyond Innovation: Scale, Optics, and Convening Capacity
Despite substantial investments, India has yet to produce globally competitive foundational AI systems or platforms. Instead, it is leveraging its market size and human capital to project influence. India’s strength lies in shaping how AI is employed and embedded into everyday social and economic systems, generating a strategic advantage in global diplomacy. While the US and China focus on foundational models and semiconductor systems, India’s semiconductor ecosystem has not scaled as expected, facing challenges including supply chain limitations and infrastructure constraints. The renewed India Semiconductor Mission of 2021 aims to address these issues, but its impact remains to be seen.