Powered by the strength of its 1.4 billion people, India stands at the forefront of the AI transformation: stated India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi while inaugurating the summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has welcomed the world leaders, captains of industry, innovators, policymakers, researchers, and technology enthusiasts from across the globe to the AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
The Summit, themed “Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya — Welfare for All, Happiness for All”, reflects India’s commitment to harnessing Artificial Intelligence for human-centric progress and inclusive development.
The Prime Minister highlighted the transformative role of AI across diverse sectors including healthcare, education, agriculture, governance, and enterprise. He expressed confidence that the deliberations at the Summit will enrich global discourse on innovation, collaboration, and responsible use of AI, shaping a future that is progressive, innovative, and opportunity-driven.
Prime Minister Modi underscored India’s leadership in the global AI transformation, powered by the strength of its 1.4 billion people, robust digital public infrastructure, vibrant startup ecosystem, and cutting-edge research. He emphasized that India’s strides in AI reflect both ambition and responsibility, positioning the nation at the forefront of technological advancement.
Sharing a thread post on X, India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi wrote:
“Bringing the world together to discuss AI!
Starting today, India hosts the AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam in Delhi. I warmly welcome world leaders, captains of industry, innovators, policymakers, researchers and tech enthusiasts from across the world for this Summit. The theme of the Summit is Sarvajana Hitaya, Sarvajana Sukhaya or welfare for all, happiness for all, reflecting our shared commitment to harnessing Artificial Intelligence for human-centric progress.”
“AI today is transforming several sectors, including healthcare, education, agriculture, governance and enterprise. The AI Impact Summit will enrich global discourse on diverse aspects of AI, such as innovation, collaboration, responsible use and more. I am confident that the outcomes of the Summit will help shape a future that is progressive, innovative and opportunity-driven.”
“Thanks to the 1.4 billion people of India, our nation stands at the forefront of the AI transformation. From digital public infrastructure to a vibrant StartUp ecosystem and cutting-edge research, our strides in AI reflect both ambition and responsibility.”
AI Impact Summit | Reactions from Industry
Lt. Gen. AK Bhatt (Retd.), Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA) commented, “AI is fast becoming the operating layer of India’s space economy helping companies design smarter missions, run spacecraft more autonomously and turn raw space data into real-world decisions at scale. Across the value chain, Indian companies are applying AI for onboard/edge processing, automated image interpretation, predictive satellite health and anomaly detection, space traffic management and collision-risk assessment and building analysis-ready geospatial services for agriculture, urban planning, disaster response, climate monitoring and national security.
In parallel, the public–private push toward a 12-satellite Earth observation constellation signals a shift from one-off imagery to continuous, multi-sensor monitoring that industry can operationalise with AI-driven analytics. And as orbital congestion rises, India’s emerging focus on space situational awareness and debris monitoring underscores why trustworthy AI is now a safety imperative, not a nice-to-have. Our industry priority should be to scale these capabilities responsibly, grounded in safety, talent and secure data ecosystems, so India becomes globally competitive in AI-native spacetech.”
Rupesh Kumar, CTO & Co-Founder, Suhora Technologies, said, “AI is fundamentally transforming how the space industry, especially downstream space companies, convert vast volumes of satellite data into real-world intelligence. With satellite constellations generating terabytes and petabytes of imagery daily, manual interpretation is no longer practical. AI is helping address three core challenges for the sector: scale, speed and accuracy. Machine learning models can now scan large datasets instantly, detect objects and patterns and deliver near real-time insights that are critical for applications like disaster response, agriculture monitoring, urban planning and national security. In downstream space analytics, AI also enables multi-sensor fusion by combining optical, SAR, thermal and hyperspectral data to produce richer, more predictive insights rather than static imagery.
At Suhora Technologies, we embed AI across every major step of the workflow through our platforms. Our algorithms automate imagery classification, filter low-quality data like cloud cover and detect subtle changes in terrain or infrastructure over time. We are also building predictive models that help users anticipate trends and guide future action, not just understand what has already happened. Our mission is to simplify complex space analytics and make satellite intelligence accessible, scalable and actionable for every sector.”
Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, said, “India’s AI ambition is intensifying, particularly in the space sector, where we are witnessing increased adoption of AI to extract intelligence from satellite imagery, sensors, and large-scale spatial datasets. However, the speed of innovation is closely linked to data accessibility and the readiness of foundational geospatial datasets. This calls for greater collaboration between government, industry, and academia to enhance data accessibility and build robust, high-quality geospatial data ecosystems.
At Esri India, we’re taking decisive steps to integrate AI into GIS applications, which are crucial for building the country’s geospatial and AI readiness. Our new GIS and AI Competency Centre in Noida, backed by an investment of INR 150 crore, brings together AI specialists, data scientists, and GIS experts to develop intelligent solutions that empower our customers to extract richer insights from complex geospatial data, automate routine workflows, and make faster, more informed decisions. AI represents the future, and through collaborative efforts in building capabilities and nurturing talent, India can establish a strong global footprint in AI-driven geospatial innovation.”
Gautam Sharma, Managing Director, Viasat India, commented, “AI is rapidly reshaping the space and satcom sector from ‘connectivity’ to ‘cognitive infrastructure’. In satellite communications, the biggest change is that networks are starting to learn from their own telemetry, using machine learning to spot anomalies early, predict congestion and service degradation, and automate troubleshooting so availability improves even as traffic and complexity rise. It also strengthens capacity planning across hybrid, multi-orbit networks. The same approach is transforming remote operations on the ground: AI can fuse sensor streams, video and operational data from hard-to-reach sites, then trigger alerts and workflows in near real time, reducing downtime and improving safety.”
Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, DG, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said, “AI is no longer an experiment for the telecom sector, rather, it has become a necessity to manage the growing complexity of national scale networks. Today, AI is embedded across core operations, from network planning and rollout optimisation to predictive maintenance, traffic management and fraud and spam detection. In fact, telecom operators are already using AI-based systems to flag or block massive spam calls and SMS every day, significantly strengthening consumer trust in digital networks.
As India transitions from 5G to 6G, AI-driven automation will deepen further, delivering measurable gains in efficiency and sustainability. Smarter network operations have demonstrated the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption, which is commercially and strategically important. Importantly, telecom networks are also proven today as intelligent horizontal platforms supporting healthcare delivery, disaster response, financial services, mobility and public safety. This places telecom at the centre of India’s AI ambitions, not as a downstream user, but as the enabling foundation that allows AI to operate at scale across the economy. We believe responsible AI adoption must be anchored in transparency, accountability, strong cybersecurity and coordinated policy execution, so that AI strengthens reliability, inclusion and trust in India’s digital infrastructure.”
Tarun Chhabra, Sr. Vice President and Country Head, Nokia India, said, “Connectivity has become essential to everyday life, and networks are the backbone that makes modern digital society work. Over time, that connectivity has meant voice, messaging, mobile internet, and streaming video. Now, we are entering a new phase where the key shift is not simply “more traffic,” but a change in the “shape” of traffic, increasingly driven by AI Supercycle. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is aggressively reshaping the telecommunications industry. It optimizes network resources, streamlines service operations, and revolutionizes the customer experience. Companies have no choice but to invest heavily in AI to transform their services in the 5G era and prepare for 6G.
Nokia has already delivered AI enabled solutions to its customers. For example, Nokia AVA brings AI-powered cognitive services to network operations, enabling predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and automated troubleshooting that cuts costs and elevates service quality. Our Self-Organizing Networks (SON) solution also leverages AI and machine learning to automatically configure, optimize, and heal networks, adapting to changing traffic patterns and environmental conditions. We have established a strategic partnership with NVIDIA to enable accelerated development and deployment of next generation AI native mobile networks and AI networking infrastructure.”
Manish Agrawal, President & COO of Comviva, commented, “Across telecom, the biggest day-to-day AI impact is showing up in personalized customer engagement and network operations on how operators acquire customers, manage journeys, automate billing and revenue processes and detect risk, and shift operations from manual and reactive to predictive and intelligent. AI and GenAI are making these operations scalable by converting data and customer intent into actions: from next-best recommendations, to automated routing and self-healing exception handling that learns over time, so teams focus on high-value interventions rather than repetitive tasks.
At Comviva, we are embedding AI across our people, products and processes, infusing intelligent decisioning and automation into workflows across the customer touchpoints and digital channels. We are modernizing our platforms to be AI-first and cloud-ready for repeatable delivery at scale. Internally, we’re applying AI across engineering, support and security functions and already seeing measurable efficiency gains in support operations and productivity uplift for developers and testers, allowing us to innovate faster with higher resilience. We believe the winners will be those who will industrialize AI where it matters most: the workflows that connect experience, monetization and risk, with responsible governance and continuous improvement in production. That is how we see AI converting efficiency into sustained growth, beyond isolated pilots.”
Pankaj Malik, CEO and Whole-time Director, Invenia-STL Networks, said, “As India prepares to host the Al Impact Summit 2026, it signals a decisive shift from discussion to delivery. The focus now must be on how emerging technologies are deployed at scale, responsibly and with measurable impact across sectors.
For India, this is as much an infrastructure story as it is a technology one. Resilient core-to-edge architectures, strong data governance and automation-led operations will determine how effectively innovation translates into economic and societal value. With its digital public infrastructure and engineering depth, India is well positioned to shape a model of scalable, trusted digital growth that can inform global conversations.”
“At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, the defining shift was from experimentation to operationalisation. The real conversation is no longer about access to models or compute, but about embedding AI into core industry workflows at scale.
Across regulated sectors like capital markets, the bar is materially higher. Systems must be compliant, auditable and aligned with governance frameworks from inception. Infrastructure, policy clarity and workforce readiness are becoming as critical as technical capability. Competitive advantage will accrue to firms that can translate AI capability into production-grade systems with measurable outcomes.
In capital markets specifically, this means moving beyond analytics overlays toward AI-native operating layers that redesign document workflows, due diligence processes and transaction intelligence. The broader takeaway from the Summit is clear: India’s AI opportunity will be realised not through pilots, but through disciplined deployment into the economic rails that power growth,” said, Aman Singh, Co-founder, S45.
“The India AI Impact Summit 2026 stands as a pivotal moment in the global AI landscape, reinforcing India’s ambition to lead as an innovation hub. As AI becomes deeply embedded across sectors, the emphasis on safe, trusted, and responsible AI, supported by skill development and collaborative innovation, mirrors the essence of India–France Innovation Year 2026. This commitment will be instrumental in shaping resilient, future-ready ecosystems.
Thales’ AI is designed for critical applications, enhancing the performance of highly specialized systems in defence, aerospace, space, and cybersecurity with an exceptional level of reliability, transparency, and cyber-resilience. It is built to operate in technically constrained environments (limited embedding, power, and connectivity, classified training data) and under strict sovereignty requirements. We look forward to fostering collaborations with local industry, startups, and academia on AI, advancing global capabilities and contributing to a smarter, safer, and more sustainable world,” said, Ankur Kanaglekar, Vice-President – India, Thales.
