Sridhar Vembu predicts India may outpace US in AI adoption over next 10 years — what he said at AI Impact Summit 2026

Chennai-based global technology services provider Zoho Corporation's co-founder and chief scientist, Sridhar Vembu, while attending the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Wednesday, 18 February, said that India might outpace the United States in adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) over the next 10 years, reported news agency PTI.

Citing historical examples from India and the power of youth in the country, Vembu said he was confident the population would embrace the new wave of AI technology.

“…in 10 years…India might be faster in terms of AI adoption than even America,” Sridhar Vembu said at the AI Impact Summit 2026.

Giving an example of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on how it became mass-scale in India, Sridhar Vembu said that AI also have the potential to be the same, according to the agency report.

History to repeat itself?

Zoho's Sridhar Vembu also highlighted how fibre optics was the technology of America back in the early 2000s, after which American venture capitalists sold “10s of billions (dollars) into telecom companies, particularly fibre optics,” and it is “everywhere in India” now, but not so much in the United States anymore.

Vembu's example showed how India seized the opportunity, adapting lessons America learnt from fibre-optics technology and directly went into fibre and mobile, which marked a huge step towards the country's digital move.

According to the agency report, Vembu further said that the reason India is likely to outpace America in AI adoption is that “we have a very youthful, optimistic population. We don't have a population that is very skeptical...which is a blessing.”

He said that, unlike the “unwilling crowd”, India is open to accepting and embracing artificial intelligence at a much higher level. To stay ahead in the AI sector, Vembu urged young entrepreneurs and start-ups to “optimistically experiment” and keep learning from challenges, as per the report.

Vembu allays mass job loss fears

Mint reported earlier that Zoho's Sridhar Vembu, in a social media post on 16 February, pushed back against fears of mass job losses, saying that white-collar roles will not vanish anytime soon because of the artificial intelligence push.

“The quoted post makes a strong argument that white collar jobs won't go away anytime soon due to AI,” said Sridhar Vembu in his post on X. The Zoho co-founder recommended that people follow certain steps in these changing times to present their strong stance in times of AI innovation.

Vembu urged people to keep an open mind and absorb every kind of information, while forming some opinions, but hold them “loosely” subject to revision.

“Be ready to make U-turns quickly during this phase,” said Sridhar Vembu in his post. He also said that over time, your opinions should solidify into convictions, but never force them. You cannot “buy” a conviction; it has to come from within.

“Don't let your ego mix up with your conviction. That is when it becomes dogma,” he said. Vembu also recommended that when you have strong convictions, act on them. Conviction without action is useless. Action without conviction is pointless.