AI Summit India 2026 Highlights: PM Modi interacts with tech leaders, companies at India AI Impact Expo 2026

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The AI Summit India 2026, being held in the national capital from 16-20 February 2026, will host global tech companies, startups, academia, research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments, and international partners.

As many as 13 country pavilions will highlight international collaboration in the AI ecosystem, including participation from Australia, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Tajikistan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and African nations.

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is expected to have an overwhelming response after witnessing 2.5 lakh registrations from India and across the world.

The event will feature more than 600 high-potential startups. The mega AI event is spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70,000 square metres, giving an opportunity for global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments, and international partners to meet each other.

Read more: Mega AI event beats government expectations

“The next generation of AI businesses will be built on AI, not just clouds,” said Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia. “AI - it will not kill jobs, but will unbundle jobs. AI will end the charade. You and I have to bundle ourselves. If you are not learning AI today, you are not learning anything,” he said, reported the news agency ANI.

At the event on Tuesday, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Indian government is working on certain aspects of digital security amid the push for AI.

The government is working on AI safety, the cybersecurity track, and multiple other things.

“There are things about AI safety, cybersecurity track, and multiple other things on which we are working on,” Ashwini Vaishnaw said at the AI Impact Summit 2026.

On the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit 2026, Arvind Kumar Choudhary, ITS Special Secretary, Government of Bihar, told the media on Tuesday that AI will not replace any single source of conventional manpower and work culture.

“The nature of the job is going to change, and the effect of AI will be a hybrid one, but it is not going to invade any single source of conventional manpower and work culture,” said Arvind Kumar Choudhary, ITS Special Secretary, Government of Bihar, told the news portal Republic TV on Tuesday.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that when someone falls ill and needs to be seen, it is not easy to provide facilities, but now India has modern facilities.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi always speaks of the government and the country... If someone falls ill and needs to be seen, it is not easy to provide facilities there... Now we have modern facilities. Using robotic tele-ultrasound, radiologists here will receive images and can then examine them. In the future, this can also be used in other situations,” the minister told the media.

After the inauguration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting several exhibitions at the AI Impact Summit 2026, where the companies are giving the national leader demos about their new artificial intelligence (AI) products and launches.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India AI Impact Expo 2026 on Tuesday, 26 February 2026, after reaching Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, reported the news agency PTI.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi as people now await the national leader to inaugurate the mega event of AI Impact Summit 2026.

Indian actor and producer Rana Daggubati, at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, said that artificial intelligence (AI) will replace people quite ‘quickly.’

“It will replace all of us quite quickly,” said the actor, when asked about his take on AI and movies, reported the news agency ANI.

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the deep fakes and disinformation circulating are attacking the foundation and the trust factor in our society.

“Deep fakes and disinformation are attacking the foundation of our society and the root of trust between institutions created by society. AI models, creators will have to take responsibility for making sure that the new technology is strengthening the trust rather than belittling it,” said Vaishnaw, reported ANI on Tuesday.

Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at the AI Impact Summit 2026 on Tuesday said that there are positives and negatives of artificial intelligence (AI).

“In the next few days of the AI summit, we are looking at the impact of AI on human society. There are positive impacts of AI, including weather forecasting, climate change, agriculture, the discovery of new materials, and productivity gains. There are potential negative impacts. We are looking at how to balance these impacts so we can capture the benefits while containing the harms. We will come out with a good outcome from this summit,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw, cited the news agency ANI.

Posters and hoardings have been set up across Mumbai welcoming French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron during their visit to India between 16-19 February 2026, reported the news agency ANI.

President Emmanuel Macron will arrive at Mumbai on 16 February and then meet with PM Modi on 17 February, before travelling to Delhi to attend the AI Impact Summit 2026.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Joshi said, "This is not like any other technology, which was very linear in its approach, or very compartmentalised in its impact...that you have invented a steam engine, and then the impact of the steam engine, you can calculate, and you can see where, which direction it will go. When we talk about AGI, you know, Artificial General Intelligence, which now everybody is talking about, it's going to the fundamentals of thinking, idea generation, innovation, everything,"

" So when you go to the fundamentals, I think it's going to definitely impact the way humans work, the way we work in future. So I don't subscribe to the extreme points of view on that. I believe there is a realistic challenge we face. And I'm sure that if we rightly put our minds together, we will be able to figure out what is right for us and how we need to cope with the changes which AI is going to bring," he added

Punya Salila Srivastava, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, while speaking at the India AI Summit said, "One of the key expectations from AI, especially in public health, is that it should reduce the burden on our health care workforce," she s

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to inaugurate the India AI Expo soon. The Prime Minister was expected to arrive at the venue at 5PM

Crowds galore at Bharat Mandapam as visitors were greeted with long ques for the 1st AI Summit in the ‘Global South’

Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Harish Krishnan, Managing Director and Chief Policy Officer Cisco Systems India, said, "At CISCO, we align the mission of using AI to make life better with the help of the government," while prioritising a commitment to secure frameworks.

"Our programme, Krishi Mangal, is in multiple languages for farmers using Sovereign AI. We have 44,000 women farmers, and the AI and our programme are boosting their incomes and improving livelihoods," he added.

Day 1 of the AI Impact Summit opened to packed halls and long ques as some of the biggest names in the world of technology graced the halls of Bharat Mandapam.

The excitement around the AI Impact Summit as crowds gathered at the venue to get a glimse at some of the biggest updatest in the world of technology. Social media is filled with posts of people complaining about issues at the summit

A Mint reporter has confirmed that several areas of Bharat Mandapam are facing internet connectivity issues during the India AI Impact Summit. Thousands of people have thronged the venue to get a look at some of the biggest new developments in the world of artificial intelligence.

Anthropic is embedding its AI coding agent across many prominent Indian AI companies. As per a report by Bloomberg, Air India will be using Claude Codeto create custom software while Cognizant will be deploying the agent to 35,000 employees globally as part of effort to modernize legacy systems.

“India’s adoption is even more extreme compared with the rest of the world,” said co-founder Dario Amodei

Speaking to news agency ANI, Deputy Chair at the Artificial Intelligence Council under the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Tajikistan, Firuzjon Sodiqov said, "I think we have really high expectations, because we have been following India's progress in AI, and plus its initiatives in this great summit.

"That's why we are looking forward to this kind of discussions, meetings and new announcements that will be done during this summit, this would be beneficial for many countries, especially for Tajikistan, Central Asia and our partnership with India, " he added

Duncan Cass-Beggs, Executive Director of the Global AI Risks Initiative at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) raised concerns about the AI concerns.

"Particularly, one of the main concerns is that right now it may become possible to make systems such as artificial super intelligence before we know how to actually control them. And the whole world might have an interest in saying, hold on, wait -- let's not make artificial super intelligence until we can be sure that it can be controlled or done safely,"he said

"That doesn't mean we stop all AI. So much of the AI that we can and are producing will be tremendously beneficial for us -- in terms of economic prosperity, medical advances, and new green tech. We can have all that while at the same time working together internationally to define limits until we know it would be safe," Cass-Beggs added

Saahil Goel, MD & CEO of Shiprocket, while speaking to news agency ANI at the India AI Impact Summit said, "Shiprocket has powered over four lakh businesses to go online so far, and there are still 60 million MSMEs in India that remain. So I think the real power is in creating access. So if a person in Guwahati wants to sell to a person in Kashmir, they should be able do it in a matter of minutes. How do we kind of get that access available through AI? By using voice as a medium, by using unstructured business models that can get supported now with AI,"

"One thing is to adopt AI, which is what we're doing right now, but really we need to create AI for Indian use cases and Indian businesses and Indian consumers." he added

Speaking to news agency ANI at the AI Impact Summit, Ankit Modi, Founding Member and Chief Product Officer of Qure.ai said, "We build AI solutions for medical imaging, impacting oncology, cardiology, tuberculosis and multiple disease areas. We are at this summit to showcase our impact that we have created for 40 million people across 100 plus countries," Modi stated.

"Similarly, in Goa, we did a population-level health screening with AI for lung cancer. Having an AI that can look for early signs of lung cancer in them, we showed that diagnosis time can be reduced by 50 per cent in Goa and it can be scaled across public health systems across the country." he said

At India AI Impact Summit, Saahil Goel, MD and CEO of Shiprocket, told ANI, "This event brings together innovators, startups, policy makers and enterprises to create the conversations on the same page. Hopefully, over time, this will lead to more collaborations. A big thanks to the government for putting this together. One thing is to use AI; we need to create AI for Indian use cases and consumers...There is a need for more digital public infrastructure to come around..."

On India AI Impact Summit, Duncan Cass Beggs from Canada-based think-tank Centre for International Governance Innovation told ANI, "We need to have more conversations as the AI systems become more capable....Governments, companies, and populations need to be ready for the full range of scenarios we could face. The most important scenarios we are least prepared for are artificial general intelligence and artificial superintelligence. If that happens, these scenarios could be game-changing for humanity...."

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit, Union Minister for State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said, "The world is converging and it is truly historic, and it's a big feat and a feather in India's trajectory that we are hosting this truly international impact summit with so much of participation, from state heads to tech leaders to industry," he said.

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit, Tejpreet Chopra, Co-Chair of the CII National AI Forum and CEO of Industry said, "Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming the world and becoming a part of everyday life. From healthcare and agriculture to education and governance, AI is improving efficiency and creating smarter solutions."

"It is helping people work faster, make better decisions, and access new opportunities. India is emerging as a leader in the Global South by investing in digital infrastructure, innovation, and skilled talent," he added

Speaking to news agency ANI, New Zealand's Minister for Science and Technology Shane Reti said,"It is a real privilege to be here, and thank you for the invitation to both join you and to be a part of this summit. I think the fact that we are holding the Summit in India is recognition by the whole world of the global importance and impact that India can have. That reflects the importance of AI and the contribution India is making", he said.

Speaking at the AI Impact Summmit, Microsoft India President Puneet Chandok said, "AI will not kill jobs. AI will unbundle jobs... Your job is a bundle of tasks. What AI will do is it will unbundle it,"

"We have potentially, for the first time in humankind, the ability to manufacture intelligence," he added

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said, "The window is open still, but it is not indefinite. We must act and act now," he said, adding that there is a need for urgency to adopt AI.

"For India, it is not a debate about the future of work, it is a decision about the future of growth and social stability," he added

Speaking to news agency PTI, Kshitij Jain, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Blue Machines AI said that India has grown ‘leaps and bounds’ in AI adoption.

"The summit is great example of all large companies congregating here to see what India has done in AI. We are huge believers in the India story, and in building in India for the world," Jain told the agency

Speaking to news agency ANI, US- India Strategic Partnership Forum President and CEO Mukesh Aghi said, "From a strategic partnership perspective between US and India, this event is very important because when you look at some of the leaders in AI in the US are Indian Americans, and to be able to bring in 100 plus global leaders from US into India, that sends a very strong message that India is very critical to US companies and also from an AI perspective".

"India has taken a very strong lead in trying to make AI more affordable, scalable, and accessible to its citizens. And it has one of the largest structured database to leverage that. So in every aspect, India is going to play a very pivotal role in AI on a global basis." he added

Rockwell India MD Dilip Sawhney and CII National Committee on Smart Manufacturing, said that smart factories and predictive maintenance to AI-driven quality inspection, supply chain optimisation, and real-time production analytics, along with AI is allowing for reduced costs and improved precision across the sector.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Alok Agrawal, Co-Founder of AI4India said, “I think there would be two good things. First, the entire India will understand that AI is something, AI is working, what its capabilities, how can it how it be used. And secondly, the summit will help India to be projected as an AI nation. So far, people talk about US and China when it comes to AI. But after this summit, I think India will strongly come on that level. And as far I know, India's sovereign models, big models and many more are to be launched here,"

NPCI has the ‘UPI One World’ service for the international delegates attending the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The initiative is said to aimed at the visitors from over 40 countries participating in the marquee event.

Sohini Rajola, Executive Director - Growth, NPCI was quoted by ANI as saying, "UPI is the world's largest real-time payment system. By extending the 'UPI One World' service to foreign guests at the India AI Impact Summit, we are providing a convenient way to experience India's real-time payments ecosystem and Made in India technology. This initiative also offers a glimpse into how smoother cross-border payment systems can support a more connected global digital economy."

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit, Union Minister for State for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada said, "The world is converging and it is truly historic, and it's a big feat and a feather in India's trajectory that we are hosting this truly international impact summit with so much of participation, from state heads to tech leaders to industry," he said.

"So this, I can say, is truly like the Kumbh in Prayagraj. This is the Maha Kumbh for AI, which India is hosting," he added

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit, Tejpeet Chopra said, “Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming the world and becoming a part of everyday life. From healthcare and agriculture to education and governance, AI is improving efficiency and creating smarter solutions.”

"It is helping people work faster, make better decisions, and access new opportunities. India is emerging as a leader in the Global South by investing in digital infrastructure, innovation, and skilled talent," he added

A British delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and AI Minister Kanishka Narayan have arrived in New Delhi to participate in the ongoing AI Impact Summit in Delhi. The delegation are also set to engage in high-level discussions and bilateral meetins which will be aimd at strengthering technology t ies between the UK and India, news agency ANI reported.

Secretary of Minister of Electronics and Information Technology S Krishnan has confirmed that over 2.5 lakh participants from India and around the world have registered for the ongoing India Impact AI Summit.

Union Minister Jitin Prasada while speaking at the AI Impact Summit said,

"We have maximum AI skill penetration, we have gone ahead with the policy of ensuring not to over-regulate so that innovation thrives,"

“We are ensuring that GPU access has been available as far as possible at the cheapest cost” he added

"But it's not only about access to technology, now we have to go deeper and beyond access and make sure we have scalable solutions in every aspect... We are rightly positioned for that," he added

Speaking to news agency ANI, Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikchandani admittd that AI is ‘relentless’ but noted that “AI is both a threat and an opportunity. Some jobs will be lost, and many will be created. The way forward is to upskill and learn AI platforms. To have this AI Summit here is very good as it brings focus on AI, which is a huge force and an emerging technology,”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been confirmed to inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 today at the Bharat Mandapam. As per a release by the government, the Expo is set to serve as a national demonstration of AI in action where policy meets practice.

You can still register for the AI Impact Summit by visiting the official website for the event. In case you are confused about how to complete the process, you can check our step by step guide for registratering to the AI Impact Summit.

Nvidia executive Vice President Jay Puri in a video said, "It's incredibly exciting to be traveling to New Delhi for the AI summit at such a defining moment for our industry. The energy, ambition and pace of innovation we are seeing are extraordinary. We are at the beginning of a new industrial era, one that will be shaped by AI. The future of AI will be global, but it will also be deeply local. And it's inspiring to see India playing such a key role in shaping that future. With one of the world's largest developer ecosystems, a thriving startup landscape and extraordinary digital ambition, India has the scale and talent to lead in this era. We are here to collaborate with the government, industry, startups and academia to help build and scale AI that drives real economic growth and meaningful societal impact"

Speaking at the AI Impact Summit, Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said, "India can become the first large society where human abundance and machine intelligence reinforce, and not undermine, each other. This will not happen by drift; this will require an urgent say. It will require political will, it will require state capacity, and it will require a clear national commitment to aligning technological adoption with mass employability. It has to be a Team India effort, including the private sector and academics, as well as policy makers. The window is still open, but it is not indefinite,"

Delhi Airport has issued an advisory in view of the AI Impact Summit. In a post on X, Delhi Airport wrote, "In view of major events in Delhi that may impact travel to and from the airport, travelers are advised to plan their journey accordingly and consider alternative public transport options," the advisory read.

Passengers were advised to use the Delhi Metro to avoid inconvenience. The airport operator recommended the Magenta Line for access to Terminal 1 and the Airport Express Line for Terminals 2 and 3 or other available services to avoid inconvenience.

"Thank you for your understanding and cooperation," the advisory further stated