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The AI Impact Summit 2026 was held in New Delhi from February 16–20, 2026, bringing together global political leaders, technology firms, researchers, and international organisations to deliberate on the future governance, accessibility, and economic impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The summit witnessed participation of lakhs of visitors and culminated in the adoption of the New Delhi Declaration on AI by 88 countries and organisations.

Background of Global AI Summits

International AI summits have been organised annually since 2023. The first meeting at Bletchley Park (UK) focused primarily on AI safety. Subsequent editions in Seoul (2024) and Paris (2025) expanded discussions toward innovation, investment, and global cooperation. The 2026 New Delhi summit marked a shift toward inclusive and development-oriented AI governance, especially addressing the needs of emerging economies and the Global South. These summits operate through a rotating host-country mechanism without a permanent institutional framework.

Major Objectives of the AI Impact Summit 2026

1. Democratisation of AI:

India emphasised that AI capabilities should be widely accessible rather than concentrated among a few nations or corporations. Special focus was placed on improving representation of under-resourced languages in large language models and ensuring developing countries benefit from AI tools.

2. Safe and Trusted AI:

The summit stressed building reliable AI systems with shared benchmarks, transparency standards, and risk-management practices to ensure secure deployment.

3. Positioning India as an AI Hub:

Domestically, the government aimed to attract global investments, strengthen computing infrastructure, and accelerate AI adoption in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, education, and governance.

Working groups were constituted on themes such as human capital development, social empowerment, resilient AI systems, innovation efficiency, and economic growth through AI.

Key Outcomes of the Summit

New Delhi Declaration on AI

The principal outcome was the New Delhi Declaration, signed by 88 participating countries and organisations including major AI powers. The declaration adopted voluntary, non-binding commitments to encourage broader global participation.

Key proposals include:

• A framework for the democratic diffusion of AI technologies
• Creation of a Global AI Impact Commons to share AI use cases
• Establishment of a Trusted AI Commons containing security tools and best practices
• Formation of an international network linking AI research institutions
• Development of workforce reskilling principles and guidelines for resilient AI infrastructure

The declaration highlighted global consensus that AI should serve economic growth, innovation, and social welfare.

Investment Announcements and Strategic Partnerships

• The summit also functioned as a major investment platform.
• Large commitments were announced by Indian conglomerates and global technology firms toward AI infrastructure, data centres, and research. Partnerships were announced between leading global AI companies and Indian corporate groups for enterprise AI deployment and computing capacity expansion.
• India additionally joined an international initiative aimed at diversifying supply chains in electronics manufacturing and critical minerals, reflecting the strategic linkage between AI development and semiconductor ecosystems.

Technology Launch: India’s Domestic LLM

• A significant technological milestone was the unveiling of India’s first domestically trained multi-billion-parameter Large Language Model by Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI.
• Developed with government-supported computing resources, the model was announced as open-source with a beta chatbot interface. This development represents India’s growing emphasis on technological self-reliance and sovereign AI capability.

Operational Challenges

• Despite its scale, the summit faced logistical challenges including heavy crowd management pressures, exhibition controversies, and security-related protest incidents. These highlighted the organisational complexity of hosting large global technology gatherings.

Significance for India and the World

• The AI Impact Summit 2026 marks India’s transition from a technology consumer to an emerging global rule-shaper in AI governance.
• By advocating inclusive access, ethical deployment, and innovation-driven growth, India positioned itself as a bridge between advanced economies and the developing world. The summit reinforced AI’s status as a foundational technology for future economic competitiveness, digital sovereignty, and international cooperation.

Major MOUs, Agreements & Investment Announcements (Summit 2026)

About Artificial Intelligence — Genesis

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the capability of machines to mimic human intelligence such as learning, reasoning, pattern recognition, and language processing.

The field formally began at the Dartmouth Conference (1956) and has progressed from rule-based systems to machine learning, and now to Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs).

• AI is now treated globally as a strategic technology driving economic growth, governance reforms, and technological competition.

Indian Government AI Initiatives