AI Impact Summit 2026: What to Expect from the World’s Biggest AI Event

The AI Impact Summit 2026 will position India at the centre of global discussions on artificial intelligence and digital governance. With the AI Impact Summit 2026 India edition, the country becomes the first Global South nation to host a world-scale AI conference. AI Impact Summit 2026 will take place in New Delhi between January 22 and January 24, 2026 and is likely to be the biggest international conference on artificial intelligence so far. The AI summit in New Delhi will be held at Bharat Mandapam and will host delegations from more than 100 countries.

The AI Impact Summit 2026 is being positioned as the largest artificial intelligence gathering ever hosted by India. Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the AI Impact Summit 2026 would become the largest artificial intelligence summit ever to be held, with an estimated 100 countries, over 15 Heads of State, more than 100 CEOs and more than 500 sessions attending. He observed that the magnitude of the event was an indication that India is becoming increasingly significant in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem.

The India AI summit 2026 is expected to draw policymakers, CEOs and researchers from more than 100 countries. India-AI Impact Summit 2026 was also announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, which is expected to be the first global AI summit to be hosted in the Global South, a major shift in terms of where major policy discussions are being held regarding technology. The scale of the summit reflects India’s expanding role in the global and domestic India AI ecosystem.

India AI summit 2026: Linking research with policy and practice

The India AI summit 2026 is expected to shape future policies on AI regulation, innovation and workforce transformation. One of the key elements of the summit is going to be the Research Symposium on "AI and its Impact". This programme will help to bridge the artificial intelligence research in policy-making and application. There has been a good international interest with more than 250 research papers already being submitted both within India and abroad.

The symposium is going to concentrate on the ways research can be used to make decision-making in spheres like health care, education, climate reaction and government management. Through the use of a common platform to facilitate the interaction of researchers, policymakers and practitioners, the summit will bridge the gap between the theoretical study and the actual implementation of AI systems.

Indigenous language models and the IndiaAI mission

Under the IndiaAI Mission, the government plans to accelerate development of home-grown AI models for Indian languages and public services. It will also be used to roll out a number of indigenous AI language models as a part of the IndiaAI Mission of Rs10370 crore. These will be large foundational models and smaller and task-specific language models.

These AI language models India is developing are expected to support governance, education and enterprise automation. According to government briefings, such systems will promote Indian languages and meet domestic requirements including citizen services, enterprise automation and sectoral analytics. This drive towards domestic models is to decrease reliance on foreign AI systems and establish strategic capacity in the domestic digital environment.

Employment, trust and sectoral adoption

The summit agenda will be structured around the following themes; the future of work, trust and safety in AI, and large-scale adoption across industries. This will be discussed in working groups on how AI is transforming jobs and the skills that will be required in the next decade. It will also hold other sessions dedicated to responsible AI, such as data protection, model reliability and protection against misuse. Such deliberations shall inform upcoming regulatory tactics and make businesses implement AI in a manner that is productive and acceptable in the society.

Startups and global collaboration with global AI summit

The event is being positioned as a global AI summit that combines policy, research and startup innovation on one platform. The event will be based on startups, and over 500 AI startups will participate in a special exhibition. Almost 500 sessions will take place in research, policy and industry tracks. The government press releases present the summit as among the biggest international forums on artificial intelligence and the combination of multinational companies, Indian startups, academic institutions and government bodies. This is meant to encourage the idea of collaboration, exchange of knowledge and long term alliances.

A new centre for global AI dialogue and artificial intelligence conference India

This artificial intelligence conference India is hosting will influence how emerging economies adopt and regulate AI technologies. India is establishing itself as an AI technology builder and a policy leader by hosting the AI Impact Summit 2026. The emphasis of inclusive development, indigenous innovation and responsible deployment is also an indication of a change in the direction in which global AI discourses are being influenced. To researchers, business entities and governments, the summit will provide better guidance on how artificial intelligence can be used to enhance economic growth, and at the same time, be guided by the interest of the people and societal needs.