India’s upcoming AI Impact Summit in New Delhi will be anchored around three core themes, people, planet, and progress, to move global discussions on artificial intelligence beyond broad principles towards practical and inclusive outcomes. The focus was outlined by India’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington during a discussion on US-India strategic cooperation on artificial intelligence held at the US Capitol.
The discussion, organised by Observer Research Foundation America, the Special Competitive Studies Project and the Embassy of India, brought together policymakers and experts to outline shared priorities ahead of the summit, which India is set to host next month. The summit is expected to convene governments, industry representatives and civil society stakeholders to examine how artificial intelligence can be deployed in development-oriented and socially relevant ways.
India’s Deputy Chief of Mission said artificial intelligence had moved beyond being a niche or emerging technology and had become a broader operating context shaping economic competitiveness, geopolitical influence and societal outcomes. She said India’s approach to artificial intelligence was rooted in its experience of building population-scale digital public infrastructure that demonstrated how inclusive, interoperable and low-cost technology could transform governance.
She pointed to platforms such as Aadhaar and the Unified Payments Interface as examples of how digital systems had expanded access to public services, financial inclusion and identity for more than 1.4 billion people. According to her, India viewed artificial intelligence not as a standalone solution but as a force multiplier layered over existing digital infrastructure, making systems more responsive, productive and accessible.
The upcoming AI Impact Summit, she said, would be the first major global artificial intelligence summit hosted by a country from the Global South. The objective, she noted, was to address imbalances in global AI governance by broadening participation and ownership rather than by lowering standards. The summit’s framework reflects India’s vision of “AI for all,” with a focus on empowerment, sustainability and equitable growth.
Under the people pillar, artificial intelligence is expected to be positioned as a tool that empowers individuals rather than marginalising them. The planet theme focuses on ensuring that AI systems are resource-efficient and aligned with sustainability goals, while the progress pillar highlights the role of AI in driving equitable economic growth, particularly in sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture and public service delivery.
She also noted that growing geopolitical tensions and the weaponisation of technology supply chains had made technological resilience a key element of national strategy. In this context, she referred to the India-US trust initiative as a mechanism to translate cooperation into tangible projects spanning research, standards, skills development and next-generation technologies.
India’s linguistic diversity and population-scale digital platforms, she said, provided a unique environment for building inclusive and multilingual AI systems. At the same time, she said, the United States brought strengths in frontier research, capital and advanced use cases that could be tested in India and scaled globally.
A representative from ORF America said India was increasingly positioning itself as a bridge between global debates on AI safety and the need for large-scale, real-world deployment, particularly for developing countries. He noted that early global conversations on artificial intelligence were often dominated by abstract or existential risks, while many countries in the Global South were focused on whether AI could deliver tangible improvements in public services and economic opportunity.
He also cautioned that global competition in AI deployment was already underway in emerging markets, warning that if democratic countries failed to provide affordable and trusted AI solutions, others would step in to fill that gap. Deeper cooperation between India and the United States, he said, could help ensure that developing countries were not locked into technologies misaligned with their interests.
The AI Impact Summit in New Delhi is expected to place particular emphasis on the priorities of the Global South, positioning India as a key convenor in shaping the next phase of global artificial intelligence deployment.
