India’s AI Ambitions: From Call Centers to AI Superpowers?

India stands at a pivotal crossroads in technological history. The nation that once became synonymous with call centers and business process outsourcing is now positioning itself as a global powerhouse in artificial intelligence. This transformation represents more than an industrial shift. It signals India’s determination to lead the next wave of technological innovation while addressing the unique challenges of the Global South.

With strict AI regulations taking shape, a rapidly growing practitioner base, and ambitious investment in compute infrastructure, India’s AI journey offers crucial lessons for emerging economies worldwide. The country’s co-chairmanship of the 2025 AI Action Summit in Paris and its upcoming hosting of the AI Impact Summit in 2026 underscore this emerging leadership role. Yet beneath the headlines lie complex questions about data sovereignty, workforce transformation, and whether India can truly transition from service provider to innovation leader.

The Call Center Legacy: A Foundation or a Constraint?

India’s reputation as the world’s back office was built over three decades. The country’s business process outsourcing sector grew into a $283 billion industry employing over 3 million people. Major global corporations from Verizon to JPMorgan, Microsoft to HSBC relied on Indian call centers for customer support, software development, and back-office operations.

This legacy created deep technical expertise and established India as a trusted technology partner. The sector generated millions of middle-class jobs and demonstrated India’s ability to deliver quality services at scale. According to NASSCOM, the Indian BPM industry reached revenues of $48.9 billion with double-digit growth exceeding 14 percent in FY22 compared to FY21, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global sourcing spend.

However, the rise of artificial intelligence now threatens to disrupt this foundation. TCS CEO K Krithivasan made headlines in April 2024 by predicting that advancements in AI could eliminate India’s call center sector within a year. He envisioned a future where chatbots equipped with generative AI would analyze customer transaction histories and perform tasks traditionally handled by human agents, stating that “in an ideal phase, there should be very minimal incoming call centers having incoming calls at all.”

The transformation is already underway. Teleperformance India deployed real-time accent AI across 42,000 agents, using technology from Palo Alto-based startup Sanas to alter agents’ accents in real-time. The AI smooths out Indian accents, making speech more understandable to American clients. While this improves customer satisfaction scores, it raises profound questions about cultural authenticity and identity.

The Contact Center as a Service market in India expanded from $5.65 billion in 2023 to $6.7 billion in 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 18.7 percent. In 2024, the call center AI market in India reached $103.8 million and is projected to hit $452.5 million by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Approximately 65 to 70 percent of contact centers worldwide already operate some form of AI, and by the end of 2025, 70 percent of all customer conversations are expected to involve AI, whether through routing, voicebots, or post-call analytics.

AI-powered chatbots now handle full conversations with consumers over 69 percent of the time, allowing human agents to focus on more complex issues. Companies like LimeChat have automated 5,000 jobs across India, with their bots handling 70 percent of customer complaints for clients. The company plans to achieve 90 to 95 percent automation within a year. At a price point of approximately $1,130 per month, LimeChat’s service costs roughly the same as three customer-care staff while automating the work of 15 agents.

Yet this disruption creates opportunities. The demand for AI engineers, data scientists, prompt engineers, AI trainers, and speech scientists has surged. Teleperformance and hundreds of other companies have hired thousands of data annotators in India, many of them women in small towns and rural areas, to label training images and videos for AI systems. Industry leaders argue that India could transition from back office to the world’s “AI factory” by capitalizing on demand for AI engineers and automation deployment.

Building the Regulatory Framework: Strict Yet Innovation-Friendly

India’s approach to AI regulation reflects a delicate balancing act between protecting citizens and fostering innovation. Unlike the European Union’s comprehensive AI Act or China’s stringent controls, India is crafting a framework that adapts existing laws while maintaining flexibility for technological advancement.

The regulatory journey accelerated in 2023 when deepfake videos of actress Rashmika Mandanna went viral, causing widespread concern. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called such misuse a crisis, triggering urgent policy responses. Since then, numerous celebrities have sought protection from Delhi High Court against AI-generated content, deepfakes, and AI chatbots impersonating them.

On November 15, 2025, India implemented amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. These amendments, in force as of that date, address threats from the misuse of artificially generated content including deepfakes. The regulations mandate strict labeling, removal, and compliance measures for AI-generated and deepfake content.

The draft amendments proposed in October 2025 require social media platforms and tech companies to clearly label all AI-generated content. Significant Social Media Intermediaries, defined as platforms with more than 50 million registered users in India, must ensure users declare if uploads are AI-generated, verify such claims using technical means, and display proper labels. These requirements apply only to publicly shared content, not private or unpublished material.

Key provisions include visible labeling requirements where all AI-created public content must carry clear labels and traceable metadata. Platforms facilitating creation or distribution of synthetic data must ensure such data is perceptibly labeled using permanent electronic or physical markers. Intermediaries must implement mechanisms to identify synthetically generated information and prevent its misuse.

According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, these amendments establish clear accountability for intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries that host or distribute AI-generated or deepfake material. The rules aim to protect intermediaries acting in good faith while addressing user grievances related to deepfakes or synthetic content.

During the 2024 general elections, which witnessed approximately 970 million registered voters, AI was utilized extensively to target voters through dozens of language translations. However, bad actors also used AI to create deepfake videos and conversational bots. The Election Commission of India issued advisories cautioning political parties against using AI-based deepfakes or misinformation. Political parties must remove deepfake posts within three hours during Model Code of Conduct enforcement, prohibiting AI misuse for misinformation.

India’s regulatory philosophy differs from punitive approaches elsewhere. In September 2024, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that India’s AI law will focus on innovation and may skip penalties for violations, recognizing the technology’s significant benefits. This approach contrasts with the European Union’s AI Act, which includes substantial fines for non-compliance.

The government’s March 2024 advisory required intermediaries and platforms to ensure their AI models, large language models, and generative AI do not enable users to share unlawful content. Platforms must test AI models for bias or discrimination and label unreliable models appropriately. Users must be informed through terms of service that accounts could be terminated for dealing with unlawful information.

An Inter-Ministerial AI Coordination Committee is being established to develop a common roadmap for AI governance. While India currently lacks standalone AI legislation, existing intellectual property, data protection, cybersecurity, and content regulations are being adapted to apply to AI. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 outlines offenses related to cybercrimes, creation and dissemination of deepfakes, AI-generated misinformation, impersonation-based cheating, and privacy violations.

According to the August 2025 Parliamentary Committee report, explicit deepfake prohibitions are being considered. The committee urges comprehensive legislative measures to combat the misuse of AI-generated content while preserving innovation and free expression.

Data Sovereignty: India’s Strategic Asset

Data sovereignty has emerged as a cornerstone of India’s AI strategy. The principle is straightforward yet profound: India’s data should remain under Indian control, governed by Indian laws, and serve Indian interests. This approach reflects both national security concerns and economic calculations about who captures value from data-driven innovation.

India generates nearly 20 percent of the world’s data but holds just 3 percent of global storage capacity. This imbalance, highlighted in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, underscores the urgency of building infrastructure and governance frameworks. The asymmetry means that despite being a massive data generator, India risks becoming what some analysts call a “data colony,” where foreign companies exploit Indian datasets to build global models while India loses control over its most strategic resource.

The country’s data ecosystem is exceptionally rich. With 22 official languages, hundreds of dialects, and socioeconomic diversity across 1.4 billion citizens, India possesses unique demographic variety. Government platforms like Aadhaar (biometric identification), UPI (digital payments), DigiLocker (document storage), and ABDM (health stack) generate massive structured datasets. Private sector players including telecom giants Jio and Airtel, fintech companies like Paytm and PhonePe, and e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Zomato add to this data wealth.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 forms the legal foundation for data governance. This comprehensive privacy law mandates that sensitive personal data of Indian citizens remain on domestic servers unless explicit conditions for cross-border transfer are met. The legislation aligns India with global standards like the European Union’s GDPR while providing predictable compliance norms for multinational investors.

Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules released in 2025 extend government control over how personal data is handled and where it flows outside India. Using the category of Significant Data Fiduciaries, defined based on the volume and sensitivity of data, risks to data protection rights, impacts on sovereignty and integrity, and risks to electoral democracy and security, the government can localize or place conditions on data transfer.

Sectoral regulations reinforce data localization. The Reserve Bank of India mandated that all payment system data be stored within India. The Securities and Exchange Board of India issued similar guidelines for capital market entities. For financial and regulatory integration, the RBI’s AI policy notes stress the importance of using AI with data security frameworks, particularly in digital lending and payments.

Data localization creates significant opportunities for India’s data center and cloud industry. The sector witnessed remarkable growth, with capacity scaling from approximately 1,255 MW in the first nine months of 2024 to a projected 2,070 MW by the end of 2025. From a financial standpoint, the market was valued at $3.3 billion in 2023 and is expected to soar to $12 billion by 2030.

Investment flows at record-breaking levels. Between 2019 and 2024, India attracted close to $60 billion in funding for digital infrastructure, with $19 billion committed in 2024 alone. Landmark deals from Adani ($4 billion), STT GDC ($3.2 billion), and AWS (approximately $2 billion) underscore growing confidence in India’s role as a digital infrastructure powerhouse.

Major technology companies are establishing substantial presence. OpenAI announced plans for a gigawatt-scale hyperscale AI data center in India, representing a pivotal development in the global AI infrastructure landscape. Local infrastructure is increasingly vital to comply with India’s rigorous data sovereignty regulations, which mandate that data generated within the country must be processed and stored locally.

Microsoft committed to investing approximately $80 billion in fiscal year 2025 in developing data centers to train AI models and deploy cloud-based AI applications. Lenovo committed to manufacturing AI servers at its plant in India. Reliance Jio Infocomm, under new chairman Akash Ambani, has made a strong pitch for Indian data to remain in Indian data centers, building a gigawatt-scale AI-ready data center in Jamnagar while advocating for government incentives for companies establishing AI and machine learning facilities.

The sovereign cloud market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20 to 36 percent into the 2030s. Tata Consultancy Services launched India’s Sovereign Secure Cloud in 2025, echoing European Union and United States government cloud models.

Critics raise concerns about potential constraints. Data localization requirements could make it difficult for local small and medium-sized firms to compete, as building and maintaining data centers requires substantial capital investment. The Reserve Bank of India appointed a committee for responsible AI adoption in the financial sector, which submitted a report in August 2025 emphasizing both innovation enablement and risk mitigation.

India’s data sovereignty strategy has two elements: control, exercised by placing restrictions on data, and accumulation, intended to enable the creation and sharing of data. The IndiaAI Mission, launched in March 2024 with an outlay of 10,372 crore rupees, allocated 10,300 crore rupees specifically to build compute infrastructure, innovation hubs, and a unified dataset platform. The mission includes subsidized GPU access at 65 to 92 rupees per GPU-hour, well below commercial hyperscaler pricing.

According to government statements, Indian government would share anonymized data sets collected and harmonized under the National Data Governance Framework with Indian startups and researchers. This approach aims to create a Digital Public Infrastructure for foundation model builders, providing datasets, APIs, tools for labeling and curating data, and platforms for service delivery.

The question remains whether India can successfully navigate the tension between data protectionism and the open data flows that have historically driven innovation. The upcoming AI Impact Summit in Delhi in February 2026 will provide a platform for India to articulate its vision for data sovereignty as a model for the Global South.

The AI Practitioner Base: Quantity Meets Quality

India’s AI talent pool represents both its greatest strength and most pressing challenge. The country ranks among global leaders in AI skill penetration yet faces a substantial gap between supply and demand.

According to the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025, India ranks second in the list of countries with the highest AI skill penetration from 2015 to 2024. The Stanford AI Index 2024 placed India first globally in AI skill penetration with a score of 2.8, surpassing the United States at 2.2 and Germany at 1.9. This demonstrates that India’s AI workforce is 2.8 times more skilled in AI-related competencies than the global average.

India’s AI talent concentration has grown by an impressive 263 percent since 2016. The nation is the second-largest contributor to AI projects on GitHub, reflecting the strength of its developer community. Coursera’s data shows India leading the world in the number of people enrolling in AI and machine learning courses online.

The ground reality reveals complexity beneath these impressive statistics. In 2024, India had approximately 420,000 AI professionals, but the immediate industry requirement was roughly 600,000, indicating a talent shortfall close to 50 percent. A joint report by NASSCOM and Deloitte projected that AI talent demand in India will grow from around 600,000 to 650,000 in 2022 to over 1.25 million by 2027, driven by 25 to 30 percent annual growth in the AI market. This doubling of demand in five years raises concerns of a widening demand-supply gap unless India rapidly upskills its workforce.

The rate of AI adoption in key Indian industries reached approximately 48 percent in fiscal year 2024, reflecting that nearly half of organizations in major sectors now utilize AI in some form. This momentum is expected to accelerate, with an additional 5 to 7 percent rise in adoption projected in fiscal year 2025. Industry estimates suggest India’s AI market was approximately $6 billion in 2023 and is on track to expand to $20 billion by 2028, representing a compound annual growth rate of approximately 26 percent.

Workforce transformation is happening rapidly. According to the Slack Workforce Index 2024, which surveyed 1,029 desk workers in India, 61 percent have already adopted AI in their day-to-day work, compared to only 40 percent globally. An overwhelming 98 percent of Indian employees feel a pressing need to become proficient in AI, believing that mastering AI will be essential to staying relevant in the future workforce.

A survey conducted in October 2024 found that 57 percent of respondents in India said they already received AI training at work, the highest level globally alongside China. According to ServiceNow’s research, workers in India with AI skills and expertise could see salary hikes of over 54 percent, with workers in IT experiencing 65 percent increases and research and development seeing 62 percent boosts.

India’s workforce is projected to grow from 423.73 million in 2023 to 457.62 million by 2028, reflecting a net gain of 33.89 million workers. The implementation and maintenance of emerging technologies like generative AI, chatbots, and AI-driven analytics will drive demand for skilled workers across all sectors, creating an estimated 2.73 million tech jobs by 2028.

Government initiatives support this transformation. The FutureSkills PRIME program, spearheaded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has been pivotal in reskilling and upskilling the IT workforce in emerging technologies. The IndiaAI Mission’s FutureSkills pillar supports formal higher education, funding 500 AI-focused PhD fellowships, 5,000 postgraduate scholarships, and 8,000 undergraduate scholarships to build an academic pipeline of AI researchers and practitioners. By July 2025, over 200 students had received PhD fellowships in AI and 26 institutes had onboarded doctoral candidates under this scheme.

India’s technical education ecosystem, comprising premier institutions like IITs and NITs, provides a strong foundation in computer science and AI. Centers of Excellence for AI, a collaboration between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and NASSCOM, support startups in developing AI tools and applications.

Digital India Bhashini democratizes AI by offering 350 plus language models in 10 Indian languages, enabling accessibility across diverse linguistic demographics. This addresses a critical gap, as India’s linguistic diversity requires AI systems that can operate across multiple languages and dialects.

Geographic concentration presents challenges. Bengaluru dominates with approximately 29 percent of total funds invested in AI startups in 2023, attracting 42 AI-related venture capital deals in 2024. Other metros like Delhi and Mumbai are growing, but many regions lag behind. This concentration means companies in smaller cities or rural regions struggle to find experienced AI professionals, exacerbating the skills divide.

To address geographic imbalances, under the IndiaAI Mission, 30 AI Data Labs were launched across various states by 2025, including several tier-2 cities, forming a network of 570 labs aimed at spreading AI research and development opportunities nationwide. National Centres of Excellence for AI have been announced in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, smart cities, and education, some located in collaboration with state governments and local universities.

Industry-academia partnerships are being encouraged. IBM partnered with the Gujarat government to establish an AI research cluster in GIFT City, providing access to its AI platform for college students. Many corporations including TCS, Infosys, and Wipro run in-house training academies for fresh recruits to learn AI skills, with some opening these programs to external participants.

The quality question remains pressing. While India produces more than a million engineering graduates annually, a NASSCOM report projected that less than 20 percent of India’s 1.5 million engineering students who graduate each year find work in the industry. This gap between graduation and employment-readiness highlights the need for curriculum reform and practical training.

Investment Trends and the Startup Ecosystem

India’s AI startup ecosystem experienced remarkable momentum in 2024 and 2025, signaling investor confidence despite global economic headwinds. The investment landscape reflects both the opportunities in India’s market and the challenges of building sustainable businesses.

India’s AI startup ecosystem witnessed notable growth in funding, with total funding reaching approximately $780.5 million in 2024, an increase of around 39.9 percent from the previous year. This contrasted sharply with the decline from 2022 to 2023, when funding fell by approximately 49.4 percent. In 2025, through October, AI companies in India raised $616 million in equity funding across 64 rounds, representing a 101.4 percent rise compared to the same period in 2024, when companies had raised $306 million across 99 rounds.

According to Tracxn data, there are 1,420 AI companies in India, including 451 funded companies having collectively raised $4.93 billion in venture capital and private equity. Out of these, 112 are Series A plus funded, and three have achieved unicorn status. The sector has seen 27 acquisitions and 7 IPOs.

Major funding rounds shaped the ecosystem. Kore.ai raised $150 million in funding led by FTV Capital with participation from NVIDIA and other investors. AI startups such as Krutrim AI, Atlan, EMA, and Neysa Networks received substantial funding in 2024. Approximately 14.85 percent of startups focus on AI Platforms and SaaS Solutions, attracting significant funding due to their scalability and cross-industry applications in automation, analytics, and business operations.

Bengaluru-based AI startups received substantial funding, approximately 29 percent of the total funds invested in AI startups, due to the presence of several established players in the city. The top-funded AI companies in India include Uniphore, Icertis, and Eightfold, according to Tracxn data.

Major investors actively backed AI startups. Accel is the top investor in AI companies in India based on number of companies invested. Other prominent investors include Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India), Lightspeed Ventures, Matrix Partners, and Pi Ventures. In 2025, Venture Catalysts invested in 13 AI-centric startups including Orbo AI, Nayan AI, vPhrase, Llumo AI, and Vaani Research. Peak XV Partners invested in nine startups including Qure AI, Atomicwork, Sarvam AI, Avataar.ai, and Inferless.

Sector-specific applications attracted significant funding. Investors focused on healthcare with startups like Qure.ai and agriculture with AgNext, reflecting demand for targeted AI solutions. The BCG-NASSCOM Report 2024 highlighted that the AI market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25 to 35 percent, emphasizing innovation and job creation potential.

According to the Freshworks AI Workplace Report, Indian companies lead the world in AI confidence, with 79 percent planning to increase AI budgets in 2024. This translates to a record-breaking 41 percent average spending increase, the highest globally. Funding for Indian GenAI startups reached an impressive $760 million in the first half of 2024, marking a significant leap from 2021, according to Statista.

The EY CEO Outlook Pulse 2023 report revealed that 84 percent of Indian CEOs are reallocating budgets or securing fresh capital for GenAI investments, well above the global average of 70 percent. Almost all employers, 99 percent, envision their companies becoming AI-driven organizations by 2028.

Prominent startups demonstrate the ecosystem’s diversity. Sarvam AI, backed by Peak XV Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Khosla Ventures, raised $41 million. In April 2025, the central government selected Sarvam AI to build India’s first homegrown sovereign large language model under the IndiaAI Mission. The Bengaluru-based startup’s full-stack GenAI platform comprises multiple products including Sarvam Agents, Sarvam 2B (small language model), Shuka 1.0 (voice language model), and models built specifically for 10 Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and Telugu, besides English.

Observe.AI, which provides conversational AI for contact centers, raised $214 million over six rounds, bagging $125 million in its last funding round in 2022. In March 2025, the startup acquired text-to-speech AI startup Dubdub.ai to strengthen its conversational AI capabilities.

The investment landscape faces headwinds. Global economic uncertainties, changes in regulatory frameworks, and market saturation contributed to funding declines in 2023. Experts note that global VCs prefer domain-focused AI companies with deep domain expertise and vertical solutions rather than broad horizontal platforms. B2B AI startups have a distinct edge, raising on average three times more capital than consumer AI ventures, as startups addressing enterprise workloads, automation, and infrastructure enjoy more robust support.

Accelerators and incubators play crucial roles. JioGenNext, sponsored by Reliance Industries Limited, has mentored 177 startups since inception, helping them raise approximately $545 million in early-stage venture capital. The platform has secured nearly $2 billion by partnering with over 80 angel investors and venture capital firms.

IIMA Ventures, established in 2002 at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and India Accelerator, founded in 2017, focus on nurturing early-stage startups specializing in generative AI, particularly in content creation, automated workflows, and data generation. India Accelerator invests up to $500,000 in seed capital through its SEBI-registered Alternative Investment Funds, typically accompanied by an equity stake of 5 to 15 percent.

Government support through the IndiaAI Mission includes 2,000 crore rupees for supporting Indian startups in developing indigenous AI solutions, with subsidized access to GPU infrastructure for compute, dataset, and skill development. The mission’s emphasis on data creation, collection, and value driven by data serves national interest while supporting entrepreneurship.

The startup ecosystem’s geographic concentration remains a concern. While Bangalore dominates, followed by Delhi and Mumbai, tier-2 and tier-3 cities lack the ecosystem support, funding access, and talent pools necessary for AI startups to thrive. Expanding the ecosystem beyond major metros remains a priority for inclusive growth.

Leading the Global Conversation: The AI Action Summit

India’s role in global AI governance reached a milestone in February 2025 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi co-chaired the AI Action Summit in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. This marked the third summit in a series of global dialogues focused on AI governance, following the 2023 AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom and the 2024 AI Seoul Summit in South Korea.

The Paris summit represented a significant evolution in tone and scope. While the Bletchley Park Summit was attended by representatives from 29 governments and executives from only a handful of AI companies, over 1,000 participants from more than 100 countries attended the 2025 Paris AI Summit, representing government leaders, international organizations, the academic and research community, the private sector, and civil society.

Fortune.com AI editor Jeremy Kahn described the Paris Summit as an “AI festival, complete with glitzy corporate side events and even a late-night dance party,” contrasting it with the “decidedly sober” mood of the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. The shift reflected changing priorities, moving from a narrow focus on safety to broader questions of implementation, equity, and impact.

Prime Minister Modi’s address at the summit emphasized India’s commitment to democratizing technology and ensuring access to all, especially in the Global South. He showcased India’s success in building Digital Public Infrastructure for 1.4 billion people at very low cost, highlighting initiatives like the India AI Mission, public-private AI partnerships providing compute power to startups at affordable costs, and a unique large language model tailored to India’s linguistic diversity.

Modi addressed concerns about AI’s energy consumption, calling for developing sustainable AI models that optimize power usage. He emphasized that AI models must be efficient in size, data needs, and resource requirements, noting that “the human brain designs space missions using less power than most lightbulbs.” India’s leadership in clean energy, particularly through the International Solar Alliance, a joint initiative with France, positions the country to advance green AI development.

Recognizing concerns about job displacement due to AI, Modi asserted that technological advancements do not eliminate work but transform its nature. He emphasized the need for large-scale skilling and reskilling programs to prepare the workforce for an AI-driven future, highlighting India’s investment in upskilling initiatives to bridge the digital divide.

Modi illustrated AI bias challenges through a simple experiment, noting that “an AI app can simplify medical reports but might fail at accurately depicting a left-handed writer due to biased training data.” This highlights that AI reflects the data it is trained on, and without diverse representation, biases persist. Addressing this requires global cooperation, open datasets, and ethical AI frameworks.

At the summit, 58 countries including France, China, and India signed a joint declaration, the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet. The declaration identified priorities and launched concrete actions to advance public interest and bridge digital divides through accelerating progress toward Sustainable Development Goals.

France announced its $400 million endowment of Current AI, a new foundation to support the creation of AI public goods including high-quality datasets and open-source tools and infrastructure. Launched by President Macron, Current AI is backed by nine governments including India, plus philanthropic organizations and private companies including Google and Salesforce.

Another initiative launched at the summit was the Coalition for Sustainable AI, led by France, the UN Environment Programme, and the International Telecommunication Union. The coalition has support from 11 countries, five international organizations, and 37 tech companies including IBM, NVIDIA, and SAP.

Prime Minister Modi made a significant announcement at the summit’s conclusion: India would host the next AI Summit. The AI Impact Summit, scheduled for Delhi from February 19 to 20, 2026, represents a strategic evolution from previous convenings. According to professional services firm Crowell, “It looks to shift the AI conversation from the AI ‘Safety’ and ‘Action’ themes of the earlier summits to one focused on ‘Impact.’ This represents a strategic evolution from previous convenings to move beyond governance and safety-focused dialogues, to one that drives implementation and measurable outcomes, particularly for deployment across the Global South, and strong multi-sectoral collaboration.”

India’s co-chairmanship of the Paris summit and hosting of the Delhi summit reflect the country’s growing influence in global technology governance. As the 2024 lead chair of the Global Partnership on AI, which includes 29 member countries, India aims to establish GPAI as the central platform for responsible AI development.

The Global INDIAai Summit 2024, held earlier at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, witnessed participation from thousands of global AI experts, policymakers, practitioners, industry representatives, startups, and academia. Over 10,000 AI enthusiasts joined virtually. The summit focused on advancing AI in compute capacity, foundational models, datasets, application development, future skills, startup financing, and safe AI.

Global South countries appreciated India’s role in voicing their concerns at the global AI forum and bridging the gap with the Global North. Sessions covered implementation challenges, Western models versus India’s unique needs in AI, and strategies for achieving global AI leadership. The Indian government emphasized its commitment to democratizing AI and making it accessible.

The 2nd India-France AI Policy Roundtable, held alongside the AI Action Summit 2025 in Paris, was organized by India’s Principal Scientific Adviser’s Office, IISc Bengaluru, IndiaAI Mission, and Sciences Po Paris. Discussions covered AI governance and ethics, cross-border AI collaboration, and AI for global challenges. Topics included Digital Public Infrastructure for AI, AI foundation models, global AI governance, data sovereignty, interoperable AI infrastructure, sovereign AI models, and multilingual models.

Critics, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, called the Paris Summit a “missed opportunity” for not doing enough to address AI risks. Others, including David Leslie of the Alan Turing Institute and Max Tegmark of the Future of Life Institute, voiced similar concerns. Technology columnist Kevin Roose of The New York Times wrote from Paris that “the biggest surprise of the Paris summit, for me, has been that policymakers can’t seem to grasp how soon powerful AI systems could arrive, or how disruptive they could be.”

Despite such critiques, India’s leadership role positions the country to shape global AI norms. With the AI Impact Summit approaching, India has an opportunity to articulate a vision that balances innovation with equity, addresses the needs of developing nations, and establishes frameworks for responsible AI deployment at scale.

The Road Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities

India’s transformation from call center hub to AI superpower faces significant obstacles alongside remarkable opportunities. The path forward requires addressing structural challenges while capitalizing on unique advantages.

The sustainability challenge looms large. AI data centers may consume as much electricity as India’s total current consumption of 1,580 terawatt-hours, according to the Economic Survey 2024-25. Integration of solar, wind, storage, and potentially small modular reactors will be critical. Policy targets aim for Power Usage Effectiveness of 1.3 or less by 2030, aligning with European Union Energy Efficiency directives. Best-in-class facilities globally achieve near 1.1, demonstrating room for improvement in Indian infrastructure.

Balancing people-centric AI with AI-centric development presents a key challenge. Over-reliance on AI risks job loss, data privacy issues, and digital divide. The question of whether AI should serve human needs or whether humans should adapt to AI’s capabilities remains contentious. Finding the right balance requires robust governance frameworks, ethical guidelines, and continuous stakeholder engagement.

Insecure and low-cost AI models like DeepSeek pose risks of data breaches, misinformation, deepfakes, and cybersecurity threats. Weak regulatory oversight and ethical safeguards heighten bias and security concerns, necessitating robust AI governance. India must balance the desire for affordable AI with the imperative of security and reliability.

The workforce transition presents immediate concerns. While AI creates new job categories, the pace of change may leave many behind. Sumita Dawra, a former labor ministry secretary who oversaw an Indian government taskforce on AI’s impact on the workforce, suggested India could consider stronger social security measures such as unemployment benefits to help those displaced during transition. However, a senior Indian official indicated the government believes AI will ultimately have little impact on overall employment.

The tension between optimism and caution reflects deeper uncertainties. While industry leaders predict massive job creation, workers and labor advocates worry about displacement and income insecurity. The challenge lies in ensuring that gains from AI-driven productivity are shared broadly rather than concentrated among technology companies and highly skilled workers.

Regulatory complexity adds another layer of challenge. New data protection rules, green building codes, and evolving ESG mandates add compliance costs. Maintaining innovation-friendly policies while ensuring adequate consumer protections requires careful calibration. The government’s stated preference for leveraging existing laws rather than implementing a single overarching AI law aims to preserve flexibility but may create confusion about jurisdiction and enforcement.

Talent constraints extend beyond numbers. While India produces large numbers of engineering graduates, quality concerns persist. The gap between academic training and industry requirements means many graduates lack job-ready skills. Bridging this gap requires curriculum reform, industry-academia collaboration, and continuous professional development.

Geographic inequalities risk creating a two-tier system where major metros race ahead while smaller cities and rural areas fall behind. Ensuring equitable access to AI benefits requires deliberate policies to spread infrastructure, education, and opportunity beyond traditional tech hubs.

Yet opportunities abound. India’s demographic advantage, with one of the world’s youngest populations, provides a vast talent pool that can be trained for the AI economy. The country’s linguistic diversity positions it uniquely to develop multilingual AI systems, addressing a gap in global AI capabilities.

The global AI market’s rapid expansion creates demand for the skills India possesses. As Western companies seek alternatives to China for AI development and deployment, India’s democratic governance, rule of law, and English-language proficiency make it an attractive partner.

India’s Digital Public Infrastructure model demonstrates the country’s ability to build transformative technology at scale. UPI processes billions of transactions monthly, Aadhaar provides identity verification for over a billion people, and CoWIN facilitated one of the world’s largest vaccination campaigns. These successes prove India can execute complex technical projects serving massive populations.

The IndiaAI Mission’s comprehensive approach, addressing compute infrastructure, skills development, startup financing, datasets, and safe AI, provides a framework for coordinated action. With 10,372 crore rupees in funding, the mission has resources to make meaningful impact, though sustained commitment over many years will be necessary.

India’s leadership in international forums provides platforms to shape global norms. The AI Impact Summit offers an opportunity to advance an agenda focused on equitable access, sustainable development, and inclusive governance. By articulating the concerns and priorities of the Global South, India can help ensure that AI governance frameworks serve all nations, not just developed economies.

The question is not whether India will play a significant role in the AI future, but rather what kind of role it will play. Will India become primarily a consumer of AI technologies developed elsewhere, a provider of AI services to global markets, or a leader in AI innovation setting standards and creating new paradigms?

The answer likely involves elements of all three, but the balance matters enormously. True leadership requires not just adoption of existing technologies but creation of new ones. It requires not just serving global markets but addressing local needs. It requires not just economic success but social responsibility.

Conclusion: A Crossroads Moment

India stands at a defining moment in its technological journey. The transition from call centers to AI leadership is more than industrial evolution. It represents a fundamental reimagining of India’s role in the global economy and its contribution to addressing humanity’s challenges.

The country’s achievements are remarkable. From ranking second globally in AI skill penetration to hosting major AI summits, from implementing comprehensive AI regulations to attracting billions in infrastructure investment, India has positioned itself as a serious AI player. The speed and scale of transformation in just a few years demonstrate the nation’s capacity for rapid adaptation.

Yet challenges remain formidable. Ensuring that AI benefits reach beyond urban elites to rural communities, managing workforce displacement while creating new opportunities, balancing data sovereignty with innovation, and maintaining democratic values while pursuing technological advancement require wisdom, commitment, and inclusive governance.

The strict AI labeling and deepfake regulations demonstrate India’s willingness to act decisively on pressing concerns. The data sovereignty requirements reflect strategic thinking about long-term economic interests. The growing AI practitioner base showcases India’s human capital advantage. The investment trends and startup ecosystem signal market confidence. The leadership in the AI Action Summit establishes India as a convener and norm-setter.

Whether these elements coalesce into genuine AI superpower status depends on execution. It requires sustained investment not just in infrastructure but in people. It requires regulatory frameworks that protect without stifling. It requires global engagement that asserts India’s interests while contributing to collective solutions.

India’s journey from call centers to AI ambitions offers lessons for emerging economies worldwide. Technology transitions create both disruption and opportunity. Success requires strategic vision, adaptive governance, investment in human capital, and commitment to inclusive development. Most fundamentally, it requires recognizing that technology serves human flourishing, not the reverse.

As India prepares to host the AI Impact Summit in February 2026, the world will watch closely. The summit’s success will be measured not by declarations signed but by concrete actions that follow. India has an opportunity to demonstrate that AI leadership is compatible with equity, that innovation can coexist with tradition, and that developing nations can shape technological futures rather than merely adapt to them.

The transformation is underway. Whether it leads to sustainable prosperity or becomes a cautionary tale depends on choices made today. India’s AI ambitions are audacious, but ambition alone is insufficient. What matters now is delivery: ensuring that the promise of AI translates into tangible improvements in people’s lives while building a foundation for long-term technological leadership.

The story of India’s AI journey is still being written. Its outcome will shape not just one nation’s future but provide a blueprint for how emerging economies navigate the AI revolution. The stakes could not be higher, and the opportunities could not be greater. How India navigates this crossroads will define its role in the 21st century and beyond.

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