From shared values to joint action ahead of the India-AI Impact Summit
As the world enters an era defined by Artificial Intelligence, 2026 represents a critical milestone for global collaboration. The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, taking place in New Delhi from February 16-20, provides a premier venue for countries, innovators, and industry leaders to establish a unified vision for ethical and inclusive AI.
The strategic partnership between India and the UAE, rooted in a long-standing friendship, is now increasingly driven by technological advancement. Our joint efforts in AI underscore a shared commitment to using innovation as a force for social progress, economic growth, and sustainability.
AI is fundamentally altering India’s development path, serving as a high-octane engine for innovation and inclusive growth. Leveraging its immense human talent and robust public digital infrastructure, India is perfectly primed to deploy AI to solve complex national challenges and fast-track its economic evolution.
India’s AI strategy is driven by the “AI for All” philosophy, prioritizing social benefit over simple automation. This impact is visible across several key sectors:
- Healthcare: AI-driven diagnostics facilitate early disease detection, expand telemedicine to rural regions, and provide clinicians with sophisticated data insights.
- Agriculture: Smart tools empower farmers to forecast weather, maximize crop yields, and control pests, boosting financial stability for rural families.
- Education: Personalized learning platforms and adaptive testing are closing the gap in educational quality and accessibility through digital classrooms.
- Governance: AI optimizes public services by refining welfare targeting, preventing fraud, and ensuring more transparent, efficient administrative decisions.
A primary driver of this shift is India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Foundational systems like Aadhaar, UPI, and the India Stack offer the necessary data scale and interoperability for AI solutions to scale responsibly. When paired with a flourishing startup culture and a massive pool of technical talent, India is rapidly establishing itself as a premier global center for AI development.
Central to this progress is a steadfast commitment to ethical and human-centric AI. Indian policymakers are prioritizing frameworks that ensure transparency, fairness, and accountability while protecting individual privacy and preventing a digital divide. Through its leadership in international forums, India is championing an AI governance model that specifically addresses the needs and aspirations of the Global South.
Ultimately, India’s integration of AI is guided by a singular mission: technology must empower citizens and foster sustainable development. By bridging the gap between cutting-edge innovation and societal requirements, India is doing more than just adopting a new tool—it is redefining its future and providing a global blueprint for using technology as a force for the collective good.
A Global Agenda for AI Impact
The India-AI Impact Summit is built upon three foundational pillars: People, Planet, and Progress. This thematic structure ensures that human well-being, ecological sustainability, and inclusive socio-economic growth remain the primary focus of the global AI conversation.
With an expected turnout from over a hundred nations—including world leaders, heads of state, premier CEOs, and pioneering technologists—the summit aims to shift the global focus from mere AI regulation to practical implementation that delivers real public value.
The agenda spans governance frameworks, ethical accountability, and specific deployment tactics for healthcare, education, agriculture, and public services. The goal is clear: to democratize AI by prioritizing access, equity, and tangible benefits for every society, with a particular focus on the Global South.
These preliminary sessions served as more than just a buildup; they were instrumental in molding the summit’s comprehensive agenda. The research papers, policy frameworks, and practical recommendations generated from these dialogues will be integrated directly into the New Delhi discussions, ensuring that the summit’s conclusions are rooted in diverse, multi-regional perspectives and stakeholder expertise.
The India-UAE AI Partnership: From Vision to Action
The relationship between India and the UAE has transitioned from traditional economic cooperation to a deep, strategic alliance focused on the AI frontier.
In January 2026, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, paid an official visit to New Delhi. During this visit, the two leaders reaffirmed the shared commitment to deepen cooperation in advanced technologies including AI, alongside traditional pillars such as energy, defence, and trade.
A key highlight of this engagement was the announcement of joint initiatives to boost AI infrastructure and capabilities. Notably, both nations agreed to explore the establishment of a supercomputing cluster and expanded data centre operations in India — a venture that will support advanced AI research, accelerate model training, and facilitate commercial applications across sectors.
This collaboration reflects a strategic alignment: India’s deep reservoir of human capital and rapidly expanding AI ecosystem combined with the UAE’s cutting-edge innovation environment, investment capabilities, and global market reach.
In an increasingly interconnected digital era, such partnerships hold the promise of creating cross-border innovation corridors. For instance, the recently announced UAE–India Web3 & AI Business Corridor initiative seeks to establish joint working groups, pilot programmes, regulatory sandboxes, and frameworks for talent mobility and startup growth.
At the institutional level, India and the UAE have a history of collaboration: dating back to the early days of their AI engagement, including the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an India–UAE Artificial Intelligence Bridge aimed at promoting innovation, startups, and investment ties between the two nations.
A shared vision for ethical, inclusive AI
What distinguishes the India–UAE partnership in AI is a shared commitment to responsible innovation that serves society.
India has championed the notion that AI must be anchored in values: fairness, transparency, inclusivity, and human welfare. Its forthcoming summit builds on this ethos, deliberately forging global consensus that AI should empower individuals and communities — not replace them.
Likewise, the UAE has embedded AI into its national development strategies, with initiatives that promote AI adoption across government services and industry sectors. The nation’s position as a global AI hub is supported by efforts to create enabling environments for innovation, regulation, and responsible deployment.
Together, our nations embody the principle that technological progress and ethical stewardship must go hand in hand.
Opportunities ahead
The AI Impact Summit presents vast opportunities for collaboration:
- Public-private partnerships: India and UAE business communities can co-invest in AI startups, research labs, and innovation hubs that bridge markets in Asia, the Middle East, and beyond.
- Skills and workforce development: Joint initiatives in education, vocational training, and AI curriculum development can nurture tomorrow’s workforce equipped for the AI era.
- Governance and policy frameworks: By sharing best practices in AI governance and regulatory design, our nations can shape norms that protect citizens while fostering innovation.
- Cross-border research: Cooperative research programmes, data-sharing agreements, and shared computing infrastructure can elevate collective capabilities and ensure that AI solutions address real-world challenges.
As the India-AI Impact Summit approaches, the world looks to exemplars of partnership that transcend transactional ties and aspire to transform lives. The India–UAE relationship stands as one such model — rooted in deep mutual respect, forward-looking policy, and a shared belief in the positive power of technology.
We are not merely preparing for a conversation about AI; we are charting a course for global cooperation that ensures Artificial Intelligence becomes a force for human dignity, inclusive growth, and sustainable prosperity. In collaboration with the UAE, India looks forward to building a future in which AI enriches lives across continents and communities.
