Davos: India’s strategy on artificial intelligence took centre stage at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, where leaders from global tech firms, investment houses and policymakers signalled growing support for the India AI Mission and its potential to shape the future of AI innovation both domestically and globally.
In conversations with global business delegates and tech leaders on the sidelines of the summit, industry insiders pointed to four key pillars driving confidence in India’s AI ecosystem: population-scale use cases, expanding digital infrastructure, deep technical talent and strong policy focus.
According to Abhishek Singh, CEO of the India AI Mission and Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT, India’s vast and diverse user base enables AI solutions to be field-tested, refined and scaled in real-world environments far more rapidly than in many advanced economies — making India “not just a market but a global AI platform.”
Record commitments to data centres, cloud capacity and high-performance computing were highlighted as foundational investments underpinning the mission’s growth trajectory. These infrastructure bets have helped global firms transition from pilot projects to large-scale AI deployments, boosting India’s credibility as a hub for AI research and product development.
Talent was another principal theme at Davos. India’s deep pool of engineers, researchers and data scientists, combined with a rapidly growing startup ecosystem, is attracting global tech giants to set up AI labs, innovation hubs and research collaborations in the country — not merely for cost advantages but to leverage local problem-solvers adept at building AI solutions for complex, real-world challenges.
Global players such as OpenAI have underscored India’s importance; OpenAI’s Chief Global Affairs Officer said India is now among the company’s most important markets globally and has grown sharply in usage and developer engagement. This reflects India’s transition from being predominantly an AI adopter to becoming a strategic growth market for AI tools and platforms.
India’s focus on responsible and inclusive AI also resonated with international delegates. The mission’s emphasis on transparency, ethics and equitable deployment aligns with global calls for AI governance that balances innovation with societal impact — a stance India plans to showcase further at the upcoming India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
Market analysts and investors at Davos noted that these converging factors — infrastructure build-out, talent depth, real-world AI applicability and regulatory clarity — are helping reposition India beyond a follower in the global AI race to a potential leader in AI adoption and impact, particularly in emerging markets and the Global South.
As discussions wrap up in Davos, the global tech community’s bullish outlook on India’s AI agenda suggests substantial long-term investment flows, innovation partnerships and collaborative research initiatives — cementing India’s role in shaping the next era of artificial intelligence.