New Delhi, Feb 16 — The 'world’s largest' artificial intelligence summit opened in the capital on Monday to packed halls and long queues, as India seeks broader access to the technology and international agreement on shared global frameworks.
The five-day AI Impact Summit, running from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, has drawn policymakers, tech leaders, founders and investors from across the world.
Organisers said registrations exceeded expectations, reflecting accelerating interest in AI infrastructure, enterprise adoption and sovereign compute capabilities.
More than 3,250 speakers and over 500 sessions are scheduled across multiple parallel tracks, many of which were filled to capacity on the opening day.
“Sessions are packed. There are long queues, and once the halls fill up, doors are closed, which creates some hassle for those still waiting outside,” an attendee said.
“You have to be there well in advance. You can’t move casually from one session to another like at other conferences.”
Another participant attributed the turnout to the speaker lineup. “There is a lot of buzz around AI. People don’t want to miss these conversations,” the person said.
Top technology leaders — including Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, and Dario Amodei — are scheduled to speak from February 18, even as enthusiasm remained high on the opening day despite their absence.
The final two days of the summit will see more than 20 heads of state and government, including Emmanuel Macron and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, join Narendra Modi to discuss the future of artificial intelligence alongside business leaders and investors.
An accompanying expo showcases AI innovations from global majors such as Google, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft, along with Indian firms. The expo features more than 300 exhibitions and 13 country pavilions, organised around the themes of People, Planet and Progress.
Panel discussions on employability in the age of AI, skilling, governance, trusted AI systems, generative AI deployment and public-sector use cases drew standing-room-only audiences, with corridors crowded as participants networked between sessions.
For New Delhi, the summit is a platform to position itself as a champion of democratising AI for the global south. Officials and experts said India is expected to push the idea of “global AI commons” — a shared repository of AI use cases in key sectors — alongside calls for wider access to AI technologies.
Ahead of the summit, Prime Minister Modi told PTI that India is ready to host the world’s data and lead the next phase of the technology revolution, citing the country’s digital public infrastructure and growing appeal to global AI firms and data centre investors.
The UK hosted the first global AI summit in 2023 with a focus on safety and extreme risks, while France’s 2025 edition centred on major investment commitments. India’s edition places access, infrastructure and international cooperation at the heart of the debate as governments and industry grapple with the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence.