India is making its move into the international AI spotlight: The India AI Impact Summit 2026, the flagship event, seeks to take the discussion from theory and governance to concrete societal impact. For policymakers, researchers, startup founders, investors, or simply AI enthusiasts, here’s a quick guide to date, place, who will likely speak, plan agenda themes, partners, and why it matters.
When and Where
The India–AI Impact Summit 2026 will be held at Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, 19–20 February 2026 — a large, purpose-built facility accommodating major international events. This two-day summit is being organised by the Government of India and is organised under the initiative of the IndiaAI Mission.
Why this summit matters
Following the France AI Action Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the India – AI Impact Summit as the first major global AI convening from the Global South focused on turning AI commitments into meaningful, equitable outcomes. The summit indicates a shift in emphasis, from conversations about “safety” and “action” to a conversation more focused on impact — deployment, measurable benefits, and equity.
Summit themes & highlights of agenda
Summit organisers have developed themes for the summit that are practical and emphasise outcomes — broadly speaking, among People, Planet, and progress, and a range of working groups and program strands that reflect the same priorities. Look for sessions on:
AI FOR ALL: Global Impact Challenge: a global call for innovators, students, startups, and researchers to submit scalable PrimeAI, pilot-ready solutions for large societal impact. A significant prize pool will be available – for the top 10 winners up to INR 2.50 Crore will be awarded.
AI BY HER: Global Impact Challenge: a targeted initiative to empower and support women-led teams building AI-for-good solutions, with the aim being to raise the female profile within the AI pipeline, through prizes and exclusive pitch sessions to investors.
YUVAi: Global Youth Challenge: an initiative aimed at young innovators aged 13 – 21 to think about and build practical AI solutions to problems in their communities with a prize focus of up to INR 85 Lakhs.
AI Impact Expo 2026: a five day in-person exhibit in person, hosted from February 16-20 with an expected over 300 exhibitors to showcase AI for Global Good.
In addition to the plenary session, there will be roundtable discussions, policy discussions, start-up demonstrations, pitch challenges, ministerial sessions, and promises.
Who will speak
The official programme is still being scheduled, but the summit will likely include a combination of heads of state and government officials, technology ministers, international policy experts, leading AI academic researchers, tech company CEOs, and social entrepreneurs. The inaugural summit event has had pre-summit briefings and regional activities (including curtain-raisers held in cities like Seattle and Geneva) that illustrate the direct involvement by the international legislative community, tech CEOs, think tanks and civil-society representatives – this line-up of participants highlights the summit’s objectives connecting diplomatic and cross-sectoral efforts.
Partners, pre-summits and sponsors
The IndiaAI Mission and MeitY (Ministry of Electronics & IT) are the summit conveners. The summit has already generated a thriving ecosystem of working groups and pre-summit activities in partnership with universities, foundations and institutes (for instance, research partners, DeepTech Naipunya Foundation, Aapti Institute, and others, have hosted preparatory roundtables). The government-led nature of the summit means that formal commercial sponsorship details will be attached closer to the event and partner announcements; for now, the focus is on focused multi-stakeholder partnerships, and is aimed at institutional partnerships on a global approach.
What to expect upon participation
- Policymakers will come away with actionable frameworks for deployment and plurilateral collaboration.
- Researchers and academics will be able to highlight Global South research and work toward forming pilot collaborations.
- Startups and entrepreneurs will gain visibility through Global Challenges, showcases and an investment-ready pitch stage.
- Civil society and citizens will have dedicated tracks on AI for inclusion, ethics, and public-good applications.
Practical considerations
Monitor the official summit site for call-for-proposals, registration openings, and program changes (the official site will be the primary source for confirmed sessions and speaker lists)
If you are representing a startup or a research group, pay special attention to the “AI for ALL” and “AI by HER” challenges that were developed specifically to bring to light deployable work.
The goal of the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 is to be more than simply a conference, but rather a delivery-oriented platform which will transition international discussions on AI from principles to pilots, from declarations to deployments and, notably, an emphasis on equity, sustainability and measurable social consequences. Consider bookmarking the official IndiaAI Impact Summit pages, and note that Registration is coming if you want to take part yourself in New Delhi on 19-20 February 2026.
AI Impact Summit 2026: Event Dates, Venue, Speakers, Agenda, Sponsors & Everything You Need to Know