India AI Impact Summit 2026: N. Chandrasekaran calls AI ‘Infrastructure of Intelligence’, pushes full-stack national strategy
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“AI, in my mind, is the next big infrastructure. It is the infrastructure of intelligence.” With that assertion, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, set the tone at the opening of Day 4 of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, positioning artificial intelligence as the next epochal shift in global economic architecture.
‘Infrastructure of intelligence’
Drawing parallels with the steam engine, electricity and the internet, Chandrasekaran argued that AI would have a “profound impact” on economies and societies.
Rejecting the term as a misnomer, he added: “It is not artificial intelligence; it is real intelligence.”
Chandrasekaran said AI must be treated as foundational national capability, integrated across chips, systems, energy and applications. “Under our Prime Minister’s vision, India has treated AI as a strategic national capability… We are building AI at scale with trust, resilience and long-term competitiveness,” he noted, referencing initiatives such as the India AI Mission and semiconductor push.
Scaling AI for every citizen
The Tata Group chief stressed that accessibility — not exclusivity — must define India’s AI journey. “Our mission should be to make AI work for every individual and every citizen… put AI tools in the hands of the last person,” he said.
He cited a recent demonstration at Bharat Mandapam where 1,500 rural women with no prior exposure to digital tools were able to learn and deploy AI tools within hours. “In four hours, they built products, marketing materials and campaigns in front of a global audience,” he said, calling it proof of AI’s democratising potential.
India, he added, is “a nation of AI optimists,” shaped by its experience in building population-scale digital public infrastructure — from a 1.4 billion-strong digital identity system to a payments network handling roughly half of global real-time transactions.
Industry opportunity and full-stack play
Chandrasekaran described AI as a cross-industry, self-learning system capable of continuous improvement rather than rule-based execution. For India’s IT sector, he said, “AI will expand this role much further. It is the biggest opportunity for the tech sector.”
He also indicated that domestic semiconductor efforts would initially prioritise automotive applications, signalling a phased industrial strategy.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 reached a pivotal moment on Day 4 as global technology leaders gathered at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, positioning India at the centre of the global artificial intelligence conversation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to formally inaugurate the summit, joined by world leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Antonio Guterres and Dick Schoof.
The speaker lineup underscores the scale of the event, with addresses from Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Dario Amodei, Mukesh Ambani, Rishad Premji and Bill Gates.
As the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South, the two-day event signals India’s ambition to shape not just AI adoption, but its governance and global direction. The message from India Inc is clear: AI is no longer experimental technology — it is core economic infrastructure.
Industry opportunity and full-stack play
Chandrasekaran described AI as a cross-industry, self-learning system capable of continuous improvement rather than rule-based execution. For India’s IT sector, he said, “AI will expand this role much further. It is the biggest opportunity for the tech sector.”
He also indicated that domestic semiconductor efforts would initially prioritise automotive applications, signalling a phased industrial strategy.
As the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South, the two-day event signals India’s ambition to shape not just AI adoption, but its governance and global direction. The message from India Inc is clear: AI is no longer experimental technology — it is core economic infrastructure.