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Rishi Sunak lauds India’s AI optimism, public sector use
The remarks were shared after the summit brought together policymakers and technology leaders from over 100 countries.
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Malvika Choudhary - Wed, 25, Feb 2026
- 17:00 EST
- 12
Rishi Sunak / Instagram
Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said India’s high level of optimism around artificial intelligence and its large-scale public sector deployment make the country a critical test case for how global trust in AI will be built.
In a post on X, Sunak reflected on his participation in the India AI Impact Summit last week, describing the level of AI optimism in India as “extraordinary” and estimating it to be twice that seen in many Western countries.
Also Read: PM Modi highlights success of AI Impact Summit 2026
He said trust in artificial intelligence would be “won or lost in the public sector,” where people experience the technology’s impact in their everyday lives.
Sunak credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister of Railways of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Abhishek Singh for their leadership, saying the summit brought together innovators and policymakers from across the world to focus on the societal and economic impact of artificial intelligence.
He said discussions with global AI leaders highlighted how rapidly the technology is evolving, noting that AI systems are now contributing to the development of improved versions of themselves. Sunak said this compounding effect would lead to faster innovation cycles, more frequent model releases, and intensified global competition.
On technology strategy, Sunak said conversations around tech sovereignty focused on the need for countries to reduce dependence on others while also ensuring others depend on them. He described this as an approach of occupying critical choke points in key technology supply chains, which he said would be central to maintaining strategic relevance in the AI era.
Sunak highlighted the release of homegrown large language models by Sarvam AI as a significant milestone for India’s artificial intelligence ecosystem. He said efficiency breakthroughs had lowered inference costs and demonstrated speech capabilities across 22 Indian languages.
He also pointed to applications of artificial intelligence in agriculture, healthcare, and education as areas where developing countries could see large-scale benefits. Sunak cited work supported by Nandan Nilekani on an AI assistant developed for Amul’s dairy farmers, describing it as an example of how artificial intelligence could be deployed at scale for practical use.
Concluding his reflections, Sunak said artificial intelligence would be the most transformative force for economies and societies in this generation. He warned that countries that fail to engage with the technology risk becoming “poorer, less productive and less competitive” than their rivals.
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