At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, industry leaders Dheeraj Srivastava and Saahil Goel emphasized India's need to define its role in the global AI race by building sovereign LLMs and creating India-specific AI for MSME integration.
India's Strategic Role in the Global AI Race
Founder and CEO of Hirebeen, Dheeraj Srivastava, said that the India AI Impact Summit 2026 comes at a crucial juncture for the country to define its role in the evolving AI landscape. Speaking at the summit, Srivastava highlighted the rapid expansion of AI influence over the past few years and stressed the need for India to strategically position itself in the global race. "In the last 5 years, AI impact has risen globally. This is a good time for India to understand how we can contribute to this race, " he said.
Emphasising the importance of technological self-reliance, Srivastava noted that his company is working towards building sovereign large language models (LLMs), aligning with broader national efforts to strengthen indigenous AI capabilities. "We are working towards building sovereign LLMs. Here I am, looking forward to listening to many views and the focus of the government towards the future," he added.
AI to Empower MSMEs and Enhance Digital Access
Earlier, Saahil Goel, MD & CEO of Shiprocket, stated that while the platform has enabled over four lakh businesses to go online, 60 million MSMEs in India remain to be integrated into the digital economy. Speaking to ANI at the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Goel emphasised that the real power of AI lies in creating seamless access across the country. "Shiprocket has powered over four lakh businesses to go online so far, and there are still 60 million MSMEs in India that remain. So I think the real power is in creating access. So if a person in Guwahati wants to sell to a person in Kashmir, they should be able do it in a matter of minutes. How do we kind of get that access available through AI? By using voice as a medium, by using unstructured business models that can get supported now with AI," Goel said.
Goel noted the importance of India-specific AI development to ensure national sovereignty in technology execution. He suggested that large datasets from marketplaces, logistics companies, payment firms, and e-commerce players be combined into a shared data pool. Goel stated, "One thing is to adopt AI, which is what we're doing right now, but really we need to create AI for Indian use cases and Indian businesses and Indian consumers." He advocated for interoperable API stacks and data signals to address common issues, such as blacklisting customers with poor return behaviour, to protect businesses from the brunt of such problems.
India AI Impact Expo 2026: A National Showcase
The India AI Impact Expo 2026 is being held from February 16-20, alongside the India AI Impact Summit, at Bharat Mandapam. The Expo will serve as a national demonstration of AI in action, where policy meets practice, innovation meets scale, and technology meets the everyday citizen. Spread across 10 arenas covering more than 70,000 square metres, the Expo will bring together global technology firms, startups, academia and research institutions, Union Ministries, State Governments, and international partners.
International Collaboration at the Expo
The Expo will also feature 13 country pavilions, showcasing international collaboration in the AI ecosystem. These include pavilions from Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan, and Africa. (ANI)
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