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Artificial intelligence is the next major infrastructure that will have a profound impact on society, similar to transformative technologies like steam engines, electricity, and the internet, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Thursday.
Addressing the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Chandrasekaran emphasised that AI represents a new form of infrastructure that will shape the future of economies and societies. "AI, in my mind, is the next big infrastructure. It is the infrastructure of intelligence. It will have a very profound impact, exactly the same way in the past other infrastructure changes have done, steam engines, electricity, or the internet," he stated. He added that the mission should be to make AI accessible to every individual and citizen in the country and across the world. "Our mission should be to make AI work for every individual and every citizen in this country. We should put the AI tools in the hands of the last person in the country and in fact on the Earth, and that's the mission that we should all work towards," he said. Highlighting the accessibility of AI, Chandrasekaran shared an example from a recent event at Bharat Mandapam, where 1,500 rural women with no background in computing or digital tools were able to learn and use AI within hours. "A couple of days ago, we requested 1,500 rural women here in Bharat Mandapam, who had no background of computing, no background of digital tools, in a matter of a few hours could learn AI, could build products, could build marketing materials, campaigns, all in front of a global audience, and they did it in four hours," he noted. Chandrasekaran said India is a nation of AI optimists, driven by its success in building large-scale digital infrastructure. He pointed out that India has built the largest digital identity system in the world, covering 1.4 billion people, and a digital payments interface that accounts for half of the world's total transactions. He added that under the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has treated AI as a strategic national capability and is building capabilities across the full technology stack. "Learning the full stack, from chips to systems to energy and to applications, through Semiconductor India, an India AI mission, and most importantly, the recent reforms such as the Shakti Act for clean energy, we are building AI at scale with trust, resilience, and long-term competitiveness," he said. Chandrasekaran also described AI as a foundational technology that cuts across industries. He said AI learns from data, improves continuously, and is not based on fixed rules. He added that AI can scale rapidly and drive innovation across sectors. The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, is being held on February 19-20 in New Delhi. It is the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South. The summit aims to chart a path towards a future where the transformative power of AI serves humanity, drives inclusive growth, fosters social development, and promotes people-centric innovations that protect the planet. (ANI)
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