What happened
AI Impact Summit 2026 concluded in New Delhi, highlighting stark geographic divide in artificial intelligence adoption sentiment. According to an EY survey presented alongside, 88% of respondents in India and China view AI positively, followed closely by UAE at 87% and Saudi Arabia at 86%. In contrast, Western markets register significantly lower optimism, with US at 58%, UK at 54%, and France at 51%. Summit organisers explicitly shifted framing from 2023 UK Safety Summit to focus on public infrastructure and economic impact.
Why it matters
Enterprise deployment strategies face bifurcated global markets. For multinational product teams and regional directors, data indicates emerging markets will tolerate higher privacy trade-offs in exchange for immediate utility. High consumer and state-level acceptance accelerates deployment timelines across Global South markets, contrasting with compliance-heavy environments in Western jurisdictions. Sentiment divergence follows Reliance and Adani’s $210B AI infrastructure pledge earlier this week, signalling domestic capital is moving rapidly to capture high-adoption environments.
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