AI Impact Summit: Did Controversy Overshadow Progress?

The global AI landscape is evolving rapidly, with more than a fifth of all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) firms worldwide adopting formal AI strategies.

The OECD, which promotes economic growth and financial stability, comprises 38 member countries.

Interestingly, India – the host of this year's AI Impact Summit – is not among them. Yet the country is being recognised as a global leader in AI adoption by some of the world’s top CEOs.

India: A 'full-stack AI leader'

One of many bold statements made by global leaders at the summit came from Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI, who stated that India was not just part of the AI revolution, but leading it.

In his keynote, he noted: "It's striking how much progress India has made in its mission to put AI to work for more people in more parts of the country."

He also said India has “all the ingredients to be a full-stack AI leader” and “no country matches India for total energy in terms of building AI”.

With global unemployment having risen to 4.9%, according to the International Labour Organisation, numerous CEOs have warned of the job market being particularly affected by AI.

Sam went on to criticise a growing corporate trend in which companies attribute mass layoffs to AI. He described the practice as "AI washing", suggesting companies are using the narrative of advancing technologies to mask routine cost-cutting and restructuring.

However, in a subsequent interview with Asian News International (ANI), he added: "It [AI] will definitely impact the job market, but we always find new things to do, and I have no doubt we will find lots of better ones this time."

Elsewhere, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that a significant percentage of entry-level white collar jobs could be automated within the next five years, while the former CEO of HCL Technologies said companies are more focused on profit than employment.

Not all smooth sailing

On the final day of the summit, Indian Youth Progress party workers staged a shirtless protest at Bharat Mandapam, where the event is being held. The protest is believed to reflect anger from the unemployed youth.

A senior police officer said that the group entered hall number 5 of the summit venue and held t-shirts adorned with the faces of Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump. Around 10 of the protestors were detained.

In an interview with ANI, Indian Youth Congress National President Uday Bhanu Chib said: “This anger isn't just from our Youth Congress members. It's from every young person who is unemployed today."

Messages from the IYP also appeared to criticise the appearance of global leaders in the Epstein files.

Elsewhere, severe overcrowding and reports of tech products being stolen threatened to overshadow the summit. 

AI Rivals: Anthropic and OpenAI

As Prime Minister Modi took to the stage for a photograph with AI leaders, CEOs Sam and Dario found themselves stood awkwardly next to each other. In contrast to those beside them, they raised their arms instead of linking hands. 

The rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic went up a notch in the build-up to this year's Super Bowl, when the latter rolled out a series of ads demonstrating its opposition to chatbot advertising – seen widely as a response to OpenAI rolling out ads in ChatGPT. 

In an interview with the Press Trust of India (PTI), Sam said: "I was sort of confused and didn't know what I was supposed to do. Modi grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing. I thought it was the open clock."

AI Impact Summit 2026

The AI Impact Summit raises questions about how AI will be adopted by global business leaders in the future, including concerns about employment. At the same time, there is recognition that AGI is still far from reaching the level needed to surpass human intelligence.

Commenting on AGI, DeepMind CEO Demis Habbis said: "They can plan over the short term, but over the long term, the way that we can play over years, they don't really have that capability at the moment."

Today, business leaders can deploy AI pragmatically to augment people and productivity while upskilling teams, as AGI remains a distant prospect.