Seattle, September 18, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India’s Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Kwatra, has said artificial intelligence will achieve meaningful scale in India only when it delivers practical benefits to ordinary people and businesses, cautioning against directly replicating technology models developed in the US.
Addressing the Ideas4India forum in Seattle, Kwatra said India’s approach to AI must be viewed through the country’s development priorities and the needs of its population.
“What works in Bay Area and Seattle will not work in India,” he said, stressing that AI adoption would ultimately be shaped by the outcomes it delivers.
Kwatra illustrated the point with the example of a small grocery shop owner. Such a business, he said, would be willing to spend Rs 300 a month on an AI service only if it produced a tangible and useful result.
“I think all questions on AI get answered on outcome at the level of society,” he said.
The ambassador cited India’s digital public infrastructure as an example of technology gaining widespread acceptance because it provides services that people can use in their daily lives. He also argued that the distinction between technology creators and consumers needs to be viewed in the context of a society’s development needs.
“When I’m struggling for my food, then food security is my creation,” Kwatra said.
He said AI would develop in India across different layers, but its scale would depend on the country’s ability to absorb the technology and the infrastructure available to support it.
“AI will get positioned in India in all three layers, but at a scale and at the level which society can absorb and infrastructure can support,” he said.
Kwatra also linked investment in AI capabilities to their practical usefulness, saying financing would follow when technological capabilities produced measurable outcomes.
“Money will come only if there is an outcome associated with that inference,” he said.
He said governments would need to address questions related to sovereign AI models, data organisation and whether datasets should be made available globally for model training. The corporate sector, he added, would also have an important role in developing large language models in India.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, the forum’s guest of honour, also highlighted the importance of broad access to AI. He recalled a demonstration in India where an AI-enabled service helped a farmer obtain information about a government scheme through WhatsApp.
The September 17 event was organised by the Consulate General of India in Seattle as a follow-up to the India AI Impact Summit 2026. More than 40 Indian-origin chief executives and chief technology officers attended.
The consulate said Kwatra reiterated an AI approach centred on inclusivity, openness, sovereignty, democratised access, safety and trust.
The organisers also highlighted the expanding technology and business presence of Indian-origin companies and executives, citing announced investments by Microsoft and Amazon in India as examples of the broader commercial relationship between the two countries.
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