Companies hoping to take advantage of AI’s opportunities need to be trustworthy. Whether investing in, developing, or using AI, the OECD’s new Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI provides businesses with an internationally agreed, government-backed tool to demonstrate that markets and societies can trust their AI systems.
Recent international reporting underscores a growing consensus: AI is not just a technological shift. It is a major geopolitical, economic, and societal phenomenon that demands coordinated action amongst all actors, including companies.
AI has the potential to transform society through productivity, economic value and solutions to complex challenges, but for these benefits to materialise, AI needs trust. So far, the technology seems to advance faster than its guardrails. The gap between AI systems and appropriate safeguards is now one of the defining challenges for policymakers and global businesses alike. Both are under pressure to balance AI innovation and diffusion with safety and risk management. Success depends on getting the balance right.
Risks throughout the AI value chain are continually evolving
Risks to people and the environment can manifest at any point along the AI value chain. The OECD actively tracks and categorises risks through its AI Incidents and Hazards Monitor.
Here are a few examples. At one end of the AI value chain, there are the people who label, clean, and moderate the vast datasets required to train AI models. They can face low wages, long hours, and suffer psychological distress from exposure to harmful content. Companies need to ensure decent work for data enrichment workers.
The environmental costs of running AI systems can also be significant, particularly for energy and water consumption by data centres that power AI development and deployment, which may lead to higher energy prices.
Data privacy is another critical concern. AI models are trained on massive datasets that may include personal or sensitive information. If these datasets are not properly anonymised and secured, it can lead to data breaches. If AI models “memorise” and reproduce sensitive data in their outputs, they can expose confidential details, creating legal and ethical dilemmas.
At the other end of the AI value chain, the potential for AI misuse poses risks such as reputational harm and the spread of misinformation. AI-generated deepfakes, for instance, can be used to create realistic but fabricated content, damaging reputations or manipulating public opinion. Similarly, AI can be used to generate and disseminate mis and dis-information at speed and scale, eroding trust in institutions and potentially influencing events.
Worldwide, governments, consumers, and markets are calling for responsible and trustworthy AI. This is one of the reasons for the surge in mandatory and voluntary AI risk management frameworks, responsible AI initiatives, global agreements, academic research and statements from industry leaders and investors. However, this surge in frameworks is also increasing complexity for companies, as risk management is defined differently across jurisdictions and understanding of AI-related risks is evolving.
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI: A flexible, whole-of-value-chain approach to support businesses in navigating evolving risks and rules
This is why the OECD has now developed the first internationally agreed, government-backed Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI. Backed by all the OECD’s member countries, plus 17 partner governments and the EU, this Guidance helps enterprises navigate the complex terrain of AI risk management. It is designed to help businesses ensure that the AI systems they develop are trustworthy, used and developed safely and responsibly, and aligned with broad societal values.
A step-by-step framework for enterprises to set up internal management systems capable of proactively identifying and responding to risks related to human rights, labour standards, and environmental impacts.
Recommendations and implementation examples for everyone in the AI value chain, from data suppliers and infrastructure providers to financiers and end-users – including enterprises. The guidance emphasises a “whole-of-value-chain” approach to support secure and resilient AI value chains more resistant to supply chain shocks and interference.
A roadmap of related provisions in existing frameworks, indicating how each step complements and relates to relevant provisions from AI risk management frameworks. This feature helps enterprises understand how implementing this guidance can help them meet expectations from multiple sources and navigate the current landscape of AI risk management frameworks.
Responsibility and trust can give a competitive edge
Responsibility and innovation not only coexist but also reinforce each other. Companies that show a commitment to responsible AI and actively address potential risks can gain trust from investors, customers, regulators, and policymakers. This trust leads to a competitive edge. Instead of hindering innovation, responsible AI practices can speed up growth by reducing obstacles and preventing costly damage to reputation, legal issues, and society.
Responsible and trustworthy AI is becoming increasingly crucial for accessing global markets as international regulatory and voluntary risk management frameworks evolve. Companies in the AI value chain that meaningfully implement the Guidance’s recommendations can position themselves advantageously for cross-border expansion, potentially avoiding the substantial costs of retrofitting systems to meet various regional requirements.
As AI continues to develop rapidly, frameworks and best practices for responsible AI are likely to evolve as well. To help stakeholders keep pace, the OECD will launch an online navigation tool later this year with updates on new frameworks and use cases.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 convenes at a moment of accelerated AI deployment. Governments and industry leaders are moving beyond experimentation toward integrating advanced AI systems across strategic sectors, consumer services and public administration. At the same time, major technology firms are advancing increasingly autonomous, task-oriented AI “agents”, thereby enriching the policy conversation and focusing it more on the technology’s real-world operationalisation.
In this context, the Summit reflects a broader global trend toward large-scale implementation. This shift aligns with ongoing OECD work on monitoring AI incidents and hazards, supporting the operationalisation of the OECD AI Principles, and measuring AI diffusion and understanding patterns of adoption.
The OECD and its Global Partnership on AI (GPAI) are engaged across the Summit’s agenda, working with India and other partners to translate years of analysis, data and policy frameworks into tools that policymakers can use in practice to have real impact.
Across the summit, the OECD will support this pragmatic approach with a series of events and deliverables. Details for the specific times and locations can be found on our main event webpage:
Advancing AI transparency in practice 17 February, 11:30 – 12:25 (IST) West Wing Room 4, Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre WATCH THE LIVE STREAM Co-hosted by the OECD, Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Infosys and Microsoft, this discussion will explore how to align national and regional policy frameworks with shared expectations for transparency, safety, and accountability. Anchored in the Hiroshima AI reporting framework for advanced AI systems, the discussion will explore how common reporting practices, risk disclosures, and transparency mechanisms can support both national policy objectives and cross-border trust. Participants will discuss how voluntary frameworks, such as international reporting templates, assurance mechanisms, public–private collaboration on testing and evaluation, can complement national policies by enabling faster learning cycles, supporting innovation, and fostering convergence where it matters most for safety and rights.
Democratising trust: Open source tooling for safe, secure and trustworthy AI 17 February, 13:30 – 14:25 (IST) Room 9, Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre WATCH THE LIVE STREAM Co-hosted by the OECD, the India AI Impact Summit, Mozilla Foundation, ROOST, the UK AI Security Institute, and Mistral AI, this panel will explore the practical landscape of open-source tooling for trustworthy AI. Our experts will: Take stock of the current open-source tooling ecosystem and highlight key gaps and challenges. Showcase open-source tools that enable both technical and non-technical stakeholders to monitor and assess AI safety, security, and trustworthiness. Examine how open-source approaches can help build capacity in underrepresented regions and communities. Present the OECD.AI Catalogue of Tools and Metrics for Trustworthy AI and launch an open call for submissions of open-source tools, inviting AI practitioners worldwide to contribute.
AI for inclusive and resilient food systems 20 February 2026, 14.30 – 15.30 (IST) Room 18, Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre WATCH THE LIVE STREAM The Government of the Netherlands and the OECD will co-host a flagship event on AI for inclusive and resilient food systems, with the participation of H.E. Mr. Harry Verweij, Ambassador at Large and Special Envoy AI for the Kingdom of the Netherlands and H.E. Mr. Nezar Patria, Vice Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, among other distinguished speakers. This session leverages the work of the India AI Impact Summit Working Group on Economic Growth and Social Good, co-chaired by the Netherlands and Indonesia. It explores how AI can support the transition to more transparent, responsible, and inclusive agricultural production and distribution within food systems. Discussions will draw on national initiatives and concrete use cases to highlight practical, scalable approaches to improving data sharing, interoperability, risk management, and access to high-quality agricultural data.
GPAI Ministerial Council Meeting EVENT CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC 20 February, 10:00 – 12:30 (IST) Summit Room, Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre The India AI Impact Summit will host the GPAI Council Meeting at Ministerial Level, bringing together ministers and senior representatives from GPAI members, partners and stakeholders.The ministerial meeting will provide a forum to advance GPAI’s mission to promote human-centric, safe, secure, and trustworthy AI, grounded in the OECD Recommendation on AI. Discussions will focus on shaping GPAI’s strategic direction and strengthening international collaboration amid rapid technological change.
People, planet and progress: India’s AI moment
Indian authorities and organisers frame the Summit around three pillars: People, Planet and Progress. The emphasis is on ensuring that accelerated adoption translates into inclusive growth, environmental sustainability and tangible public value.
A central theme is delivery. Discussions are expected to focus on how governments can move from strategy documents to implementation through institutional capacity building, interoperable data systems, procurement reform and accountability mechanisms. These priorities resonate with OECD work, highlighting the importance of governance frameworks that enable innovation while safeguarding rights and public trust.
Some potential outcomes from the India AI Summit
Against this backdrop of rapid adoption, infrastructure development and evolving governance challenges, the OECD’s contribution focuses on evidence, measurement and international co-operation. Through data, policy tools and a multi-stakeholder convening role, the OECD supports countries in translating ambition into accountable and inclusive AI deployment.
The success of the India AI Impact Summit could help governments to clarify answers to practical questions: how to deploy AI responsibly in public services, how to develop AI skills at scale, how to manage risks and incidents, and how to ensure AI contributes to sustainable development rather than undermining it.
Most importantly, it should help rebalance the global AI conversation. By placing everyday impact and responsibility at the forefront, the Summit recognises that the future of AI will be shaped not only in research labs and boardrooms, but also in classrooms, clinics, farms, and public administrations around the world.
Join us in Delhi
The OECD looks forward to working with India and international partners to make the India AI Impact Summit a milestone for global AI governance. We invite readers to visit the OECD.AI India AI Impact Summit agenda page to track all of our activities and engage with the discussions as they unfold.
Turning principles into practice is not easy. But it is essential. And in New Delhi this February, we have a real opportunity to move the global AI agenda forward together.
Artificial intelligence is changing fast, and the world is feeling both excited and uneasy about it. People use AI tools every day in hospitals, classrooms, companies and public services, yet the rules that guide these tools are still developing. Many governments are trying to find a balance between innovation and safety. Others are trying to make sure that AI actually improves people’s lives without widening gaps.
These summits did not occur in isolation but are part of broader global efforts to coordinate responsible approaches to AI. The G7 Hiroshima Process in 2023–24 established a shared commitment to trustworthy, human-centric AI, leading to the adoption of the Hiroshima Declaration, which calls for international cooperation on safety, transparency, and risk mitigation.
Building on that, the Paris AI Summit in 2025 moved the conversation toward implementation, with an early agreement on safety evaluations, incident-reporting mechanisms and commitments to support countries with limited technical capacity. The India AI Action Summit represents the next step in this progression: translating these collective principles into measurable on-the-ground outcomes.
In recent months, people have repeatedly asked me two questions. Why should India host such a major global meeting? And is this summit actually useful for India and the world?
The simple answer here is that the next phase of AI will not be decided by a small number of companies or countries. It will depend on whether billions of people, especially in the Global South, can use AI safely, affordably and accountably. India, with its linguistic diversity, strong digital public infrastructure and experience deploying technology at a population scale, is well positioned to help shape this practical phase.
However, AI comes with challenges related to privacy, digital exclusion and the balance between innovation and oversight. But these very tensions make India’s experience pertinent to other countries facing the same trade-offs.
This blog post explains why that matters, what the international community can expect in Delhi, and how we should measure progress at the end of the summit.
Why India, and why now
AI deployment in the Global South will shape global outcomes
Much of the world’s discussion on AI has focused on frontier models, international competition and long-term safety. These debates are important, but AI’s greatest impact will be felt in how it reaches ordinary people. From farmers and students to small businesses, frontline health workers and local governments.
More than half of the world’s population lives in countries categorised as the Global South — a term first popularised in the late 1960s to describe post-colonial economies, and one I don’t fully agree with, as it often flattens diverse countries into a single broad category.
If AI is to be truly global, it must work for multilingual, resource-constrained and diverse environments. This includes reliable translations, culturally grounded datasets, accessible interfaces and low-cost deployments. It also means designing systems that respect human rights and democratic norms even in places with limited regulatory capacity.
India sits at the intersection of these challenges. With over a billion people, 22 official languages and thousands of dialects, any technology deployed at scale must be inclusive by design. India’s experience offers lessons for many other countries navigating the same realities.
India has a strong track record in large-scale digital public infrastructure
India’s digital public infrastructure, or DPI, is one of the most widely referenced success stories of how technology can enable access and accountability. Systems like Aadhaar, UPI and DigiLocker have helped millions access identification, financial services and digital records. These platforms were built with interoperability and openness in mind, which has led to a wave of public and private innovations.
At the same time, these systems have also raised important questions about privacy, data security, and exclusion of marginalised communities who lack documentation or digital access. India’s ongoing work to address these concerns—through data protection legislation, improved grievance mechanisms, and efforts to reach the digitally excluded—provides practical lessons about implementation challenges that other countries will inevitably face.
The India AI Impact Summit is expected to draw on this experience, including both successes and areas for improvement. The global community is watching to see how India will frame the link between AI and digital public goods, and how these tools can be used responsibly in sectors such as education, healthcare and social protection.
International expectations are focusing on implementation leadership
The earlier global AI safety and governance summits created momentum. They helped identify risks, promote transparency and encourage cooperation. But now, many countries and organisations want clarity on what should happen next.
The India summit is an opportunity to shift the conversation from what AI might do to what it should deliver. This includes measurable improvements in public services, clearer accountability mechanisms and more inclusive access to AI tools. By focusing on implementation, India can complement the work of the OECD-GPAI, UNESCO and other international bodies.
What the India AI Impact Summit should prioritise
A conversation about measurable, real-world outcomes
The summit should begin by asking a straightforward question: What changes on the ground when AI is deployed responsibly at scale? To answer it, discussions need to move beyond broad aspirations and focus on concrete domains like public healthcare triage, classroom support tools, agricultural advisory systems, and other public-sector applications where impact can be seen and measured.
Government delegates should be encouraged to present evidence, not statements of intent. That means clear baselines, transparent evaluation methods, and metrics that reflect real improvements: higher diagnostic accuracy, increased crop yields and shorter benefit-processing times all achieved without compromising fairness or human oversight.
If the summit succeeds, it will shift the global conversation toward what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
Three ways the Global South can shape the international agenda
A meaningful summit requires a wide range of voices—especially from regions where AI deployment will shape social and economic outcomes for decades to come. Countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East bring their lived experiences of linguistic diversity, data scarcity, affordability constraints and uneven digital access.
The summit should create space for these countries to set priorities rather than simply respond to frameworks developed elsewhere. Their perspectives are vital for building governance models that reflect the realities of low-resource contexts, rather than idealised assumptions from high-income environments.
A more pluralistic conversation would reinforce a simple principle: responsible AI cannot be universal if it is not also contextual.
Rebalancing the narrative with the immediate societal, environmental and institutional challenges
One of the most important roles the summit can play is to broaden the global AI discourse. Today, existential risk narratives dominate many international forums, often overshadowing more immediate and systemic issues. The India AI Impact Summit should refocus attention on the present: AI’s energy footprint, labour displacement, rising misinformation, digital exclusion and the growing pressure on public institutions to oversee algorithmic systems they are not adequately equipped to oversee.
The environmental dimension deserves particular attention. Training and deploying large AI models require significant energy resources, disproportionately affecting the Global South. Many of these countries face climate vulnerability, fragile grids and competing development priorities. For regions already grappling with heatwaves, droughts and energy shortages, the cost of “AI at scale” cannot be separated from broader planetary concerns. If AI is to be deployed responsibly, discussions must also consider energy and natural resource efficiency and equitable access to compute.
These issues determine how people experience AI today and whether they trust it tomorrow. Giving them equal weight would help correct the imbalance in global discussions and lead to governance that addresses risks people actually face, not only those imagined at the far horizon.
Potential wins for the India AI Impact Summit
Practical pathways for responsible public-sector deployment
Across sectors, governments are eager to use AI to strengthen healthcare, expand access to education and streamline welfare delivery. Yet many lack clarity on how to procure, evaluate or oversee these systems responsibly. A meaningful outcome of the summit would be simple, actionable pathways that public agencies can adopt without specialised expertise. These might take the form of evaluation checklists with acceptable error and bias thresholds, procurement templates with human oversight requirements, or clear guidance on when and how officials should override an AI recommendation. Transparent case studies and training for civil servants would also help countries move from hesitation to informed, confident experimentation.
Strengthened mechanisms for trust and accountability
Concerns about misinformation, bias, privacy and security continue to rise, and many countries, particularly those with limited technical capacity, need practical tools to manage these risks. The summit could make a real contribution by advancing shared approaches to incident reporting, auditing and assurance, as well as safety testing methods that work across varied deployment contexts. Small pilot frameworks would help establish a common baseline of accountability. Such efforts would not only support global cooperation but also build public trust at a time when many citizens and policymakers remain uncertain about the reliability of AI systems.
Broader cooperation on multilingual and inclusive AI with robust safety infrastructure
Many countries struggle with adapting AI to their unique linguistic profiles. India’s long-standing work in language technologies positions it to convene collaborations on multilingual and inclusive AI. New partnerships on datasets, dialect-specific models, local-first interfaces and research on linguistic bias could meaningfully expand access for millions of people worldwide.
But inclusion must be matched with safeguards. As AI tools become more widely available, countries will need parallel investments in risk-assessment expertise, regional coordination on harmful content and support for the development of first-generation regulatory frameworks. Striking the right balance between openness and safety would reinforce core OECD AI Principles and help ensure expanded access does not bring greater vulnerability.
Broader implications for global AI policy
Everyday impact before frontier risks
Research on frontier AI risks must continue, but the India AI Impact Summit signals an important rebalancing of global attention, as mentioned before. It asks policymakers to look beyond hypothetical future scenarios to acknowledge how AI is already shaping critical aspects of our daily lives, from healthcare triage and classroom instruction to welfare delivery, agricultural advice and urban mobility.
For most people, the urgent question is not whether AI poses an existential threat, but whether the systems they encounter today are reliable, safe and genuinely useful. The summit’s focus on practical impact aligns global governance with lived reality.
Ensuring AI benefits for everyone
A second implication is the reaffirmation that inclusion is not a downstream concern but a prerequisite for responsible AI. Global conversations often gravitate toward powerful models built in highly resourced environments, yet billions of people rely on limited connectivity, low digital literacy and minority-language interfaces.
India’s leadership places these conditions at the centre of the global agenda. It broadens the imagination of what “good AI” must account for, reminding the world that both equitable deployment and cutting-edge capability are essential to whether AI helps or harms societies.
Building a more open and collaborative ecosystem
The summit also nudges the world toward a more open and cooperative model of AI development. Some countries can share tools, datasets, and governance mechanisms to help each other build their own capabilities rather than remain passive consumers. Openness here is not about lowering standards; it is about raising the global floor and ensuring that safety capacity grows alongside access. Many countries want to participate meaningfully in the AI economy, and the summit offers a platform to explore practical pathways for doing so.
What the world should take away from Delhi
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is more than just another international meeting because it represents a shift from abstract debates to concrete action. Its core question — how to make AI useful, safe and inclusive at scale — goes to the heart of global governance. If the summit delivers practical tools, clearer deployment pathways and stronger cross-regional collaboration, it will set a new benchmark for what international coordination on AI can achieve.
The world is watching India, not because it claims to have all the answers, but because it has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to turn large-scale ideas into real-world outcomes. And it has done so while openly confronting the tensions and trade-offs that accompany such efforts. In a period of rapid technological change, this experience is invaluable.
As AI evolves, the global community will increasingly need countries that can translate principles into practice at a population scale. The India AI Impact Summit is a chance to advance that work. If successful, its influence will extend far beyond India, shaping how the world understands and pursues responsible AI in the years ahead.
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