India is strongly positioned to spearhead the worldwide adoption and advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to a senior executive at Meta. Sandhya Devanathan from Meta stated that India's potential is fueled by its extensive developer community, a growing number of startups, and a substantial internet user base of approximately 800 million.

Devanathan highlighted India's pivotal role in Meta's strategic vision for both product development and business solutions. She anticipates a significant increase in the tangible impact generated by Indian AI startups throughout 2026.

Meta's commitment to open source will remain central to the company's operations. Meta AI, the company's AI assistant, was launched in India in June 2024 and is available on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp. India has emerged as one of the largest countries for Meta AI usage, demonstrating surprising and varied applications. Meta AI is based on Meta Llama 3, a large language model (LLM). Mark Zuckerberg released Llama as an open-sourced AI model in July. According to Devanathan, Meta has released over a thousand datasets and models to researchers, developers, and academia to foster AI development, which has improved the company's open-source products by making them smarter, faster, and more accurate. Multiple versions of the AI model have been downloaded over 650 million times.

Meta and 'India AI' have established a collaborative framework to promote research and development in AI and emerging technologies. This collaboration aims to leverage Meta's AI research models, such as LlaMA, to build datasets in Indian languages, focusing on translation and large language models, particularly for low-resource languages. The collaboration seeks to promote social inclusion, improve government service delivery, and stimulate innovation using AI technologies.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, noted that India is adopting a balanced approach to AI by prioritizing innovation, startups, and practical applications, rather than imposing strict regulations. Kaplan said that Indian policymakers are focused on encouraging growth, especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses. He cited India's Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) framework as an example of this measured and consultative approach.

Kaplan also mentioned Meta's plans to integrate AI technology across its platforms, including WhatsApp, with a focus on enabling small businesses. He believes that Indian businesses are likely to be among the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of AI-powered services, reinforcing India's growing role in shaping global AI adoption.

AI is also enabling more Indians to start their own businesses. A recent study showed that 73% of Indians say AI has made them more likely to start a business, and the number of Indian LinkedIn members adding "founder" to their profiles has surged 104% year-over-year, which is the highest globally.

Several key events are highlighting India's growing importance in the AI landscape. The India AI Impact Summit 2026, scheduled to be held in New Delhi in February, is expected to draw major players in the AI industry. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to visit India in mid-February, coinciding with the summit. The summit will feature senior executives from Nvidia, Google, and Anthropic, alongside Indian policymakers and business leaders.