India can lead the way in showing how AI can address the great challenges of our time: Rishi Sunak

Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday placed India at the centre of the global artificial intelligence transition, saying the country’s scale of digital adoption, optimism toward emerging technologies and rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem make it a decisive force in determining how AI reshapes everyday life.

Delivering the keynote on Day 4 of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Sunak said Indians are among the world’s most prolific users of mobile data and AI tools, adding that nearly nine out of ten citizens express optimism about using artificial intelligence even as scepticism rises across parts of the West.

He noted that India has already produced 125 unicorns, with AI-driven companies increasingly leading the country’s innovation surge, and argued that widespread public confidence is critical because “people don’t adopt the tech they are scared of.”


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India’s everyday AI race

Sunak framed India’s progress as proof that the global AI contest is not confined to laboratories or large corporations but is unfolding in daily life.

“What India shows is that the race for AI is an everyday race,” he said, stressing that countries which “adopt, adopt and adopt” the technology will ultimately lead the transformation.

Drawing a historical comparison, he said earlier technological revolutions--from the telephone to the internet--took years to reshape societies, whereas tools such as ChatGPT reached mass adoption within months. The speed of change, he added, makes it essential for governments and societies to actively shape AI’s direction rather than passively react to it.

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Sunak emphasised that trust in artificial intelligence will largely be “won or lost in the public sector,” arguing that debates about the technology become tangible once governments begin deploying it in services that affect citizens directly.

He pointed to efforts by South Korea, France and India to bridge the gap between AI’s risks and its safe, responsible use, describing such initiatives as central to ensuring the technology delivers broad social benefit.

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Human experience and global challenges

Despite AI’s expanding capabilities, Sunak said technology cannot replicate uniquely human experiences, citing the simple joy of eating a sweet laddoo or witnessing the Red Fort, while stressing that artificial intelligence can still play a transformative role in addressing major global crises such as famine and food shortages.

He also compared India’s current technological moment to the commercial dynamism of the Dutch Republic, suggesting the country is rapidly maximising the use of emerging tools to drive growth and innovation.

Sunak’s remarks positioned India not merely as a participant in the AI era but as a defining arena where public trust, rapid adoption and real-world application could determine how the technology evolves worldwide.