India is emerging as a global leader in artificial intelligence readiness, backed by steady progress across the full AI stack. An official document released on Thursday said the country is placed in the first group of AI-ready nations, advancing across 5 key layers of AI architecture — applications, models, chips, infrastructure and energy.
The document noted that it is driving an AI-led transformation focused on productivity, innovation and job creation. “India has one of the youngest workforces in the world, with over 65 per cent of the population under 35. This large, tech savvy talent base can be trained and adapted for AI driven industries, creating a strong foundation for innovation, digital services, and future ready jobs,” it stated.
Ahead of the ‘India AI Impact Summit 2026’, 12 AI startups selected under the Foundation Model Pillar participated in a roundtable chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The startups showcased work across Indian language foundation models, multilingual LLMs, speech-to-text, text-to-audio, text-to-video, and 3D generative AI content for e-commerce and marketing. They are also working on engineering simulations, material research, advanced analytics, healthcare diagnostics and medical research.
According to the Stanford AI Index Report 2025, It leads the world in AI talent hiring with an annual rate of about 33%. In 2024, India was the second-largest contributor to global AI projects on GitHub, accounting for 19.9%. The report also found that AI skill penetration in India is 2.5 times higher than the global average across similar occupations.
India has one of the most AI-literate workforces globally, second only to the US. The country benefits from strong domestic data ecosystems in health, agriculture, finance, education and public administration. The World Bank’s South Asia Development Update Report said AI-related job listings in the region are concentrated in India and Sri Lanka, with India holding the majority.
In 2025, 5.8% of white-collar job listings in India required AI expertise. Bangalore accounted for 11% of AI jobs, followed by Hyderabad at 9.57%, Pune at 6.95% and Chennai at 6.62%.
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