India is "well-positioned" to take leadership role in the space of artificial intelligence, former United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, while speaking at the NDTV India.AI Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Leadership in an emerging technology depends on how effectively one deploys the resources at hand, Sunak said. India's strong digital infrastructure and supportive public view allows the country to take up that role, he added.
The British political leader pointed to the recent Stanford University study, which showed that India has surged to the third spot among countries globally in terms of "AI competitiveness". This shows that India's strategy is working, and it is "assuming its rightful place" in the space of AI, he added.
India, according to Sunak, is "one of the greatest places for AI adoption". The public has shown "enormous optimism and trust" in this technology, as compared to the West where there is a lot of anxiety.
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Sunak believes that it's the public sector where the battle over the future of AI "can be won or lost". If citizens can trust AI and see how the technology positively benefits their lives, then their trust could be won, he pointed out.
On jobs, Sunak agreed that AI will alter the labour market. While "some jobs will be lost", new jobs will also come up, Sunak said, adding that this has been seen earlier as well, when new technologies disrupted the world. Despite the risks involved, the role of government "cannot be to stop innovation", he added.
According to Sunak, governments should have the capability to evaluate the safety of AI tools, in order to prevent its misuse by "bad actors".
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