New York: India, which is hosting the International Artificial Intelligence Summit next week, ranks at the top in diffusion of AI skills and AI hiring in an international ranking of countries harnessing the power of AI.
India comes second in economic competitiveness in the 2026 Global Vibrancy Index (GVI) produced by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centred AI.
Only the US has a better score in this category.
Overall, in the GVI, India now ranks behind only the United States and China.
Within the subcategory of talent within the competitiveness criteria of the GVI, India overtakes the US, propelled by its performance in the AI Skills Penetration and AI Hiring Ratio headers.
India is also second in the “AI-Related Social Media Conversations Net Sentiment”, “AI GitHub Projects” and “AI GitHub Projects Stars” sub-categories.
GitHubs are used for integrating projects and making components easily accessible.
The Institute attributed India’s rankings to renewed major initiatives to strengthen its position in the global AI ecosystem.
“This focus illustrates how nations worldwide continue to treat AI as a strategic national priority,” the institution at the heart of Silicon Valley added.
India, which ranked seventh in the first GVI released in 2017, overtook countries like Japan, Germany, Singapore and Britain in the latest version, propelled by progress in research and development.
India is set to host the India AI Impact Summit from February 16-20 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. Being hosted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the IndiaAI Mission, the summit will bring together governments, industry leaders, researchers, startups, students and citizens from across the world.
It is envisioned as a pivotal global platform to shape a future-oriented agenda for inclusive, responsible and impactful AI and aims to move beyond high-level discussions and deliver tangible outcomes that can support economic growth, social development and sustainable use of AI.
The Summit will be structured around three core pillars — People, Planet, and Progress — with discussions focusing on employment and skilling, sustainable and energy-efficient AI, and economic as well as social development. Seven thematic working groups, co-chaired by representatives from the Global North and Global South, will present concrete deliverables, including proposals for AI Commons, trusted AI tools, shared compute infrastructure, and sector-specific compendiums of AI use cases.
