New Delhi [India], November 6 (ANI): France’s Special Envoy for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Anne Bouverot, on Thursday declared that 2026 will be the year of French-Indian innovation, underscoring the deepening collaboration between the two nations ahead of the AI Impact Summit 2026 to be hosted in India.
In an interview with ANI, Bouverot expressed enthusiasm for the partnership, highlighting the growing cooperation in AI development. “2026 will be the year of French-Indian innovation. And that’s a great opportunity to get our ecosystems, our startups, to work together,” she said.
“I’m here to help support this partnership between our two countries in doing that. I think we have a very good alignment between the vision from France and the vision from India that AI needs to be useful for our people, our users, and our citizens. And therefore, I’m very interested in any use cases in agriculture, commerce, education, and healthcare,” she added.
The India-AI Impact Summit 2026, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit earlier this year, is scheduled from February 19 to 20 in New Delhi and will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South. The summit aims to build on the momentum of international forums, including the UK AI Safety Summit, the AI Seoul Summit, the France AI Action Summit, and the Global AI Summit on Africa. It seeks to translate high-level political dialogue into tangible cooperation, deliverables, and measurable progress in global AI initiatives.
Bouverot highlighted the scope for collaboration between India and France, stressing the importance of developing AI that reflects the cultural diversity and unique needs of both nations. “In AI, we have, of course, the innovation ecosystem. AI chatbots are like concentrated packs of culture or expressions of culture… We share a view that we need to work together to get AI developed in a way that is closer to our needs and to our cultures,” she said.
The India-AI Impact Summit 2026 aims to chart a path where AI serves humanity, advances inclusive growth, and promotes people-centric innovations that are environmentally responsible. (ANI)
