India AI Impact Summit 2026: AI could close global economic divide or exacerbate it, warns Microsoft President Brad Smith

Addressing the India AI Impact Summit, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith described his vision for a future where technology serves as a bridge rather than a barrier. 

Speaking to the audience, Smith asserted that the deepest and most enduring divide has historically been the economic gap between the global North and South, a disparity he attributed directly to a “technology divide”. 

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Smith warned that Artificial Intelligence (AI), more than any other technology this century, will play a pivotal role in either “closing this economic divide or exacerbating it and making it even wider”.  

To prevent this, he called for a unified effort to bring essential infrastructure, including data centres and connectivity, to the global South. 

Highlighting Microsoft’s commitment, Smith noted that the company is on track to spend $50 billion by the end of this decade to bring AI to the global south, with India serving as “one of the largest” investment destinations. 

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Beyond infrastructure, Smith emphasised that the key to enabling a population to use technology at scale is “skilling for people.” He argued that it is the responsibility of every employer to invest in their employees, stating, “It’s not just for the next generation. It’s for every generation that this truly matters”. 

Furthermore, he stressed the need for linguistic diversity, noting that AI must be made “as effective in every language as it is in English”. 

He concluded by reminding the summit that the ultimate focus should not be on what technology will do to people, but on “what people will use technology to do for people”.