Day one of India AI Impact Summit sees thefts, long queues, blocked gates; entrepreneur says AI wearables were stolen from booth

Day one of India AI Impact Summit sees thefts, long queues, blocked gates; Bengaluru entrepreneur says AI wearables were stolen from booth

The India AI Impact Summit in Delhi was marred by allegations of theft and lack of coordination despite months of planning on day one of the event.

The event reportedly ended in chaos as attendees complained of long queues and gate confusion, and stolen goods.

A Bengaluru start-up CEO took to X to allege that his company’s AI wearable was stolen from the stall on the very first day.

Dhananjay Yadav, the co-founder and the CEO of NeoSapien, said that the day turned out to be “a pain for us”

I came genuinely excited; it was the first time the summit was being hosted in India, and I wanted to show up personally to support the ecosystem and the government’s push.

Yadav alleged that the security personnel cordoned off the area to prepare for PM Narendra Modi’s visit at 2 pm.

While one group asked Yadav to stay at the stall, another asked him to leave.

“At 12 noon, security personnel arrived to sanitise and cordon off the area ahead of the visit by PM Modi visit at 2 pm.”

“I explained that we’re building India’s first patented AI wearable at NeoSapien and requested a chance to showcase it. One officer told others to let me stay, and they left. Then another group came and ordered us to leave immediately. Seemed like there was lack of co-ordination between the security itself,” he said.

Assuring him that the security would take care of the wearables, they were asked to leave.

The gates were reportedly closed from 12-6 pm.  “Gates were closed from 12-6 pm. Much much longer than expected,” Yadav wrote, adding later: “our wearables were stolen.”

“Think about this: We paid for flights, accommodation, logistics and even the booth. Only to see our wearables disappear inside a high-security zone.” he called the event “extremely disappointing.”

Other delegates and founders also shared similar experiences at the event.

Punit Jain, founder of Reskilll, shared on X, “7 AM queues,  9 AM entry,  12 PM full evacuation,  Hours of sanitisation , PM visit at 5 PM. Day 1 Ends here.”

“Meanwhile — exhibitors, delegates, startup founders left outside. No water. No clarity,”

Maitreya Wagh, CEO and one of the founders of Bolna AI, took to X to say that he could not access his own booth at the AI summit.

“If you’re also stuck outside and wanted to visit the @bolna_dev team, dm me. We may set up a mini-booth at some Connaught Place cafe,” he joked.

Daniel Otieno, a delegate from Kenya, who is an AI literacy specialist who uses AI to help those with learning disabilites said that navigating the bvenue was one of the biggest challenges to Mint.“On top of that, the security personnel were not equipped well enough to understand global delegates and guide them,” Otieno said.

Romil Rungta from a Bengaluru-based AI startup YuVerse, who is an exhibitor at the event, told Mint that they were not just asked to vacate the exhibition. "To add to our horrors, the food counters were also shut, and we were just left roaming around cluelessly" for hours, he said.

He said that the money that the startup spent on day 1 of the event was wasted. "We can't go out, we can't come in, we are literally feeling like (we're) in jail here,” he said.

Reuters reported that several delegates were left with unclear instructions and scrambled to reclaim their possessions after the the exhibition building was suddenly cleared ahead of security sweeps for high-level arrivals.

The speakers for Tuesday's panel were also still awaiting confirmations of their sessions and agendas.

Many also complained about poor signage and limited seating at the summit.

The India AI summit will run until February 20.