As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly reshapes industries and becomes embedded in nearly every profession, the India AI Impact Summit 2026 convened a crucial session bringing together security specialists and AI experts to deliberate on a pressing concern—how a nation can safeguard its digital sovereignty while strengthening national security.
Abhishek Verma, Head of Digital Government Advisory at KPMG in India, who moderated the discussion, underscored the breathtaking pace at which AI models are evolving.
“What seems pathbreaking today becomes obsolete in a matter of weeks. The latest models from OpenAI have dwarfed almost everything available in the public domain, much like the recent disruption caused by emerging Chinese models,” Verma observed.
He framed the central question before the panel: with intelligent technology moving so rapidly, how does a country secure its technological sovereignty without compromising national security priorities?
Talking about the evolution of internal security, Ajay Singhal, IPS, Director General of Haryana Police, reflected on how policing itself has transformed in recent years—from traditional lathi PT methods to the AI era of cybercrime and digital enforcement.
"As this transformation accelerates, sovereign systems become essential to protect police infrastructure and ensure that security remains uncompromised," Singhal noted.
Notably, there is also a need to prioritise defence initiatives that would keep systems trusted, while also enabling strong public-private collaboration, and ensuring that AI augmentations are not distorted.
Lt. Gen. Harsh Chibber, AVSM, VSM, PhD, Director General of Information Services, Indian Army, emphasised that India’s defence establishment was already embedding advanced technologies into its systems.
“DGIS is leading India’s adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) and next-gen technologies and also keeps human judgment central in mission-critical decisions and autonomous systems," Chibber says.
The real debate now—across nations—is about the outcome of innovations in the fast-moving space of AI.
Pier Stefano Sailer, Digital Sovereignty Lead at KPMG Global, noted that since Sovereign AI is now dominating conversations, particularly on national security, across governments, "the central question is what they aim to achieve through their emerging regulatory regimes".
In the Indian context, the new innovations should be aimed at confronting its structural challenges.
Brijesh Singh, IPS, Principal Secretary and Director General of Information and Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra, says:
“As India pursues sovereign AI, we must confront data gaps that shape our models. Determining whether overcoming these gaps is itself an act of sovereignty—and whether progress should be in big bang disruptions or incremental changes—lies at the heart of our strategic choices.”
From the industry side, Martin Willcox, Head of Analytics Sales at Teradata, stressed on the importance of robust data foundations in India.
He said that the path forward was clear, and urged people to "stay hungry for data, and stay genuinely intelligent in how it’s used".
“India’s security modernisation hinges upon data infrastructure. Further, open formats, such as open source models, and interoperability will keep AI systems accurate and secure," he added.
Preet Saxena, Global Director of Data and Analytics at Concentrix, touched a very important aspect about innovations in AI, suggesting that a model of collaboration for government and private undertakings would act as the catalyst for scale.
“To accelerate indigenous AI, India needs dynamic public private collaboration. We should optimise the consumption layer while remaining mindful of AI’s carbon footprint, thereby keeping an eye on ESG responsibilities as well.”
However, Mandar Kulkarni, National Security Officer (India and South Asia) at Microsoft, framed sovereignty as a calibrated process rather than a sudden shift.
“In sovereignty discussions, the real challenge is balancing time with sensitivity—deciding how fast to move while ensuring that critical assets remain secure and strategically protected. It is about taking incremental steps towards sovereignty rather than trying to make everything.”
