by Syed Nazakat
From Davos to Delhi, AI-focused summits connect leaders, spark collaboration, build partnerships, and translate ideas into action, strengthening healthcare, governance, and technology ecosystems worldwide.
Why do events like conferences and summits matter? Because they are not merely gatherings; they are accelerators of possibilities. At their best, they create rare spaces for encounter—between people separated by geography, discipline, or worldview, and between ideas that might otherwise remain isolated. Over the past decade at DataLEADS, I have seen firsthand how such forums do more than exchange ideas: they build platforms, networks, and communities that turn intention into action.
Recently, I found myself watching the deliberations at Davos on television. Davos is a small town in the Swiss Alps, in the canton of Graubünden. For most of the year, it belongs to snow and silence. Then, once a year, the stillness is interrupted, and the world arrives. Heads of state, executives, technologists, and economists converge, each carrying fragments of power—to speak of markets and conflicts, technology and the future. I follow the coverage of Davos every year, partly out of habit, but more to understand where the world’s ideas, power, and priorities are beginning to shift.
I was in Switzerland a fortnight before Davos began, before the speeches and motorcades, before Donald Trump announced a “Board of Peace” meant to steady Gaza’s ceasefire and, perhaps, something larger. Even then, the undertow was clear. Artificial intelligence dominated almost every discussion.
From Davos, the conversation now pivots to India. In New Delhi, preparations are underway for the India AI Impact Summit 2026, to be held on February 19–20, a gathering expected to bring together delegates from more than 100 countries, alongside heads of state, CEOs, and some of the most influential figures in the global technology and AI space, among them Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai, Demis Hassabis, Jensen Huang, and Bill Gates. This is the first time the Global South is hosting a global AI gathering.
As part of the India AI Impact Summit, we hosted the Health of India Summit in Delhi on January 28, in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), India’s premier public health think tank and training hub.
With a central theme of Building a Healthier India with AI, we opened with a keynote by Dr Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA), the apex public body responsible for implementing India’s flagship digital health initiatives, including Ayushman Bharat and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, who underlined why India must focus on leveraging robust digital data infrastructure to build scalable, ethical, and population-level AI solutions.
The summit was less a showcase than a working conversation, with clinicians, technologists, policymakers, and researchers exploring how AI can reshape preventive care, accelerate drug discovery, strengthen public health systems, and transform medical education. Discussions also focused on democratising healthcare through initiatives like BHASINI, AI Kosh, and AIdKeL Sarthi, which regionalise medical knowledge, bridge access gaps, and make care more affordable and inclusive.
What stayed with me most was a moment of attentive stillness. Some of India’s most respected policymakers, doctors, technologists, and thinkers were not speaking but listening, heads bowed, notebooks open. I watched Dr K. Srinath Reddy, a renowned cardiologist, public health leader, and physician to two Prime Ministers, pause to write, reflecting on how AI might transform the flow of information in public health. Nearby, representatives from WHO, Eka Care, PwC, BMJ, Periwinkle Technologies, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung exchanged ideas, sharing advances at the intersection of AI, health, and information systems. I saw the country’s leading lawyers and scientists engaged in deep discussions on the responsible deployment of AI in public health.
Beyond the room, more than 150 doctors and medical researchers from across the country joined virtually, sharing insights through digital posters. The summit also brought together delegates from premier institutions—including ICMR, Wadhwani AI, Apollo and Max Hospitals, Samsung Health, and NeuroDX—showcasing technologies already redefining clinical practice.
For us at DataLEADS, it was a proud moment to host some of the brightest minds in health, AI, and technology. True to that intent, the summit moved beyond dialogue to action, culminating in an MoU between DataLEADS’ AI initiative, ADiRA, and Ujala Cygnus Hospital to train and upskill healthcare professionals for an AI-ready future. Backed by the AI Opportunity Fund: Asia-Pacific, led by AVPN with support from Google.org and the Asian Development Bank, ADiRA is emerging as one of India’s largest capacity-building programs for AI readiness. Week after week, a team of 200 ADiRA master trainers based in more than 20 Indian states is bringing AI learning to different corners of the country, building the next generation of AI-ready professionals.
The summit would not have been possible without our partners. We were proud to collaborate with the National Health Authority, Global Health Strategies, Samsung, DW, Press Trust of India, Wadhwani Foundation, BMJ Group, Healthcare Sector Skill Council, TiE Delhi NCR, SocioScript, and Rafttaar AI, an AI company led by my younger brother, with a vision to rethink the future of buildings and infrastructure through AI. Having three government ministries join us at the Health of India Summit was especially encouraging, a strong signal of the growing trust and potential in public–private partnerships in India.
Last week, we also completed a special partnership with the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) under MeitY to launch a six-part podcast series, Navigating the Digital Info Ecosystem. This curriculum-based programme, now live on the Karmayogi iGOT platform, reaches nearly 10 million Indian government employees across central, state, and PSU levels, equipping them to identify, understand, and counter harmful and AI-generated content and deepfakes.
As the philosopher Martin Buber wrote, “All real living is meeting.” No measure of technological progress or economic growth can replace what we learn when we truly connect, listening, sitting across the table, engaging in conversation, and holding a space that is real, not transactional. If we want to shape the future responsibly with the AI technologies ahead, we must build dialogue and collaboration at every level.
(Author is CEO and Founder of DataLeads. Ideas are personal.)
