Do AI summits work?

19 Feb 2026 11:32 AM

EXPERT COMMENT

The AI Impact Summit in New Delhi is ambitious – but little progress on international governance is expected. Smaller and regional gatherings are a better prospect to develop the solutions the world needs.

This week, AI policymakers, experts and developers descend on New Delhi for the world’s biggest ever gathering dedicated to the technology – the AI Impact Summit. Indian government officials estimate a quarter of a million people will join the conference and expo to discuss how to build and govern AI – Chatham House’s Digital Society Programme among them.

The summit has sky-high ambitions, and potentially great value, bringing together high-level decision-makers alongside ground-up tech builders and experts under one roof (or ten). Useful, important conversations will be had.

But it will likely fall short of producing any meaningful international governance agreement. It is too crowded a platform, with too many agendas. 

To really make progress on AI governance, policymakers, developers, scientists and civil society actors interested in better governance should throw their weight behind developing solutions in smaller settings – with the opportunity to scale up them using major gatherings later.  

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.