Morning Brief Podcast: India AI Impact Summit: Microsoft’s Brad Smith on Sovereignty, Scale and Skills

Can a $17 billion bet prevent India from repeating the Global South’s century-long technology lag? In this episode of The Morning Brief, host Surabhi Agarwal speaks with Microsoft VP and President Brad Smith about the company’s ambitious AI vision for India as the “land of digital opportunity.” The talk covers Microsoft’s infrastructure and skills investments, the challenge of closing the digital divide that reflects the historical electricity gap between North and South, and how this is happening. …Read moreDigital sovereignty tensions shape multinational strategy. From driving India’s thoughtful privacy regulations to addressing AI’s impact on business dynamics through productivity enhancements, Smith examines whether equitable AI adoption can succeed where past technologies have failed. While India’s large developer community uniquely positions it at the intersection of AI infrastructure, platforms, and applications, this chapter questions whether collaborative frameworks between countries like India and the US can balance open markets with security, or whether digital sovereignty will fragment the ecosystem needed for India’s transformation.…Read Less