Sridhar Vembu predicts India may outpace US in AI adoption over next 10 years — What he said at AI Impact Summit 2026

Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and Chief Scientist of Chennai-based global technology services provider, Zoho Corporation, attended the Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Wednesday (February 18, 2026) and said India could surpass the US in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the next 10 years, the news agency reported. PTI.

Referring to India’s historical examples and the power of the country’s youth, Vembu said that the population that has adopted the new wave artificial intelligence technology is more optimistic.

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Speaking at the AI Impact Summit 2026, Sridhar Vembu said, “…in 10 years… India could be even faster than America in terms of adopting AI.”

Giving an example of how Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become mass-scale in India, Sridhar Vembu said that artificial intelligence has the potential to be the same, according to the agency’s report.

Will history repeat itself?

Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu also emphasized that fiber optics was America’s technology in the early 2000s; After that, American venture capitalists sold “tens of billions (dollars) to telecom companies, especially fiber optics,” which is now “all over India,” but not so much in the United States anymore.

Vembu’s example showed how India is seizing this opportunity by moving directly to fiber and mobile, adapting the lessons America has learned with fiber optic technology; this was a major step towards the country’s digital push.

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Vembu also said that the reason why India has surpassed America in adopting AI is because “we have a very young and optimistic population. We do not have a very skeptical population… which is a blessing,” according to the agency’s report.

He said India is open to accepting and adopting AI at a much higher level, unlike the “reluctant crowd”. Vembu urged young entrepreneurs and start-ups to “try optimistically” and continue to learn from challenges for a country to get ahead on the artificial intelligence front, the news agency reported.

Vembu pushes back against fears of mass job losses

Mint It was previously reported that Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu, in a social media post on February 16, 2026, pushed back against fears of mass job losses and said that white-collar roles will not disappear anytime soon due to artificial intelligence (AI) pressure.

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“The quoted post makes a strong argument that white-collar jobs will not disappear due to AI any time soon,” Sridhar Vembu said in his post on X. The Zoho co-founder advised people to follow certain steps in these changing times to assert their strong stance in times of AI innovation.

Vembu advised people to keep an open mind and absorb all kinds of information to form some ideas, but subject them to revisions “loosely”.

Sridhar Vembu said in his post, “Be prepared to make a U-turn quickly at this stage.” He also said that over time your ideas should turn into opinions, but you should never force them. You cannot “buy” a conviction; It has to come from within.

“Don’t let your ego and your faith get mixed up. That’s when it becomes dogma,” he said. Vembu also advised that when you have strong beliefs, act on them. Conviction without action is useless. Action without faith is meaningless.