India remains behind the United States and China in overall AI competitiveness, but top officials argue the nation is surging ahead in practical deployment. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, IT Minister and IBM CEO Arvind Krishna addressed concerns head-on, spotlighting India's strengths in enterprise AI and a skilled workforce ready to scale global innovations.

During a high-profile panel, the discussion turned to India's position in the global AI landscape. Arvind Krishna, IBM's CEO of Indian origin, dismissed notions of India lagging far behind, emphasizing that true leadership lies in applying AI to real business challenges rather than just developing consumer-facing models. He highlighted how Indian IT giants like TCS and Infosys have ramped up AI hiring by over 30% and are leading in industry-specific solutions, from supply chain optimization to healthcare advancements.

The IT Minister reinforced this view, crediting government policies for fostering an ecosystem that could make India a deployment powerhouse. Krishna praised initiatives mirroring India's digital public infrastructure success, positioning the country to export AI expertise worldwide. Recent Stanford rankings back this up: India holds third place globally with a vibrancy score of 21.59, trailing the US (78.6) and China (36.95), but ahead of powerhouses like the UK and Germany.

The Stanford Global AI Vibrancy Tool evaluates countries on talent pools, research output, investments, infrastructure, and economic integration. The US leads with giants like OpenAI and Google driving frontier research, while China excels in patents and state-backed models. India's third spot stems from its massive engineer base, billions in pledges from Amazon ($35B by 2030), Microsoft ($17.5B), and others, plus a focus on ethical, scalable AI.

Indian firms are embedding AI into enterprise ops globally, creating value in areas needing deep domain knowledge—think predictive maintenance in manufacturing or personalized medicine. Challenges persist in compute power and core R&D, but experts like SandboxAQ's Jack Hidary called India "on the right track" for breakthroughs like accelerated drug discovery. This Davos exchange underscores India's pivot from follower to contender in AI, especially as US policies under President Trump and China's state push reshape the field. For more on "India AI ranking 2026" or "Davos AI insights," stay tuned.