In a high-level roundtable hosted on the Swedish Embassy in New Delhi, diplomats, enterprise leaders, and innovators from Sweden and India gathered to discover alternatives for collaboration on synthetic intelligence (AI) for international good. The dialogue, a part of a pre-summit occasion, comes forward of the India AI Affect Summit scheduled for February, which is able to give attention to AI options tailor-made for the International South, emphasizing inclusivity, sustainability, and lowering inequality.
The Swedish Ambassador to India highlighted the importance of India internet hosting the summit, noting that it marks a shift from earlier AI gatherings within the UK and Paris, which centered on ideas, to a extra human-focused strategy on affect. “India is displaying management by inviting the International South not simply to take part however to steer the dialog,” the Ambassador stated. He confused themes similar to “leaving nobody behind,” democratizing AI entry, and leveraging connectivity—areas the place Swedish corporations have contributed to India’s digital infrastructure rollout.
The Ambassador expressed optimism that the summit may function a launchpad for deeper Sweden-India partnerships in industrial innovation and AI purposes. Enterprise representatives underscored sensible purposes and mutual strengths. A consultant from a Swedish cosmetics large with 30 years in India, described how AI-powered apps are empowering girls entrepreneurs by simplifying product suggestions and knowledge-sharing with out requiring costly coaching. “AI makes entrepreneurship accessible and user-friendly, bringing large modifications to lives,” she famous, emphasizing democratization.
From the vitality sector, a Hitachi Vitality government pointed to longstanding Sweden-India synergy, citing Excessive Voltage Direct Present (HVDC) know-how invented in Sweden 70 years in the past and now scaled globally, together with for India’s renewable vitality integration. “Sweden brings area experience and authentic gear, whereas India gives huge scale—collectively, we will pilot options as soon as and implement them worldwide,” he stated, expressing pleasure about AI-enabled vitality transitions.
A consultant of the Swedish authorities revealed that 60% of Swedish corporations in India plan elevated investments, many with rising AI competence centres and international functionality centres (GCCs). She advocated for stronger industrial collaborations, much like these amongst main Swedish corporations like Ericsson, AstraZeneca, and Saab, and sees the summit as a lift to the Sweden-India AI hall. Indian views highlighted challenges and alternatives. Founding father of an AI startup, argued in opposition to a purely sovereign strategy to AI improvement, favouring international finest practices whereas calling for a stronger home enterprise ecosystem.
“India wants enterprise capitalists to take larger dangers to construct foundational information infrastructure and huge language fashions,” he stated, warning in opposition to repeating previous misses in social media innovation and praising the federal government’s India AI Mission. The dialogue additionally touched on the proposed EU-India Free Commerce Settlement (FTA), seen as a possible game-changer. Trade voices, together with from Volvo Vehicles and others, considered it as opening doorways for know-how switch, funding flows, and small-to-medium enterprises. The Ambassador famous it may nurture startups, with Sweden appearing as a “nursery” for Indian corporations scaling globally. Additionally talked about about have been methods of leveraging authorities investments in cloud platforms and sponsored GPUs to coach expertise and develop sector-specific options, similar to predictive upkeep for trucking and semiconductor design automation. A consultant of a high Indian IT agency praised India’s trendy, scalable digital stack as replicable in Sweden, whereas suggesting Sweden’s seamless digital identification may improve belief in Indian methods.
Representatives from Volvo Eicher Business Autos and IKEA shared real-world examples. Volvo highlighted AI-driven linked autos lowering logistics downtime in India, aligning with nationwide targets to chop logistics prices. IKEA’s Patrick mentioned moral AI for higher buyer experiences and last-mile supply, together with buying a Bangalore-based AI logistics agency and investing in Rajasthan photo voltaic farms to energy sustainable AI operations. On international AI governance, individuals supported predictable regulatory frameworks. IKEA endorsed frequent guidelines for enterprise flourishing, whereas Enterprise Sweden echoed requires stability, with predictability topping Swedish corporations’ needs for India in 2026.
The roundtable underscored a shared imaginative and prescient: combining Sweden’s deep tech experience with India’s scale and expertise to ship trusted, impactful AI options worldwide. With robust backing from Sweden, the upcoming India AI Affect Summit is poised to provide concrete outcomes for equitable international improvement.
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