New Delhi: Experts on Thursday underscored the role of open networks and digital public infrastructure (DPI) in scaling artificial intelligence for mass adoption at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

Speaking at a session on “AI and Open Networks: Creating Impact at Scale”, Nandan Nilekani of Networks for Humanity said open architectures enable faster and productive diffusion of AI by allowing multiple innovators to build applications at the edge. He noted that reducing user complexity through AI agents would accelerate adoption.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon Group highlighted the potential of India's digital health stack to create a global reference model for AI-enabled healthcare and universal coverage. Sangbu Kim of the World Bank Group stressed the need for replicable and scalable frameworks across countries.

Sunil Wadhwani of Wadhwani AI said DPI provides the data backbone essential for social sector AI deployment, while James Manyika of Google and Alphabet emphasised equitable access to AI to expand global innovation capacity.

Panelists said affordable, multilingual and easy-to-use AI systems are crucial for population-scale impact.