This year is already shaping up to be a fascinating one for artificial intelligence development and governance. With bubble discussions still hanging in the balance, perhaps with slightly less air than late 2025, we have already seen the release of some very powerful AI applications that further validate that AI is not a fad, but rather, it is our new normal.
However, what a new normal looks like could still take many divergent paths. Given the rapid speed at which AI models are being developed for applications across all sectors and use cases, it is a safe bet that 2026 will provide more insight into which path we as a society will choose.
Will consumers' appetite for AI innovation outpace the call from some AI experts to slow down? Or will government, industry, academia and civil society partner to develop shared best practices, standards and policies — maybe even new regulations — as tools to increase AI adoption? Will there be a uniform approach across the world? Or will nations choose different paths, potentially creating alternative outcomes for their citizens?
AI Impact Summit as a bellwether
We may soon have answers to some of these questions and see indicators for the year to come at the upcoming AI Impact Summit hosted by the government of India 16-20 Feb. in New Delhi. This is the fourth installment of a government-led AI Summit series bringing together AI accelerationists, AI doomers and everyone in between for crucial discussions about the future of our collective use of AI.
The event was first held in the U.K. by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in 2023 and each successive event has been a useful bellwether to help identify what's to come for the year ahead.
While the names of these events have not been consistent, the concept of bringing together AI policy leaders, practitioners and users for shared discussions about key AI implementation issues and challenges remains the same.
With India choosing to emphasize the "impact" AI will have, many of the events at and around this year's Summit are focused on the application of AI rather than large existential and political issues we have seen at other global AI events.
As an organization that is heavily invested in the advancement of an AI governance profession, the IAPP has been actively involved with the development of events as a lead up to the AI Impact Summit. On 20 Feb., our CEO J. Trevor Hughes, CIPP, will join government and industry leaders in a discussion about trust and safety acting as engines for economic growth and innovation. We believe this will be an important theme to come out of this year's event.
I am excited to be part of the IAPP delegation attending the AI Impact Summit, with stops in Bangalore and Mumbai leading up to the main event. At each, we will hear from the local communities in India and from the international AI community in attendance.
While the major outcome of these events is not always predictable, here are a few themes I anticipate:
Increased emphasis on AI applications
AI investors are going to want to see real value out of AI sooner than later. As a result, we are starting to see indications that 2026 may finally be the year of more nuanced-than-general AI. While general AI platforms will still be an important part of the AI development stack, creating specific applications for easy AI adoption will likely gain more traction. We saw earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show where NVIDIA and Open AI announced the development of 13 new models. Each model focuses on different uses ranging from self-driving vehicles to improved health care to advanced speech recognition.
Additionally, we are seeing more experimentation with AI-enabled robotics. While humanoid robots continue to be a dream for many who need help keeping up with laundry and cleaning the kitchen, CES also featured announcements of new robots focused on surgery, assisted driving and "smart-bricks" that already struck up an interesting debate about the future of children's play and learning.
With increased market clarity on how vast the opportunities are for AI integration into both software and hardware, I expect this year's AI Impact Summit will have more concrete examples and questions to draw upon for what we want the future of AI adoption to be on both a local and global level.
Sector-specific rules for AI
While not necessarily a new thought, I believe my predictions for 2025 included increased sector-specific rules for AI. However, from sessions already shared for the AI Impact Summit, I believe the need for, or early drafts of, sector-specific or application-specific rules for AI will move from a niche discussion into a more general direction.
This is contrasted with the adoption of the comprehensive EU AI Act that dominated many discussions at the AI Action Summit in Paris last year. At the Paris event, one of the more memorable speeches came from U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who indicated the U.S. was going to take a different, deregulatory approach.
Though I remain hopeful, I believe the AI Impact Summit will bring more nuanced discussions about how to approach the oversight of AI by looking at a combination of hard and soft rules. This could include voluntary standards and best practices, as well as more narrow legislation seeking to address specific challenges posed by AI or amendments that build on pre-existing sectoral rules augmented for the AI era.
Regional-specific risks highlighted
Undergirding the foundations of the AI Impact Summit, India has emphasized the importance of discussing the impact AI will have on the Global South. While bias has long been a known risk for the AI community, these flags have often been raised about the harm brought to an individual or a group of individuals.
I’m interested to learn more about the regional implications AI may bring to large populations. Whether because of climate impacts or the implication of how data is accessed to train and operate AI systems, I anticipate there will be many important issues raised at this Summit that would not have been the focal point at previous events.
Impact on workforce
Though not a new topic, I expect a nuanced discussion related to coding agents.
Over the winter holidays, Anthropic released a new version of Claude Code, which is receiving a lot of attention. Whether using Anthropic's platform or alternatives, it seems like this generation of coding assistants are enabling those with limited tech knowledge to easily build tools and systems in unexpected ways.
While the general adoption of these no-code platforms is yet to be understood, I anticipate this release will generate major discussions at the AI Impact Summit. Whether grounded in fact, or speculation, I am curious to learn more about what the community’s thoughts are on the implications these tools will ultimately have on the workforce. While originally thought to be an assistant for developers, these tools can unlock capabilities of nontechnical employees as well.
At the same time, reports of shadow AI and issues with distributed innovation are causing new corporate governance headaches. As a result, the adoption of these coding agents might be a more limited release soon.
Post-Summit reporting
During the AI Impact Summit, the IAPP team will share information about key events and activities. Be sure to follow our newsletters and social accounts for the latest information. Following the event, I will report back on my above predictions and share whether these, or other themes, were the real outcomes of the event.
Ashley Casovan is the managing director for the IAPP AI Governance Center.
This article originally appeared in the AI Governance Dashboard, a free weekly IAPP newsletter. Subscriptions to this and other IAPP newsletters can be found here.
