India AI Impact Summit 2026: Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicts India’s 25% growth with AI
Amodei said that India is not just the market, but it is the ultimate “test lab” for how AI can contribute to a country's economy.
- Feb 19, 2026,
- Updated Feb 19, 2026 1:17 PM IST
On February 19, Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, became a part of a panel discussion at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 to discuss the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The discussion felt more like a Sci-Fi future than a tech panel as Amodei lays out a vision of an AI-powered reality of a developing nation like India.
Amodei said that India is not just the market, but it is the ultimate “test lab” for how AI can contribute to a country's economy.
Could India Hit 25% Economic Growth?
During the panel discussion, Amodei made a very ambitious prediction. He suggested that India’s combination of high technical talent and growth potential could boost economic numbers.
“In the developed world, I wonder, you know, could AI lead us to, you know, 10% growth range? We sound absurd, but... I think here in India, there's a lot of ketchup growth to be done.”
He added, “There's an enormous amount of technical potential and ability... So India is one of the few places in the world where I wonder, you know, could there be 20 or 25% growth, which is, you know, sounds absurd.”
Anthropic’s optimism for India also comes from the sheer energy of the Indian developer community. He revealed that Claude usage in India has doubled in just the last four months, specifically for high-level tasks like programming and mathematics.
“There's just an excitement here and a technical acumen. ... A fraction [of usage for technical tasks] is substantially higher here in India, than in most other places in the world.”
In addition, Amodei also sheds light on the launch on sonnet 4.6, which comes with 10 Indic languages. He admitted the technology isn't perfect yet but is bridging the "long tail" of regional dialects.
He said, “If we can only speak the most common languages, then there's a long tail we're not reaching, right? The farmers that we mentioned, you know, many of them speak, speak one of the less common regional languages. ... Sonic 4.6 represents an improvement. you know, we're not all the way there.”
On February 19, Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, became a part of a panel discussion at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 to discuss the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The discussion felt more like a Sci-Fi future than a tech panel as Amodei lays out a vision of an AI-powered reality of a developing nation like India.
Amodei said that India is not just the market, but it is the ultimate “test lab” for how AI can contribute to a country's economy.
Could India Hit 25% Economic Growth?
During the panel discussion, Amodei made a very ambitious prediction. He suggested that India’s combination of high technical talent and growth potential could boost economic numbers.
“In the developed world, I wonder, you know, could AI lead us to, you know, 10% growth range? We sound absurd, but... I think here in India, there's a lot of ketchup growth to be done.”
He added, “There's an enormous amount of technical potential and ability... So India is one of the few places in the world where I wonder, you know, could there be 20 or 25% growth, which is, you know, sounds absurd.”
Anthropic’s optimism for India also comes from the sheer energy of the Indian developer community. He revealed that Claude usage in India has doubled in just the last four months, specifically for high-level tasks like programming and mathematics.
“There's just an excitement here and a technical acumen. ... A fraction [of usage for technical tasks] is substantially higher here in India, than in most other places in the world.”
In addition, Amodei also sheds light on the launch on sonnet 4.6, which comes with 10 Indic languages. He admitted the technology isn't perfect yet but is bridging the "long tail" of regional dialects.
He said, “If we can only speak the most common languages, then there's a long tail we're not reaching, right? The farmers that we mentioned, you know, many of them speak, speak one of the less common regional languages. ... Sonic 4.6 represents an improvement. you know, we're not all the way there.”