ICAI looks to work with India's sovereign AI model on financial, economic data

With India planning to launch its first sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) model by early 2026, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is hoping to harness it for better financial reporting on listed firms.
 
ICAI is in talks with the shortlisted firms for the project to discuss how they can tie up with the shortlisted firm to use the data of 5,000 listed companies. “We want to tie up with them to provide them the financial data of the 5,000 listed firms so that they can be accessed through AI,” said an ICAI official.
 
The objective would be to help Chartered Accountants and sectoral specialists to get the economic and financial data easily and in an accessible manner.

Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan had recently said that India's sovereign AI model would be ready by February 2026. "Before the end of this year, hopefully, we should have our first foundational model. By the time of the India AI Summit, we should be able to launch India’s sovereign model,” he had said recently.
 
The Centre had earlier named eight organisations, including IIT Bombay, Tech Mahindra, and Fractal Analytics, to build foundational large language models (LLMs) under the IndiaAI Mission. The ICAI official said it is in talks with eight firms but declined to take any names.
 
With the use of AI growing across sectors, the ICAI has also been working on measures to use it and familiarise its members and students with the technology. It has created AI-powered utilities and GPT tools to support professional work of auditing.
 
CAs are already using AI tools to improve auditing processes and to cut down on repetitive tasks.  “AI is being used for complex transactions and to go through big data for speed and transparency in audit work,” noted the official but underlined that assurance related tasks cannot be given to AI and has to be handled by the CAs.
 
AI enabled automating repetitive tasks, enables continuous data auditing and helps in use of data analytics for fraud detection and risk.
 
The ICAI is also giving existing CAs training and certification in AI and has also included it in the CA curriculum for students. “Post 2027, all CAs will be enabled with knowledge on AI technology,” the expert noted. The idea is to empower young auditors with a tech-first mindset.
 
It is also working with law enforcement agencies to detect online financial frauds with the use of AI.