Davos 2026: India should focus on applied AI, there are enough foundation model providers, says Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind

• Google DeepMind CEO urges India to focus on applied AI over foundational models
• India is a key market for Google DeepMind, with major research in Bengaluru
• Demis Hassabis to visit India for the India AI Impact Summit in February

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India should focus on applied artificial intelligence (AI) at present, given there are enough foundation model providers at present, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis told Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 20.

"I would probably say applied AI is the right place to focus at this point ... work with foundation model providers," Hassabis said.

His remarks come amid a big debate in India's tech and startup ecosystem on whether the country should focus on foundational AI or the application layer.

Also read: How Google reclaimed the AI crown

India very important market for us

Hassabis also mentioned that India is a very important market for the tech giant, since a lot of DeepMind research happens in the country's Bengaluru office.

India is also Google's largest market in terms of user base for its products and a crucial region for the growth of its AI efforts.

"Indians love AI and they love using it. I think it's going to be a great technology for India economically," Hassabis said.

The Google DeepMind chief is expected to make his maiden visit to India next month for the India AI Impact Summit from February 15 to 20. "I've never really visited India before, so I'm excited to go to the Summit and also see the team," he said.

Also Read: From India to the World: Google steps up AI research to help solve real-world challenges

Build vs deploy debate

Many tech stalwarts like Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani believe that India should be the AI use-case capital of the world, rather than focusing on the hypercompetitive race of building Large Language Models (LLMs). However, entrepreneurs like Sarvam AI's Vivek Raghavan have argued that without sovereign AI models, the country will become a "digital colony".

Global AI pioneers like Yoshua Bengio have previously highlighted the geopolitical implications of AI. "Countries that invest in building their AI systems will have a geopolitical advantage," Bengio told Moneycontrol in January 2025, adding that there’s a need for governments to fund and incentivise foundational model development.

Over the past year, the Indian government has selected around 12 players including Sarvam, Tech Mahindra, Gnani.ai, and Gan AI to build foundational large language models.