Trust plays an important role: Vaishnaw on AI transition at Rising Bharat Summit

Ashwini Vaishnaw at the Rising Bharat Summit

Union Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday that trust factor plays a very important role while deploying artificial intelligence (AI).

Speaking at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit 2026 on AI and its impact on jobs, Vaishnaw said AI adoption would expand opportunities in India rather than diminish them — provided trust, talent and innovation move in tandem.

“The biggest strength of our IT sector is to be able to go to an enterprise, understand how it works and, based on that, provide a solution. It was demonstrated during the Y2K problem," he noted, recalling how Indian IT firms earned global credibility during the millennium bug crisis.

"Trust factor plays a very important role while deploying AI. We must take the AI transition seriously. Every action must be taken pro-actively," said the Union Minister underlining how trust will be central to AI integration in sensitive sectors such as banking and finance.

“A bank would not want to hand over its coding to a software it doesn’t trust. That is where the role of IT companies will grow," he said.

While Vaishnaw is confident about Indian technology firms to act as trusted partners in deploying AI systems securely and responsibly, at the same time, he acknowledged the inevitability of disruption.

“We need to scale up innovation in the AI sector. At the same time, we must be prepared for disruption due to the AI boost," he said, calling for proactive planning to manage workforce transitions. He stressed the importance of building a strong talent pipeline, adding that state governments must ensure colleges are reoriented to equip students with AI-focused skills and solution-driven training.

Earlier on Thursday, while speaking at the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) Conclave, Vaishnaw largely spoke on how trust -- a principle which has bound various pillars of human society, which includes media, legislature and judiciary, has been under challenge lately.

"The core tenet of trust is under threat. It is coming in different forms -- deepfakes, things which have never happened anywhere; disinformation.. creating synthetically generated pictures of well respected people, creating videos which have no correlation to AI; and all that content, so-called content/news, when it reaches common people -- they start questioning the basic structure of the society," said Vaishnaw.

Stating that social media firms must take responsibility for content such as deepfakes and disinformation that are hosted on their platforms, Vaishnaw said, "Platforms must understand the importance of reinforcing trust in the institutions which human society has created over thousands of years. Platforms must take the responsibility for the content that is hosted by them."