Chennai-based global technology services provider, Zoho Corporation’s co-founder and Chief Scientist, Sridhar Vembu, attending the AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi on Wednesday, 18 February 2026, said that India may outpace adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) than the United States over the next 10 years, reported the news agency PTI.
Citing historical examples of India and the power of the youth in the country, Vembu said he was more optimistic population embracing the new wave of AI technology.
“…in 10 years…India might be faster in terms of AI adoption than even America,” said Sridhar Vembu, speaking at the AI Impact Summit 2026.
Giving an example of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) on how it became mass-scale in India, Sridhar Vembu said that AI also have the potential to be the same, according to the agency report.
History to repeat itself?
Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu also highlighted how fibre optics was the technology of America back in the early 2000s, after which American venture capitalists sold “10s of billions (dollars) into telecom companies, particularly fibre optics,” and it is “everywhere in India” now, but not so much in the United States anymore.
Vembu’s example showed how India jumped into the opportunity, adapting from the lessons that America learnt with the fibre optics technology and directly went into fibre and mobile, which marked a huge step towards the country’s digital move.
According to the agency report, Vembu further said that the reason India is likely to outpace America in AI adoption is cause “we have a very youthful, optimistic population. We don’t have a population that is very skeptical…which is a blessing.”
He said that, unlike the “unwilling crowd”, India is open to accepting and embracing artificial intelligence at a much higher level. For a country to be ahead in the AI front, Vembu urged the young entrepreneurs and start-ups to “optimistically experiment” and keep learning from the challenges, reported the news agency.
Vembu pushes back against fears of mass job losses
Mint reported earlier that Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu, in a social media post on 16 February 2026, pushed back against fears of mass job losses, saying that white-collar roles will not vanish anytime soon because of the artificial intelligence (AI) push.
“The quoted post makes a strong argument that white collar jobs won’t go away anytime soon due to AI,” said Sridhar Vembu in his post on X. The Zoho co-founder recommended that people follow certain steps in these changing times to present their strong stance in times of AI innovation.
Vembu recommended people to keep an open mind and absorb every kind of information, while forming some opinions, but hold them “loosely” subject to revisions.
“Be ready to make U-turns quickly during this phase,” said Sridhar Vembu in his post. He also said that over time, your opinions should solidify into convictions, but never force them. You cannot “buy” a conviction; it has to come from within.
“Don’t let your ego mix up with your conviction. That is when it becomes dogma,” he said. Vembu also recommended that when you have strong convictions, act on them. Conviction without action is useless. Action without conviction is pointless.
