Hyderabad, September 23: CII Telangana AI Summit 2026 brought together technology leaders, industry experts, GCCs, policymakers, and digital innovators to explore Telangana’s opportunity to build a globally competitive AI ecosystem. The summit focused on enterprise AI adoption, responsible AI, digital infrastructure, talent, and policy, with discussions on moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide impact and positioning Telangana as a global hub for AI innovation, GCCs, and digital transformation.
Sri Sanjay Jaju, IAS, Chief Secretary & Special Chief Secretary (FAC), ITE&C and Industries & Commerce Departments, Government of Telangana, said that outlined the State’s ambition to move from AI adoption to building AI products, IP and businesses for global markets. He highlighted Telangana’s growing IT and GCC ecosystem, with ₹3.13 lakh crore in IT exports, nearly 1 million IT professionals and 515 GCCs employing around 3 lakh people.The State is targeting five gigawatts of data-centre capacity, alongside sovereign AI-grade compute, AI-ready datasets, subsidised GPU access and sandbox tools through the Telangana Data Exchange. The State’s AI innovation entity, ICAN, aims to position Telangana among the world’s top 20 AI hubs by 2035, supported by AI-first startups, research-industry linkages, skilling and an AI fund of funds. He also highlighted the planned AI City at Bharat Future City, growing GCC presence, Young India Skills University and opportunities across life sciences, BFSI, aerospace, defence, space and semiconductors. He urged industry to “build here, create here, invest here,” reaffirming the government’s role as an enabler and facilitator of AI-led growth.
Sri Anudeep Durishetty, IAS, Joint Secretary in the Information Technology, Electronics and Communications (ITE&C) Department for the Government of Telangana highlighted the rapid evolution of AI and stressed that the next challenge is translating individual productivity gains into measurable business outcomes. He identified human coordination, GCC-led product development and sectoral strengths in aerospace, defence and life sciences as key opportunities for Telangana to take AI solutions from Telangana to the world.
Mr M Goutham Reddy, Chairman, CII Telangana & Executive Vice Chairman, Resustainability Ltd. said that AI adoption is no longer a choice; the focus must shift to using AI responsibly, reliably and effectively. He highlighted the need for trustworthy, human-centric AI, stronger skills, IP protection and translating AI from experimentation into business-integrated, outcome-driven solutions.
Mr M V Reddy, Co-Convenor, CII Telangana IT, DT & Startups Panel; Senior Vice President, Jio Platforms set the context for scaling AI, highlighting the need to move beyond pilots towards productisation, trusted governance, secure AI infrastructure, economic viability and innovation-led GCCs to build solutions from Telangana for global markets.
Mr Sanjeev Deshpande, Convenor, CII Telangana IT, DT & Startups Panel, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), N Labs AI P Ltd said that highlighted that taking AI from Telangana to the world requires GPU infrastructure, startup support, cybersecurity, trusted governance and globally aligned certifications. He emphasised stronger GCC–startup collaboration and greater industry confidence in homegrown AI products to accelerate global market access.
Mr Nilotpal Kumar Dutta, Director & Country Manager, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India said that highlighted that scaling AI requires enterprises to re-architect their technology landscape, strengthen data readiness, security and governance, and move beyond pilots to production. He identified data centres, renewable power, cooling and skilled talent as critical enablers, while positioning Telangana as a strong opportunity for AI infrastructure and GCC-led innovation. He also called for greater collaboration among industry, startups, academia and government to develop India-focused AI and sector-specific SLMs.
Mr Rajan Navani, President, The Indian Digital Gaming Society (IDGS) & Chairman, CII India@100 Council; Chairman & Managing Director, Jetsysthesys said that Telangana has the ambition, talent and ecosystem to emerge as a significant global AI hub. He highlighted a $500–600 billion AI opportunity over the next five years, spanning energy, data centres, compute, language models and applications. He called for GCCs to evolve into global innovation and intelligence centres, while urging greater industry-government collaboration to build AI capabilities, unlock intellectual property and position India as a super partner to the world.
Mr Gaurav Maheshwari, Vice Chairman, CII Telangana State Council; Managing Director, Signode India Ltd. concluded the session by saying that the AI conversation must move beyond adoption towards practical, business-driven outcomes, including AI solutions accessible to MSMEs. He highlighted the rapid emergence of AI agents and autonomous business processes, and positioned Telangana’s strong talent, academia, startups, IT ecosystem and supportive government as key enablers for scaling AI innovation.
The CII Telangana AI Summit 2026 brought together government, industry and technology stakeholders to discuss AI adoption, digital transformation, talent, innovation and responsible AI, with a focus on building a globally competitive and future-ready AI ecosystem in Telangana.