'Urgent need to bridge global AI divide': Microsoft President at AI Summit

At the India AI Impact Summit, Microsoft's Brad Smith said there is an urgent need to close the AI divide between the global north and south, calling for infrastructure, skills and investment

Microsoft Vice-Chairman and President Brad Smith on Wednesday said there is an "urgent" need to close the artificial intelligence (AI) divide between the global north and south.

 

Addressing the session titled 'Trusted AI for everyone' at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Smith said, "At the end of 2025, 25 per cent of the global north working age population was using AI, compared to only 14 per cent in the south. This is the new divide, and it's getting worse, not better."

 

"In the second half of 2025, the growth rate in the North was 1.8 per cent, but in the south only 1.0 per cent. We have to address this with urgency," he added.

 

‘Huge economic divide’

 

Smith also highlighted the huge economic divide between the north and the south, citing technology as one of the key reasons. "The economic divide was created by unequal access to technology, specifically electricity. Technology, for over a century, drove industrialisation and prosperity across the global north before it really took off in the south," he said.

 

Smith said the world cannot afford to let the same happen again. "If we can do better, this may be the best opportunity for global south to catch up," he said.

 

Building a better future

 

On the idea of building a better future, Smith said, "It starts by bringing the infrastructure to the global south that the global south needs. That means data centres, connectivity, and electricity, and it means all three of them together."

 

"We need to harness public capital. We need to generate demand that will unleash more capital to build the infrastructure that the global south needs," he added.

 

Stressing the need to bring AI skills to the global south, Smith said, "The other most important thing is skilling. History shows that major technologies that transform economies are fundamentally dependent on spreading skills across the economy."