AI can make India global creative capital, says JioStar's Uday Shankar

India-AI Impact Summit 2026: Uday Shankar said AI can help India become the world's creative capital by cutting costs, boosting storytelling and helping local content reach global audiences

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers India a historic opportunity to emerge as the world’s creative powerhouse, Uday Shankar, Vice-Chairman of JioStar India Private Limited, said at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, highlighting how the technology could reshape the country’s media and entertainment landscape.

 

“AI provides India a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become the ‘creative capital of the world’,” Shankar said.

 

He added that because the media and entertainment sector is built on human creativity, it is poised to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the AI era. According to him, the technology is acting as a catalyst that fundamentally rewires the three pillars of the industry: content, consumers and commerce.

 

 

A history of technological shifts

 

Drawing on his three decades in the media industry, Shankar said he has witnessed several waves of technological change. At every stage, he said, technology enabled media businesses to operate with greater speed, agility and efficiency, transforming their relationship with audiences.

 

This early adoption of cutting-edge tools helped India, despite being a late entrant to audiovisual entertainment, rapidly grow into one of the most dynamic media markets globally.

 

Over roughly 25 years, the industry expanded from a few billion dollars to become the world’s fifth-largest media and entertainment market, contributing over $30 billion to the economy, he said. The country has also moved from a single state broadcaster to more than 900 channels across multiple languages, with reach growing from about 70 million television households to over 210 million, alongside more than 800 million video consumers.   

 

Why global breakout remains limited

 

Despite this progress, Shankar noted that India has yet to fully establish itself as a global content powerhouse. He pointed to examples such as South Korea, which produced global hits like Squid Game and Parasite and Puerto Rico, which has produced globally dominant music talent.

 

In his view, structural challenges -- including lack of capital, difficulty attracting global talent and a largely domestic audience focus -- have constrained India’s global reach.

 

AI lowering barriers, expanding possibilities

 

He further said that AI is now removing long-standing barriers in content production. “AI-powered production is not just reducing costs; it is unlocking an unprecedented volume of high-quality storytelling,” he said.

 

As infrastructure costs decline, he noted, imagination and creativity are becoming the only real constraints. In this environment, India’s cultural depth and storytelling traditions could become its strongest competitive advantage.

 

AI is also transforming consumer engagement, enabling conversational discovery, interactive storytelling, deeper regionalisation and personalised pricing models. AI makes "genuine consumer segmentation a reality", he said.   

 

Economic potential and key priorities

 

Globally, the media market is valued at nearly $3 trillion and is projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2029. India currently accounts for less than 2 per cent of that total. Shankar said AI could significantly boost this share, noting that even a rise to 5 per cent would create tens of billions of dollars in new value.

 

However, he cautioned that opportunity alone is not enough. He outlined three priorities: industry players must be willing to disrupt themselves, India must become a global hub for AI-native creative talent and policy frameworks must act as accelerators rather than barriers.