New Delhi [India], February 16 (ANI): Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) must remain central to India's artificial intelligence (AI) strategy as the country works to unlock value in manufacturing and accelerate economic growth, Gaurav Kataria, VP Digital (Manufacturing) and CDIO PSPD at ITC Ltd told ANI today.

'MSME is absolutely a great focus and really, really required at this point in time,' Kataria told ANI on the sidelines of 'Democratizing AI Resources for Economic Growth and Social Good', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as part of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

Kataria said inclusive AI adoption across enterprises of all sizes would be critical to maximising impact. While AI presents significant opportunities, he acknowledged concerns around its broader implications. 'We all have to learn and evolve. It's a new technology. It will take time. It's in its infancy,' he said. 'We all have to make sure that there are guardrails which are put. The government's doing a great job from a policy perspective. And we will continue to support all the endeavours from a government standpoint.'

Discussions at the summit placed strong emphasis on manufacturing transformation. 'There's a big emphasis on unlocking the value within the manufacturing sector from the use of AI, starting right from machine learning all the way going up to agentic AI,' Kataria said, describing the range of perspectives shared as 'very, very diverse view, very interesting.'

He stressed that successful AI deployment depends on balancing technology with organisational readiness. 'The emphasis on making sure that people, process, technology, all three, remain a cornerstone of our focus within the larger ecosystem' is essential to unlocking value in India's manufacturing sector, he said.

Kataria described the India AI Impact Summit 2026 as a major global platform. 'India AI Impact Summit, I think, is the largest gathering across the globe of everybody coming together and talking about AI,' he said. Bringing 'the most brilliant minds from the globe into one stage in New Delhi, in India, talking about AI is a fantastic endeavour by the government.'

Reflecting on the pace of technological change, he said: 'We live in such an interesting age today with a lot of us who haven't seen telephones, haven't seen televisions, haven't seen computers. And from there to transform, to talk about AI and how a lot of our lives will get transformed as we move forward and how autonomous manufacturing will happen... is actually fantastic.'

Kataria said the summit would help unlock potential 'both on the startup side, both on the manufacturing side,' adding that 'for every industry, there's so much to learn.'

On India's global positioning, he said: 'We are already a global leader. We are sort of defining the agenda to a large extent. We have become the use case capital of the world.' While acknowledging that 'there's still some headwinds' typical of emerging technologies, he added, 'at the end of the day, I think we're heading in the right direction.' (ANI)