India has emerged among the top 10 leading emerging-market performers in artificial intelligence (AI) readiness. (Photo Credit: unsplash)World Bank Ranks India Among Top 10 in AI Readiness: The World Bank Group has recently released a report titled ‘India and Artificial Intelligence: Seizing the Development Opportunity’ under the India Development Update (IDU).According to the World Bank’s latest report, “India has emerged among the top 10 leading emerging-market performers in artificial intelligence (AI) readiness, supported by its large technical workforce, globally integrated IT sector and digital public infrastructure”.Recent developments in India’s economy place it in a medium-term and global context.Also Read | Claude comes to Google Workspace: Here’s how to edit Google Docs, Sheets, and SlidesThe report also suggested that even though aggregate long-term impacts remain uncertain, existing analysis shows that labour market substitution risks are lower than in advanced economies so far due to a smaller share of cognitive jobs, with significant potential for productivity jobs.According to the World Bank, AI holds significant promise for enhancing productivity and transforming public service delivery in India. However, the institution noted that the technology’s long-term effects on employment and overall economic stability remain uncertain.To reach its full capacity, the report suggested that this can only occur through broadening AI adoption beyond large urban firms, building worker capabilities, strengthening infrastructure, leveraging AI in public services, and establishing adaptive governance frameworks.Also Read | OpenAI releases 372 groups of math results from unreleased frontier AI modelPrivate AI investment in India soared to $4.1 billion (₹36,231.7 crore) in 2025, more than triple the previous year, reflecting surging investor confidence in the nation’s tech ecosystem. At the same time, employment across India’s Global Capability Centres expanded to 2.36 million, prompting the World Bank to note AI’s potential for driving development while cautioning over its uncertain long-term impact on labour markets.Story continues below this adA policy research working paper titled ‘Beyond the AI Divide: A Simple Approach to Identifying Global and Local Overperformers in AI Preparedness’, published by the World Bank, notes that in the landscape of the global AI Divide, nations perform along three distinct economic tiers. At the top, high-income economies such as Singapore and the United States dominate global rankings through deep capital and mature regulatory frameworks.Below them, upper-middle-income countries such as China and Malaysia act as regional tech gateways that weaponize state infrastructure to rapidly scale compute power. Meanwhile, lower-income economies such as India and Rwanda go beyond their economic weight, defying resource constraints through aggressive policies, massive engineering talent, and digital public infrastructure to close the gap.A core team of analysts, including Ran Li, Vincent Tsoungui Belinga, Aurélien Kruse, Tanvir Malik, Naresh Kumar, Mohini Gupta, Utz Johann Pape, Ayago Esmubancha Wambile, and Nishtha Kochhar, authored the report under the guidance of World Bank leads Hoon Sahib Soh, Sebastian Eckardt, and Paul Procee.