Ten individuals of Indian origin or Indians have been included in the TIME100 AI 2026 list, which recognizes the 100 most influential figures in the field of artificial intelligence. These people represent a wide spectrum of specialists, including founders, researchers, company executives, and policy developers working in areas such as fundamental AI, corporate technologies, semiconductors, healthcare, and AI governance.
The fourth edition of TIME100 AI was published on August 27th and features 100 individuals divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers, and Thinkers.
Among these personalities are Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam AI; Utkarsh Saxena, co-founder of Adalat AI; Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM; Sanjay Mehrotra, CEO of Micron; and Anima Anandkumar, Professor at Caltech. Their names demonstrate the growing influence of the Indian community on the global AI ecosystem, spanning foundational models, corporate technologies, healthcare, semiconductors, and AI regulation.
Details on the Included Individuals
Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam AI from Bengaluru, is included in the Innovators category. Before moving into the AI space, he worked for over ten years on the Aadhaar project, and later co-founded Sarvam with Pratyush Kumar in August 2023. Both previously worked on open AI in Indian languages at AI4Bharat, an IIT Madras research lab. The TIME profile focuses on his argument for AI sovereignty. Raghavan argues that Indians export data but import intelligence, comparing this transaction to how the country exported cotton and imported cloth a century ago. In March, Sarvam released its open 30B and 105B models, and in February, it presented Sarvam Vision, a vision model covering 22 Indian languages. In August, Nvidia joined Sarvam's Series B funding round expansion, which concluded with a company valuation of approximately $1.5 billion, involving $300 million in investment.
Utkarsh Saxena, co-founder and CEO of Adalat AI, is also listed among the Innovators. Adalat AI develops speech recognition and language processing tools for Indian courts, addressing bottlenecks in transcription and case management that slow down the judicial system.
Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO of IBM, is featured in the Leaders category and is one of the 17 individuals on the TIME cover who contributed to the list. Born in Andhra Pradesh and an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Krishna has led IBM since 2020.
Arvind Raman is included in the Leaders category as the current head of the U.S. Standards and Innovation Center and Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, placing him at the center of shaping American AI standards.
Anima Anandkumar, Professor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech, is in the Innovators category. An alumna of IIT Madras and holding a Ph.D. from Cornell University, she previously served as a Senior Director of Machine Learning Research at Nvidia.
Suchi Saria, founder and CEO of Bayesian Health, is included in the Innovators category for her work applying machine learning to clinical decision-making and predicting patient deterioration.
Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman, President, and CEO of Micron Technology, is in the Innovators category. Micron's high-bandwidth memory has become one of the constrained resources in the AI hardware supply chain.
Sunny Gandhi, Co-Executive Director of Encode, is in the Shapers category. Encode is a youth organization focused on AI policy and advocacy in the United States.
Mitali Jane, Executive Director of Tech Justice Law, is in the Shapers category. Her organization litigates technological harm, including cases related to AI chatbots and minors.
Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant, is in the Thinkers category. Cognizant is also a partner of the TIME100 AI 2026 program. Deloitte is the Premier Sponsor, and Booking.com is another partner.
These ten names cover a broad spectrum of the AI economy. Raghavan focuses on building foundational models, Saxena applies AI to the justice system, Krishna and Ravi Kumar lead global technology companies, and Mehrotra works at the semiconductor level underpinning the AI boom. Anandkumar and Saria represent research and application in healthcare, while Raman, Gandhi, and Jane work on standards, policy, and how AI should be regulated.
Note on counting: TIME does not classify honorees by nationality or origin, so the count of people of Indian origin may vary. Names were included whose Indian or Indian origin could be independently established. Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient and also listed in the Leaders category, was not included because his Indian origin could not be established from the primary source.