Switzerland’s President announces Geneva as host of 2027 AI Impact Summit

The next Artificial Intelligence (AI) Impact Summit in 2027 will be held in Geneva, announced Switzerland’s President Guy Parmelin, making a pitch for smaller countries to “come together” to ensure good governance of AI development, so it is not held in the hands of a few “big powers”. Mr. Parmelin, who also met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bilateral talks on Thursday (February 19, 2026) on the sidelines of the AI summit in New Delhi, said they had discussed cooperating in innovation on artificial intelligence, multilateral cooperation, and trade ties after the conclusion of the India-EFTA trade agreement in 2024. 

Follow India AI Summit 2026 Day 4 Highlights

“Switzerland is looking forward to hosting the 2027 AI Summit in Geneva — and to working with the subsequent incoming host of the 2028 AI Summit, the United Arab Emirates, as partner for the Geneva Summit,” Mr. Parmelin told journalists at Switzerland’s “Country Pavilion” at the Bharat Mandapam complex after the plenary session. “It will also consolidate our role as a leading centre for innovation and research in AI,” he added, saying that the next summit would focus on international law aspects of AI. 

When asked about the domination of the two big AI players U.S. and China, who together account for more than 70% of the global AI industry, Mr. Parmelin said smaller countries should “organise” together and build infrastructure, while recognising specific technological breakthroughs in many of the other countries.

Good governance

“It is very important that we work together so that the [technological future of the world] is not just in a few hands of big powers,” Mr. Parmelin said in response to a question from The Hindu. “We know some countries have taken a way forward, and it’s very important that good governance is brought to everyone. Notably, countries like South Korea, France, Switzerland, need to work together to bring good governance to other countries,” he added.

In a statement after his meeting with Mr. Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said both leaders had discussed the benefits of the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) between India the four-nation European Free Trade association (EFTA) for bilateral trade.

“Both sides agreed to further strengthen collaboration in innovation-led growth, joint research, sharing of best practices, and capacity building through training and skill development initiatives,” the MEA statement said.

Mr. Modi welcomed plans to hold the Fifth Summit in Switzerland. Since the first summit in the U.K. in 2023, AI Impact Summits have been hosted by South Korea, France, and India.