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New Delhi, August 2026: As artificial intelligence quickly reshapes economies, public services and national competitiveness, the question of who gets to build and control AI is becoming increasingly important for developing nations. At the AI for Developing Countries Forum (AIFOD) Geneva Summit 2026, Indian cybersecurity entrepreneur Kunal Panchamia, Founder & CEO of ePROTECT360, advocated a more collaborative strategy to AI development, debating that countries should not be expected to independently build every layer of the AI ecosystem in order to participate in its future.
Mr. Panchamia participated in the dialogue “Should Small Nations Build, Buy or Share AI?” at the three-day Geneva Summit, held from 12–14 August 2026 at the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The session brought together perspectives on one of the central challenges facing smaller and developing nations: whether they should invest in building their own AI infrastructure and models, procure capabilities from international technology providers, adopt open technologies, or pursue shared regional and international platforms. The discussion also examined the trade-offs around cost, security, technological dependence and long-term competitiveness.
Kunal Panchamia brought the Indian philosophy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – “The World Is One Family” into the discussion, using it as a framework for thinking about how countries can collaborate on AI rather than approaching technological development solely through individual ownership.
His argument centred on the reality that developing and underdeveloped nations may not always have the financial resources, infrastructure, computing capacity, talent or technological bandwidth required to independently develop a complete AI ecosystem. Instead, countries could identify the capabilities and strengths they already possess, contribute them to a collaborative ecosystem and access capabilities from trusted partners where appropriate.
“The question should not always be who owns the technology. We should also ask how we can bring together what each country already has and use those capabilities collectively for the benefit of society. The philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam reminds us that progress becomes more meaningful when it is shared,” said Kunal Panchamia, Founder & CEO, ePROTECT360.
The argument aligns with a broader conclusion emerging from the AIFOD dialogue: AI sovereignty does not necessarily require every small nation to independently reproduce the entire AI stack. Instead, countries can assess what capabilities need to remain under national control, what can responsibly be procured, and where trusted partnerships or shared infrastructure can accelerate progress.
The discussion at Geneva also challenged the idea that AI sovereignty is simply a choice between technological independence and dependence on external providers.
As per the AIFOD session’s published analysis, a more practical approach begins with understanding a country’s existing capabilities, infrastructure, skills and dependencies before determining what it should build, buy or share.
For developing countries, this distinction is particularly significant. Building an AI ecosystem involves much more than developing a model. It requires access to computing infrastructure, energy, data, digital infrastructure, skilled talent, cybersecurity capabilities and governance frameworks.
Mr. Panchamia believes that countries can move faster by recognising these interdependencies and collaborating around complementary strengths instead of attempting to recreate the entire technology stack independently.
“Every country has something to contribute. One may have technology, another may have talent, another may have infrastructure, data or a specific domain capability. If these strengths can come together through responsible and secure collaboration, developing countries can accelerate their AI journey rather than spending years trying to build everything independently,” Mr. Panchamia added.
For Mr. Kunal, the conversation around AI access cannot be separated from cybersecurity and digital resilience.
As countries increasingly adopt AI across government, critical infrastructure and public services, security needs to be considered from the beginning rather than added after the technology has been deployed.
The AIFOD discussion itself highlighted the importance of cybersecurity in determining how countries approach AI infrastructure and long-term technological dependencies.
This perspective also connects with ePROTECT360’s work in cybersecurity and AI. Kunal Panchamia said the company has developed cybersecurity and AI-based solutions with the intention of contributing to the protection of critical infrastructure and government ecosystems, including through a stated willingness to make relevant capabilities available to government entities globally without commercial involvement.
“The AI conversation cannot stop at access. If developing countries are going to adopt AI at scale, they also need to think about cybersecurity, data readiness and resilience from the beginning. The objective should be to create AI ecosystems that are not only accessible, but also secure and sustainable,” Mr. Panchamia said.
The AIFOD Geneva Summit brought together a diverse international community around the question of how the Global South can play a more meaningful role in shaping the future of AI. The summit’s central theme, “Small Takes the Lead: The Future Belongs to the Many, Not the Few,” placed smaller nations, emerging ecosystems and developing-country perspectives at the centre of the conversation.
For Mr. Panchamia, participation in the Geneva dialogue represented an opportunity to bring an Indian perspective to a global discussion that is increasingly moving beyond AI adoption towards questions of access, sovereignty, collaboration and responsible technological development.
His central message was that the future of AI for developing countries does not necessarily have to be defined by a race to replicate what the world’s largest technology economies have already built.
Instead, countries can identify their strengths, understand their strategic dependencies and collaborate where collective action can deliver greater impact.
As AI continues to reshape the global economy, Kunal Panchamia believes that shared capability, trusted collaboration and secure technology ecosystems could offer developing nations a faster and more inclusive path to participating in the AI-driven future.
