India can double its share in global media with AI adoption: JioStar Vice Chairman Uday Shankar

New Delhi (PTI): India has the opportunity to double its share in the global media market through bold adoption of artificial intelligence, JioStar India Vice Chairman Uday Shankar on Friday said, urging industry stakeholders to embrace disruption rather than resist it.

The global media market is valued at nearly USD 3 trillion, and is projected to reach USD 3.5 trillion by 2029, said Uday Shankar in his keynote address at the ongoing AI Impact Summit 2026.

"India's share is currently less than 2 per cent. AI offers the potential to explore our share in this pie. Even a modest shift in our share of global revenue from 2 per cent to 4 per cent or 5 per cent would represent tens of billions of dollars in new value creation and could be transformational for a large segment of our people," he said.

However, Shankar also said that this "opportunity and outcome" is not the same, and to seize the moment, "we need all stakeholders pulling in the same direction".

He cautioned against repeating past mistakes where the Indian media houses resisted changes, citing the arrival of digital newsrooms and streaming platforms.

"We cannot afford the same mistake. Right now, we have an advantage that the West does not. The freedom to move, the lack of baggage," Shankar said.

Hollywood is approaching AI defensively, but it is paralysed by legal battles and locked in protectionist reflexes.

"The incumbents are conflicted and held back by the legacy value that they have accumulated," he said, adding that "luckily, we do not have such liabilities".

The country can design inclusive revenue models benefiting writers, actors, technicians and producers. "This does not have to be a zero-sum game. It is a larger pile, and everybody must share fairly and squarely," he added.

Shankar outlined to seize the moment, it needs three commitments for India to lead in the AI era - disrupting itself before being disrupted, fostering AI-native creative talent, and building ambition-driven models rather than anxiety-driven responses.

He said India must become the global hotbed for AI-native creative talent.

"The most valuable person in tomorrow's media industry is not a pure technologist nor a traditional artist," Shankar said, calling for a new generation of creators who can blend technology and creativity seamlessly.

Shankar emphasised that India's deep creative traditions and strong engineering talent must be fused through large-scale skilling and upskilling initiatives.

"The world must look at India for this exact kind of talent," he said, adding that policy should act as an "accelerator rather than a brake" in the early stages of growth.

Shankar also cautioned against importing Western regulatory constructs, pointing to China’s clear-eyed approach in building frameworks tailored to its ambitions.

"Our frameworks must reflect our unique opportunities. The guardrails we set now will have a massive multiplier effect on our competitiveness in future," he said.

Terming the summit as 'significant', which goes far beyond symbolism, Shankar said AI has "levelled the playing field" in media.

"For too long, the intersection of technology and media was dominated by a handful of countries and companies. The tools were always made elsewhere, the platforms built elsewhere, the rules written elsewhere. AI changes that equation forever," he said.

Now, everybody is starting at the same place as far as application to this sector is concerned.

"The advantage may shift decisively, from those with deepest pockets to those with deepest wills of entrepreneurship, creativity and adoption of technology. And no country on earth is better positioned for that shift than India," Shankar asserted.

Concluding his address, Shankar said, "The question before us today is not whether India can become the global media powerhouse of the AI age. It is whether we will move fast enough to claim that position that rightfully belongs to us. I believe we will. The energy and ambition of this country always give me hope".

The stories have always been here. Now, the scale of our market and the power of our technology are finally alive, and the race has just begun.

"This technology is the ultimate leveller," he said.