AI Impact Summit 2026 started yesterday and was inaugurated by PM Modi at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi. With all the hype you would expect, the results were similar. Day 1 witnessed immense footfall, literally, which management seemed to be unaware of, and due to this, a lot of trouble took place, leaving people stranded, frustrated and irritated. People who came in with excitement ended up being in crowds, having spotty phone signals, experiencing slow movement inside the booth and having security clearance issues.
For all the talk about careful planning, things unravelled almost immediately. Here are the main highlights of the event, which went wrong on day 1, because of which Ashwini Vaishaw had to make a public apology.
Overcrowding and entry mayhem
Now imagine you have an event in a huge international convention centre, and you get a footfall of more than 70,000 people on the very first day. But the crowd management was zero – what would it feel like?
People spent hours being stuck in lines. No one seems to know which gate is to be used, and heavy security for the Prime Minister only made it worse for the commoners.
Exhibitors kept wondering where the crowd was—turns out, most attendees were still outside, lost or stuck in line.
Security overload and confusion
With the Prime Minister coming in, though the security was enhanced at the AI Summit due to obvious reasons, this also called for random evacuations, blocked hallways and nonstop checks.
Even people with the right badges have struggled just to get into meetings or grab a bottle of water. Staff and security looked just as lost as everyone else. Tension kept building.
No signal, no WiFi and no luck: felt stranded!
Mobile connectivity was poor – rather, you can consider it non-existent. Delegates from the US, South Africa and more were themselves in the network coverage region in the convention centre at Bharat Mandapam. Especially those who had international roaming faced a major setback.
Although the service of WiFi was provided, in the era of 5G technology, it was either dead or at 2G speed.
Telecom companies claimed that they have set up an extra 4G and 5G network, but signals dropped constantly, and the internet crawled- probably due to a heavy crowd leading to telecom signals colliding and dropping. Some people said that it was security jammers for the blackout during the PM’s visit.
The amenities like water and food were missing
Food and water are another thing which has to be highlighted. Major crisis during the day-1 where attendees wandered around searching for water, food stalls, or even a simple signboard to direct them towards the stall, but there was nothing.
Security blocked off so many areas that common visitors could barely move. Exhibitors who paid big bucks spent most of the day waiting for visitors who never showed up.
Lack of coordination
Many reported that the foreign delegates just got lost in Bharat Mandapam and the halls. The venue was a maze, and even security and traffic staff stated that no one was briefed properly.
It seemed to be a rushy affair, as no one seemed to know who was actually running the show – organisers, security and traffic teams all worked separately. Overall, chaos and mayhem.
Ashwini Vaishaw made an apology, but expressed his positivity for the footfall on day-1
Ther are a lot on the line with big tech players and AI leaders in the house. Organisers say they are listening to feedback and promise to fix things for the rest of the summit. Whether they actually turn it around—well, we’ll have to wait and see.
