Contrary to news headlines, the seismic shift toward AI and data sovereignty represents a strategic pull rather than a regulatory push, with only 7% of organizations citing geopolitical pressures as their primary motivation.
Like the Apple Watch, the idea of data and AI sovereignty has rapidly become a foundational need for successful Agentic and Gen AI deployment. The Apple Watch went from an idea to being worth more in global annual sales than the whole watch industry in less than three years.
The Apple Watch didn't change how one tells time. It changed what one expects from a device on the wrist. It became a control hub for email, health tracking, messages, music, and more—a single pane of glass for daily life. You no longer needed to move between devices. You just looked at your wrist.
Now, there's Rolex chasing the Apple Watch for global value. Imagine that story five or ten years ago. The same transformation is now underway in AI and data sovereignty.
The sovereignty shift is well underway.
Something is changing very fast in the world of AI and data. It is known that the opportunity is significant—Forrester estimates it as $17 trillion GDP by 2028, and Agentic and Gen AI will reach $1 trillion in 2028. In a recent survey conducted by EnterpriseDB (EDB), more than 2,050 executives from 13 countries representing $48 trillion in GDP and 134,000 of the world's largest enterprises shared how they are preparing.
Among them, 13% had already achieved what is called the "Apple Watch moment" in AI and data: complete sovereignty via a single, agile, secure pane of glass that allows them to build scalable Agentic and Gen AI factories.
These early adopters are seeing:
- 5X greater ROI
- 2X the operational capability
- 250% more confidence in their future leadership position
They were called early adopters with the Apple Watch. EDB named them the "Deeply Committed" to AI and data sovereignty in the research. They exist across the globe, from 10% to 17% of surveyed enterprises, with the highest adoption rates in Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, and Germany (17%), and the lowest in the UK (10%).
Driver #1: It's all about future economics and not geo-politics.
In less than three years, 95%+ of these enterprise leaders want to be their own AI and data platforms. However, only 60% seem to understand the eventual need to be their own sovereign AI and data platforms at the same time. The need to match the aspiration of being their own AI and data platform with the economic reality of having sovereign AI and data in a foundational configuration is key.
While headlines fixate on geopolitical risk, just 7% of enterprises cite it as a leading motivation. Instead:
- 80% are driven by competitive opportunity (agility, innovation, differentiation) and defensive necessity (security and compliance)
- 75% cite the need for security, resilience, localization, and ownership
- Only 8% cite independence from foreign tech vendors as a priority
Note, no one wanted to tell time differently because of the Apple Watch. EDB wanted to do things differently with the watches. The same is true with its AI and our data with its own sovereignty.
"Data and AI are now the heart of economic power and personalization. Becoming your own sovereign AI and data platform means asserting greater control over your mission-critical data through unified, hybrid-by-design software. It's how organizations ensure agility, security, and real-time intelligence—without being hindered by silos, exposing proprietary data to public LLMs, or getting locked into specific cloud providers," saidJeremy Kelway, VP of Engineering for Analytics, Data, and AI at EDB.
Driver #2: There is a need for control, compliance, and a competitive edge.
If you want to gain a competitive edge with your complete AI and data stack while maintaining data compliance, you need to see and manage it all. An agile data platform like enterprise-grade Postgres® can help. By providing a unified data management layer that seamlessly integrates across on-premises and cloud environments, EDB Postgres AI powers the centralized observability and management needed for full control.
"Don't settle for sovereignty-washing—superficial claims of control without the architectural backbone to back it up. True sovereignty requires unified data access, complete observability, hybrid deployment flexibility, and secure and compliant foundations," said Kelway.
These vital DNA components need to sit at the very center of any new AI and data infrastructure you're building. Kelway says open-source databases such as PostgreSQL can be deployed as software, a cloud service, or a hardware-integrated solution for storing your data, but the real advantage is in using it as a hybrid solution to handle both structured and unstructured data, regardless of where it resides. In the research, up to 38% were selecting Postgres for these new sovereign AI and data workloads.
There were lots of Apple Watch pretenders. There will be a lot of AI and data sovereignty players too, but most will not deliver the open-source agility, complete observability, and secure and compliant foundations. The formula for design success is clear.
Don't get misled by superficial sovereignty claims, or "sovereignty washing." Building a comprehensive platform that enables you to make the most of your data requires real control. True sovereignty simply isn't possible if your data is isolated in one or several clouds that aren't working together.
Sovereignty is the new platform advantage.
Success depends on being able to access, design, build, and operate your data and AI in sync. AI and intelligent applications only thrive based on real-time learning, which is fueled by ongoing access to secure, compliant, and scalable data, often across disparate data estates. Get this right, and you have the DNA for success with your sovereign AI and data platform.
It's not geopolitical tension driving this shift to sovereignty. It's the economic reality and the understanding of what's possible when you combine AI with data. It's also the regulatory, compliance, and cybersecurity requirements that all must adhere to. Instead of fragmenting everyone, the move to data sovereignty can unite countries, industries, and enterprises as all work toward the same goal of securing data while maximizing its competitive potential in today's AI-driven economy.
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