There is a collective reason why Snowflake, Databricks, and Salesforce have headed toward the database as the foundational building block for the new Agentic and Gen AI world. With PWC forecasting this market to top $1 trillion in four years, these companies have already made moves through the acquisitions of database players.
At the same time, enterprise demand is accelerating as customers are moving incredibly fast to build their own open-source AI and data platforms. They want sovereignty over their AI and data—seamless access wherever it resides (across clouds and on premises), robust security as it powers AI production on the frontlines of their business, and unified observability and management through a single pane of glass.
Complete Data and AI Sovereignty Are the New Pathway to Success
In this new AI factory imperative, success cannot be achieved by fragmented or piecemeal approaches. Sixty-eight percent of enterprise leaders globally say they plan to achieve complete data and AI sovereignty within the next three years, setting off a new race to not only build, but to become their own AI and data platform, according to recent global research by EDB, a leader in sovereign data and AI (May 2025).
This is why cloud vendors are scrambling to offer a database platform for this.
To win in this new AI and data race, it's not just about the database itself. The best enterprises have already mapped out the DNA for mass-producing Agentic and Gen AI applications—by bringing all their data together with all their AI on platforms they fully control. This is the essence of "be your own," not relying on someone else's.
The impact is already clear: 13% of major global enterprises that have embraced complete AI and data sovereignty are achieving ROI five times higher than their peers, based on our research spanning 2,050 enterprises across 13 countries, according to EDB's research.
At the heart of their success lies a single, overwhelmingly strong predictor (0.92 regression): they're making absolute data and AI sovereignty a mission-critical priority. Among these leaders, 100% are building and fully owning their own data and AI platforms without renting them, with 42% leveraging a hybrid approach. They are neither cloud-only nor on-prem-only.
This marks a fundamental departure from the old cloud or SaaS application world, proving a key global inflection point.
"Companies need to decide if they disrupt the cloud and data patterns or are disrupted by the new patterns of success as they rapidly evolve. They are demanding data and AI sovereignty to be successful, and they are building their own platforms to get there. We are seeing it in every sector we work with globally, from banking, finance, and insurance to healthcare, technology, and Telco. You cannot get agentic and Gen AI to work on the frontlines without this level of sovereign control," says Nancy Hensley, Chief Product Officer of EDB, the leading Postgres data and AI company.
The Threefold Sovereignty Assurance: Hybrid, Observable, and Open Source
Today, 13% of major enterprises have already achieved complete data and AI sovereignty built on their own platforms. Another 23% globally are actively pursuing this mission-critical priority now, a number expected to surge to 68% within the next three years. These organizations demand total control, full observability, and the ability to act on all their data—with AI and data tightly integrated on their own platforms to meet security and compliance needs and to truly become their own AI and data platforms.
EDB's analysis of over 15,000 simulations across 250 variables shows that this approach, anchored by the database at the core, is a 90% determinant of success. You simply cannot achieve sovereignty over all your data and AI without making the database the foundation of your new agentic future. It must be secure wherever, whenever, and however it is used, and capable of unifying structured data like accounting records with unstructured data like images or video streams. Just look at what Netflix and Mastercard have built.
It also needs to be open source. When the future is unpredictable, open source is what ensures the agility and competitiveness with data that enterprises need to stay ahead. This driver accounts for 25% of strategic decisions and resonates with 81% of executives, according to EDB's research. No surprise, then, that one in three globally choose Postgres, where a huge volume of new Agentic and Gen AI applications are already being built on.
Beyond that, it all must be enterprise-grade to meet compliance, regulatory, and cybersecurity demands, which account for 50% of this shift in data management. It has to be continuously evolving and developer-friendly; otherwise, businesses get stuck in experimentation and can't scale to full production. Ultimately, it must be delivered as an integrated data management platform, designed around the needs of your enterprise. Because in this new era, you need to be your own AI and data factory.
"Every generational shift builds a new paradigm for success, often with some existing components, but with a different way of thinking. You need to be your own sovereign AI and data factory, and you need to be the platform and not rely on others," Hensley says.
EDB Postgres® AI is the first sovereign-by-design, open source data and AI platform that solves the critical requirement of unifying Postgres and AI on one single instance. In the agentic AI and Gen AI world, success will be built on your platform, not solely on the cloud or clouds of others.
You need a secure, scalable, and agile database platform designed for your needs, wherever, whenever, and however you need it. It should work across clouds, in software, or even inside an engineered AI factory.
The New Database Priority
The word "data" runs through every core statement about sovereignty, the integration of AI and data, and the ambition to become their own AI platforms. But it's not just about the data itself—that's why we're seeing cloud vendors scramble to "bolt-on" the database as the foundational block for this agentic future.
Customers want all their data available in a secure and AI-ready data management environment that is also open source (over 80% now prioritize this) to enable agility across applications. They need platforms built to handle both the structured data of traditional systems and the unstructured data that will dominate Agentic and Gen AI applications.
To truly be an independent AI and data platform, companies need something open source, enterprise-grade, secure, compliant, and constantly evolving—because that is the beginning of this revolution. That's exactly what EDB Postgres® AI delivers, built by the leading commercial contributor to PostgreSQL, the world's most popular and fastest-growing database.
Here are five standout facts about the top 13% enterprises already leading the pack with their own AI and data platforms:
- They solve control, compliance, agility, and data access better than any other segment.
- They develop twice as many Agentic and Gen AI applications as the remaining 87%.
- They reach mainstream production 50% faster than the rest.
- They quickly identify ROI caps in each intelligent application area and pivot to the next.
- They are inherently more confident that they will become industry leaders.
So, which of these have you built your AI and data platform around? Because, ultimately, with sovereignty and Postgres, you can achieve long-term success.
ⓒ 2025 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
