Kanchana Wickremasinghe

As AI adoption accelerates, a new question has moved from policy think-tanks to enterprise boardrooms: who controls your AI? Sovereign AI — the ability to design, deploy, and govern artificial intelligence while maintaining full control over data, infrastructure, models, and governance frameworks — has become a top priority for governments and enterprises alike. The European Commission's June 2026 Tech Sovereignty Package, the EU AI Act's compliance deadlines, and similar regulatory frameworks across APAC, the Middle East, and Africa are forcing organisations to confront an uncomfortable reality: most AI infrastructure today is fundamentally not sovereign. When your AI agents process sensitive data through a hyperscaler's proprietary platform, governed by another nation's laws (hello, US CLOUD Act), you don't truly control your AI. You're renting it.