Authors: Dr. Carsten Bange, Timm Grosser
Language: English
Publication Date: October 2026, with accompanying webinar on October 22nd
Data and AI sovereignty has become a strategic requirement for many organizations. At the same time, many decision makers lack a practical model for deciding how much sovereignty they actually need.
This Research Note introduces Data and AI Sovereignty by Design as the central narrative. Rather than arguing for maximum sovereignty in every situation, it advocates deliberate, context-specific decisions. Based on the BARC Data Sovereignty 2026 survey, it shows where organizations stand today, which measures they are planning, and how they can make sovereignty decisions more systematically.
At the center is the BARC Data and AI Sovereignty Continuum, combined with a four-step decision model. The model helps decision makers clarify what needs to be protected, what it needs to be protected against, which trade-offs are acceptable, and which level of sovereignty is appropriate for a specific data type, AI workload, business process, or risk profile.
The goal is to give decision makers a clear and practical orientation model for making informed, risk-aware and future-ready decisions about data, cloud and AI architectures.