Indian enterprises are taking the lead in digital sovereignty investments, though a global gap is yet to be bridged in this regard as half of intentions don’t translate into actions, according to a new study. Around 62% of respondents in India say digital sovereignty is a strategic priority they are actively investing in, followed by 57% in both Germany and Japan, 52% in the US and just 39% in France.

The study by SUSE, known for its stable enterprise-grade Linux solutions, gathered insights from 309 IT leaders across these countries.

Growing gap between ambition and execution

Nearly all enterprises (98%) prioritise digital sovereignty, yet just over half (52%) are implementing strategies to achieve it, the study found, revealing a “growing gap” between ambition and execution. What’s curious is that the gap exists even as highly volatile geopolitics and the advent of AI have raised concerns over digital autonomy among enterprises across countries.

According to SUSE Chief Executive Officer Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, while enterprises are jittery about the prospects of their businesses going down from a sudden executive order, a section of them are keen on feeding their intellectual property and data into the AI ecosystem and using AI tools to find sovereign solutions. “This (use of AI for digital sovereignty) is the non-political part (amid the geopolitical uncertainty),” he said.

What did Margret Dawson say?

“Organisations are often forced to choose between accelerating AI and maintaining digital sovereignty, but it’s a false tradeoff,” said Margaret Dawson, Chief Marketing Officer, SUSE. “Sovereign AI makes it possible to achieve both, embedding control, compliance and innovation into the same foundation,” she added. 

However, 41% of surveyed entities act on sovereignty only when required by customers or regulation, suggesting external pressure remains the primary catalyst. At the same time, AI is emerging as both the catalyst for digital resilience and a source of increased complexity, forcing organisations to rethink control over data, models and infrastructure. The study showed that the race to adopt AI reveals a clear tension between priority and readiness.

Around 64% of IT leaders say AI transparency — control over model training and AI provenance — will be the top driver of digital resilience in the next five years. Even amid an unexpected 20% budget increase, many organisations prioritise AI over sovereignty, signaling that pressure to adopt AI may be outpacing efforts to manage the risks it introduces.

(The writer was in Prague to attend SUSECON 2026, at the invitation of SUSE)