AI Is Pushing CEOs to Rethink Data Control: IBM India MD

February 9, 2026February 9, 2026

As AI adoption accelerates, the debate around data is shifting from “where it is stored” to “who truly controls it.”

Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India, said artificial intelligence has changed the economic and governance logic of data. Instead of focusing only on data localisation, CEOs now need to rethink control over platforms, AI models and decision-making systems. According to him, the real value of data is unlocked during processing, not storage.

IBM’s latest report on Asia-Pacific enterprises urges leaders to prioritise sovereign cloud strategies, hybrid architectures and AI-led workflow transformation. Patel noted that digital sovereignty is becoming mainstream, with a growing number of enterprises expected to adopt a formal strategy by 2030.

He explained sovereignty across three layers. Data sovereignty ensures governance remains under local jurisdiction throughout the data lifecycle. Technology sovereignty focuses on flexibility, allowing enterprises to move workloads across on-premise, private and hybrid environments without being locked into a single platform.

Operational sovereignty centres on resilience, ensuring business continuity even amid cross-border regulatory or geopolitical disruptions.

For regulated sectors in India, Patel said the urgency is higher as AI adoption expands. Companies must prove where data resides, who administers systems, where AI models run and how decisions are governed.

IBM plans to roll out its AI-ready Sovereign Core offering later this year, designed to give enterprises verifiable control over AI environments. Patel said sovereignty must become an embedded feature of technology platforms rather than just a contractual promise.

On concerns that heavy AI investments could disrupt traditional software models, Patel said he sees AI augmenting human work, driving productivity gains through closer collaboration between people and intelligent systems.

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