A study by IBM has revealed that 88% of UAE executives face difficulties switching AI vendors, with 96% lacking full visibility into their AI dependencies. These findings suggest that a lack of AI sovereignty is exposing organisations to operational risks, despite the potential for more resilient systems to protect operating profits.
Based on insights from 1,000 senior executives, The Calculus of AI Sovereignty study reveals that 88% of surveyed executives in the UAE say switching their primary AI vendor or model would be difficult if they had to do it today, highlighting the extent of AI vendor lock-in. Additionally, 74% of surveyed executives say meeting data residency and sovereignty requirements across geographies is challenging, creating complexity in moving AI systems or data across environments. These dynamics point to growing pressure on organizations to strengthen control and oversight as AI adoption and compliance requirements expand.
While the need for control is intensifying, most UAE organizations still lack the visibility required to act on it: 96% of those surveyed say they don’t fully understand their organization’s dependencies across AI vendors, models and infrastructure, limiting the ability to assess risk and plan for disruption. Surveyed leaders report an average of seven AI-related disruptions over the past two years, largely driven by vendor services, yet 84% say a seven-day vendor outage would still cause severe or critical disruption, effectively halting operations.
Respondents also cite unexpected changes across the AI ecosystem, including price increases, usage restrictions, model deprecations, and performance degradation. These findings underscore the challenges enterprises face in managing AI dependencies.
Shukri Eid, General Manager, IBM Gulf, Levant and Pakistan, said: “The UAE has created one of the world’s most ambitious environments for AI innovation. As organizations move from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment, success will increasingly depend on their ability to retain control over their AI ecosystem. AI sovereignty enables organizations to innovate with greater confidence by reducing dependency, strengthening resilience and giving business leaders the flexibility to adapt as technology, regulation and market demands continue to evolve.”
According to the study, organizations globally that design AI systems to adapt data, models and infrastructure as conditions change – a core element of AI sovereignty – are outperforming peers:
- Analysis shows that organizations with the most advanced AI control capabilities see less AI downtime and protect 55% more operating profit from AI-driven disruptions.
- Yet, only a minority of the organizations surveyed (7%) operate at this level, signaling a widening gap between those building adaptable AI systems and those constrained by dependency.
Roughly four out of five UAE organizations (82%) describe their AI environments as intentionally multi‑vendor, yet vendor diversity in practice appears to be driven less by deliberate strategy and more by internal and operational realities1:
- Most organizations struggle in this area, with 80% UAE executives saying it would take at least six months to move core AI systems and applications to a different vendor.
- Across sectors, UAE executives estimate it would take an average of 150 days to move their AI training and operational data to a different environment.
- 78% of surveyed UAE executives say they would accept a 20% cost increase to maintain AI vendors if it improved strategic flexibility.
