Trend Global AI resilience will require a local safety net

Summary

IBM's fourth trend argues that AI resilience depends on uninterrupted access, which makes AI sovereignty essential to operations. IBM defines sovereignty as an organisation's capacity to keep command of its AI systems, data and infrastructure at every moment. Ninety-three percent of executives say it must feature in their 2026 strategy, and half worry about depending on compute in particular regions. Risks include data residency rules that strand models trained elsewhere, choke points in chip supply and model drift. IBM recommends architectures that let workloads and agents move among trusted locations and providers, built-in explainability and continuous monitoring.