IBM Report: Most EMEA Executives Don’t Fully Understand Their AI Dependencies

2026-06-17 · Source: TechRepublic · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing & IT Infrastructure · Depth: Intermediate, short

Summary

An IBM Institute for Business Value report, in partnership with Oxford Economics and published on June 17, 2026, reveals that 90% of executives in EMEA lack a full understanding of their organizations' AI dependencies across vendors, models, and infrastructure. Globally, only 9% of 1,000 surveyed executives believe they have excellent visibility, and 71% find it difficult to switch their primary AI provider or model. This lack of insight raises significant concerns regarding unpredictable costs, operational outages, and vendor lock-in, especially as AI's influence on operational decisions is projected to rise from a quarter to nearly half by 2030. The report redefines AI sovereignty as maintaining control amidst changing conditions, advocating for "selective AI sovereignty" to prioritize governance for high-impact applications like fraud detection and risk management, rather than attempting full stack ownership. Organizations with stronger AI control frameworks demonstrate greater resilience.

Key takeaway

For Directors of AI/ML managing expanding AI deployments, you must gain comprehensive visibility into your organization's AI dependencies across vendors, models, and infrastructure. Implement "selective AI sovereignty" by prioritizing robust governance for critical systems like fraud detection and risk management. This approach protects your operating profit and ensures resilience against potential vendor changes, technical shifts, or regulatory pressures, preventing costly outages and vendor lock-in.

Key insights

Many EMEA executives lack critical visibility into AI dependencies, risking costs and operational stability.

Principles

• AI sovereignty means maintaining control, not just ownership.
• Fragmented AI governance increases operational and financial risk.
• Selective control enhances resilience for critical AI systems.

Method

The report introduces "selective AI sovereignty," focusing governance efforts on high-impact applications like fraud detection and risk management, while allowing flexibility for lower-risk areas.

In practice

• Prioritize governance for high-impact AI applications.
• Map AI vendor, model, and infrastructure dependencies.
• Assess potential costs of primary AI provider outages.

Topics

• AI Dependencies
• AI Sovereignty
• AI Governance
• Vendor Lock-in
• Operational Resilience
• EMEA Business

Best for: CTO, VP of Engineering/Data, Executive, Director of AI/ML, Consultant

Related on AIssential

• IBM Study: Limited Control and Rising Dependencies Leave Enterprises Exposed in the Age of AI — Unmanaged AI dependencies and lack of control expose enterprises to significant economic and operational risks, making AI sovereignty critical.
• AI deployment plans are catching leaders underprepared — Organizations are largely unprepared for AI deployment scale, with governance and financial controls lagging behind rapid adoption.
• Orange Business Delivers Sovereign AI Services for the Era of Intelligence — Sovereign AI fosters local innovation by rooting intelligence in an organization's specific data, values, and culture.
• Building Resilience in the Age of AI — A PagerDuty report, based on a survey of 1,000 IT business leaders, reveals a strong correlation between investment in AI resilience and measurable revenue growth, particularly stark in the U.K.
• Sovereign AI? Anthropic shutdown reveals Canada’s weakness — The Anthropic shutdown reveals Canada's AI sovereignty gap, stemming from a failure to commercialize research leadership into domestic control.
• The AI governance mirage: Why 72% of enterprises don’t have the control and security they think they do — Enterprises face an AI governance mirage, believing they have control while fragmented platforms create security risks and vendor lock-in.

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by TechRepublic.