Capgemini Global Study: 59% of Enterprises Call Full Digital Sovereignty Unrealistic
The Capgemini Research Institute has published its landmark global study, Digital Sovereignty: From Policy Ambition to Executive Imperative, drawing on a comprehensive survey of 1,300 business and technology executives across organisations with more than $1 billion in annual revenue and public sector agencies with equivalent annual budgets.
The findings indicate a decisive shift in executive strategy: while digital sovereignty has emerged as a top boardroom mandate, with 44% ranking it as a primary executive priority and nearly 80% actively executing or designing strategies, 59% of organisations state that complete technological independence is not a realistic objective.
Rather than pursuing full technological autarky, global enterprises are adopting a pragmatic model centred on "resilient interdependence." This framework focuses on securing mission-critical operations, retaining operational control over core data and artificial intelligence assets, and eliminating single-point vulnerabilities across foreign technology dependencies.
Supply Chain Vulnerability vs. Preparedness Gap
Over the past decade, rapid cloud migration and generative AI integration have outpaced internal governance, data residency controls, and disaster recovery architectures.
According to Capgemini’s Digital Sovereignty Index, which analysed 866 organisations across five core sovereignty dimensions in the US, Europe, and APAC:
- Widespread Supply Chain Risk: 86% of organisations have significant exposure to foreign or externally controlled technology supply chains.
- Visibility Deficit: Only 14% of organisations possess end-to-end visibility across their extended digital ecosystem, obscuring exposure to geopolitical tensions, export restrictions, and regulatory interventions.
- The Contingency Planning Divide: Despite pervasive risk, only 42% of organisations that recently experienced operational disruptions have formal contingency plans in place. Preparedness varies sharply by region: almost two-thirds of US organisations maintain active contingency plans, compared to just over one-third in Europe and APAC.
AI Emerges as the Focal Point of Technology Sovereignty
Operational resilience against geopolitical volatility is the primary driver of sovereignty initiatives, cited by 80% of respondents. When evaluating individual layers of the technology stack, Artificial Intelligence emerged as the leading priority, with 75% of organisations identifying AI sovereignty as their primary focus area, surpassing baseline cloud hosting and generic software applications.
This focus is most acute in high-consequence sectors managing critical national infrastructure and regulated IP, including Aerospace & Defence, Transportation, Financial Services, and Healthcare.
Regional Nuances in Sovereignty Philosophy
While consensus exists that total independence is unfeasible, strategic execution diverges significantly across global economic corridors:
Execution Barriers: Lock-In, Switching Costs, and Sovereignty Premiums
Transitioning from policy ambition to operational sovereignty presents significant financial and technical friction:
- Extended Switching Horizons: More than a third (36%) of enterprises report that migrating away from a critical technology provider would require longer than 12 months, while 10% state they have no viable alternative provider in the market.
- The Digital Sovereignty Premium: Just under half of organisations are willing to pay an additional cost, averaging a 23% price premium, to guarantee sovereign compliance, localised data residency, and jurisdictional protection.
Karine Brunet, Chief Operations and Delivery Officer at Capgemini and Member of the Group Executive Board, outlined the imperative for pragmatic risk management:
"Today's organisations operate in highly interconnected technology ecosystems where complete independence is rarely achievable. Digital sovereignty is therefore not about full autonomy but more about ensuring organizations have a clear understanding of their technology dependencies, in order to regain the control and flexibility to manage risks. This will enable them to build the best, pragmatic roadmap to meet their strategic objectives – taking into account data localization, access control, operations, regulatory and technology constraints. The real challenge will be to build resilience without sacrificing competitiveness, to drive innovation and long-term growth."
As enterprises navigate cross-border data mandates, the EU AI Act, and concentrated hyperscaler dependencies, successful organisations are shifting away from defensive isolationism, investing instead in transparent dependency mapping, multi-provider architectures, and governed sovereign AI frameworks.
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