As businesses across Southeast Asia accelerate AI adoption, they should also prioritise digital sovereignty to reduce the risk of external disruptions, according to Gayathri Peria, general manager for Southeast Asia at SUSE.
“As ASEAN organisations deepen their reliance on AI to work and innovate, it’s more important than ever to ask: is the speed of adoption coming at the expense of resilience? Recent developments have shown how access to AI models can be cut off overnight by a single regulatory change or external factors beyond an organisation’s control. For enterprises that rely heavily on a single provider or tightly coupled AI ecosystem, these disruptions can quickly make that risk existential,” said Peria in a commentary released for AI Appreciation Day.
Data sovereignty
Peria said that integrating digital sovereignty into ASEAN enterprises’ core infrastructure strategy helps build a truly resilient IT infrastructure.
“They need to ensure that they can run, secure and manage AI with full control over their own environment, whether in on-premises or hybrid cloud environments. This means having the authority and independence to choose, manage and secure the technology that powers their operations, without being overly bound by foreign influence, proprietary restrictions or supply chain uncertainties,” she added.
According to Peria, digital sovereignty should be treated as an ongoing process rather than a one-time audit. She urges enterprises to identify sovereignty requirements, map AI dependencies, classify workloads by risk, adopt open, flexible technology architectures, and establish business continuity plans supported by continuous monitoring.
“Sovereignty isn’t about disengaging from global AI innovation. That’s impossible, especially in ASEAN markets, where we rely on both local and international players to drive innovation. Instead, Digital Sovereignty is about ensuring that regardless of what disruption comes, ASEAN enterprises can keep innovating on their own terms,” Peria emphasised.
AI Appreciation Day is celebrated every year on July 16 to honour AI’s impact on daily lives.
