TALKING POINT

Samir Akel, Regional VP, Emerging Markets at Nintex, explores why businesses must move beyond data localisation and build sovereignty into the very fabric of their workflows and automation strategies.

Samir Akel, Regional VP, Emerging Markets at Nintex

That perspective is rapidly changing.

As businesses embrace agentic AI, where intelligent systems are not only analysing information but acting on it, data sovereignty is becoming a far more strategic consideration. It is no longer simply about where data resides. Instead, it is increasingly about who controls it, how it moves through workflows and whether organisations can trust the decisions being made by AI systems.

According to Samir Akel, Regional VP, Emerging Markets at Nintex, this shift is fundamentally changing how organisations approach digital transformation.

“ Data sovereignty becomes far more than a question of location; it becomes a question of control,” he said.

That control now extends beyond storage and residency requirements. It determines how data is accessed, processed and acted upon throughout business processes. As a result, organisations are increasingly seeking AI models and orchestration platforms that can operate within their own environments rather than relying heavily on external systems or third-party APIs.

Akel said this urgency is being driven by several converging forces. Around the world, governments are tightening regulatory requirements, with more than 100 countries now enforcing some form of data sovereignty legislation. In the Gulf, the trend is particularly pronounced. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia continue to advance data localisation initiatives as part of broader efforts to strengthen digital independence and national resilience.

At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty is exposing weaknesses in globally distributed technology models. Long-held assumptions that data can move freely across borders, that business processes can depend on external services and that access to critical systems will always remain uninterrupted are increasingly being challenged.

For organisations investing heavily in AI, these developments have significant implications.

“ The next phase of enterprise is about agentic orchestration,” Akel explained.“ AI systems are increasingly embedded into workflows, triggering actions, making decisions, and coordinating processes across multiple systems.”

As AI becomes woven into operational processes, sovereignty increasingly centres on whether organisations maintain full visibility and control over how information is used at every stage of a workflow. Without that oversight, businesses face growing risks. AI agents may access data across jurisdictions without sufficient governance, operate within fragmented control environments or generate outcomes that cannot be fully audited or explained.

For highly regulated sectors such as financial services, healthcare and government, these challenges are becoming impossible to ignore.

“ The real complexity lies in how data flows across processes,” he said.

As AI becomes embedded in these environments, organisations must rethink their approach. Sovereignty can no longer be bolted on after deployment. Instead, it must be built directly into workflow design, automation strategies and governance frameworks from the outset.

By orchestrating workflows that enforce data boundaries, govern AI interactions and maintain clear audit trails, organisations can ensure sovereignty is preserved by default. This approach becomes particularly important as governments across the region accelerate investments in AI and digital infrastructure.

“ In an agentic world, where AI systems are embedded into the fabric of business operations, data sovereignty becomes a foundation for trust, resilience, and scale,” he said.

Akel beleives organisations that succeed will be those that move beyond viewing sovereignty as a constraint and instead design their workflows, automation, and AI strategies around it from the outset. That means building AI into environments they already control, ensuring that intelligence operates within the same boundaries as the data and processes it depends on.

In the next phase of Digital Transformation, orchestrated control is what will enable growth. •

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