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Independent research reinforces a growing enterprise trend: sovereignty is increasingly defined by flexibility, control, and architectural choice, not isolation.
Organizations across the public and private sectors are rethinking what it means to build sovereign AI. Rather than pursuing technology isolation, many are prioritizing the ability to choose the right models, infrastructure, and deployment environments while maintaining full control over how AI systems operate.
A new report from Forrester Research examines this shift, noting that organizations increasingly seek architectural flexibility over vendor dependence. As the report states:
"Sovereignty is less about restriction and more about choice."
— Forrester Research, Inc., The Top 10 Trends In Sovereign AI, 2026, Used with permission.
The report also cites deepset's Haystack Enterprise Platform as an example of this architectural approach, noting that the platform enables organizations to connect large language models (LLMs), data, and business logic to build trustworthy AI applications and agents.
Among the examples referenced is the European Commission's AI@EC Platform, built on Haystack, demonstrating how public-sector organizations can develop and operate AI systems within their own governance, security, and infrastructure requirements.
At deepset, we've long believed that sovereign AI is fundamentally about preserving freedom of choice—not limiting it.
Organizations should be able to:
- Choose the models that best fit each workload.
- Deploy across cloud, on-premises, air-gapped, or sovereign infrastructure.
- Integrate AI with their own enterprise data, systems, and business processes.
- Govern, observe, evaluate, and continuously improve AI systems over time.
- Avoid lock-in to a single model provider or proprietary AI stack.
This philosophy has shaped Haystack from the beginning. As an open-source framework and enterprise platform, Haystack enables developers and enterprises to build AI systems that remain portable, transparent, and fully under their control.
As enterprises move beyond initial AI experimentation toward production-scale deployment, sovereignty is becoming less about where AI runs and increasingly about who controls the architecture, policies, data, and evolution of those systems.
Independent research continues to reinforce that direction. For organizations building long-term AI capabilities, flexibility and openness are emerging as strategic advantages—not compromises.
Forrester is a registered trademark of Forrester Research, Inc. This article references independent research published by Forrester Research. Any quoted material should be used only with Forrester citation approval.
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