Asia-Pacific Governments Accelerate Sovereign AI Push as National Security, Skills and Trust Take Centre Stage

SINGAPORE, May 13, 2026 – Governments across Asia-Pacific are rapidly elevating Sovereign AI from an emerging technology concept into a core national strategic priority, as concerns around data control, geopolitical resilience, cybersecurity and digital sovereignty increasingly shape public-sector technology investments.

According to new research commissioned by Dell Technologies and conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), Sovereign AI has surged from the seventh-highest to the second-highest government investment priority across the region within just one year, reflecting a major shift in how governments view artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The study, based on a survey of 360 government IT decision-makers across eight Asia-Pacific markets including Singapore, India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, suggests that governments are now treating AI infrastructure as a matter of national resilience and strategic capability rather than simply a digital transformation initiative.

The report found that nearly half of Asia-Pacific government agencies are actively evaluating Sovereign AI technologies, while more than a third are already running pilot projects and proof-of-concept deployments. At the same time, over three-quarters of respondents said Sovereign AI would strengthen resilience against geopolitical risks and supply-chain disruptions.

The findings come amid growing global debate around AI governance, data localisation, national digital infrastructure and the concentration of AI capabilities among a small number of global technology providers.

Governments across Asia-Pacific are increasingly seeking what the report describes as “selective sovereignty”, maintaining stronger control over sensitive national data, regulated workloads and critical systems while continuing to leverage global technology ecosystems for innovation and scalability.

Hybrid sovereign AI models, combining on-premises infrastructure, sovereign cloud environments and access to broader technology ecosystems, are emerging as the preferred approach across the region.

A major focus of the report is the rapidly growing importance of agentic AI within government operations.

According to the research, 99 per cent of public-sector leaders surveyed believe agentic AI will accelerate AI adoption across government systems, with many viewing autonomous AI systems as essential tools for addressing operational inefficiencies and workforce shortages.

The study suggests governments are increasingly positioning agentic AI as a practical workforce multiplier capable of automating administrative, analytical and decision-support functions across public services.

This trend is particularly significant in Asia-Pacific, where governments are facing mounting pressure to modernise public services while managing widening digital skills shortages.

Nearly nine in ten government organisations surveyed reported critical technology talent shortages, with the most difficult roles to fill including AI safety and alignment researchers, data governance specialists, sovereign cloud architects and AI policy professionals.

The report warns that these shortages could become a major bottleneck preventing governments from moving AI projects beyond pilot stages into trusted national-scale deployments.

Ravikant Sharma, Research Director at IDC, said agentic AI is rapidly moving from experimentation towards operational consideration among governments.

“The study shows strong momentum, with public sector leaders looking to autonomous systems to help close skills gaps, ease workforce pressure and accelerate AI adoption,” Sharma said.

“However, that momentum is conditional. Governments will only move at scale if they have confidence in the security, privacy, sovereignty and infrastructure foundations underpinning these systems,” he added.

The report also highlights how public-sector investment priorities are increasingly being shaped by high-consequence sectors such as national security, cyber resilience, public safety and healthcare.

National security and cyber resilience ranked as the top expected area of citizen impact from Sovereign AI investments, followed by justice and public safety, financial administration, healthcare and social services.

More than half of respondents said alignment with national security and sovereign priorities was now among the most important factors influencing technology procurement decisions.

Nicole Jefferson, Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Dell Technologies, said the findings demonstrate that governments across Asia-Pacific are approaching Sovereign AI in a highly pragmatic and structured manner.

“This research confirms what we’re hearing from government leaders across Asia Pacific: the question is no longer whether Sovereign AI matters, but how to operationalize it at national scale,” Jefferson said.

“What stands out is the region’s confidence in agentic AI as an accelerator and the understanding that strong governance is an enabler of progression, not a hindrance,” she added.

The report arrives at a time when countries globally are increasingly racing to develop domestic AI capabilities amid intensifying geopolitical competition around semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, AI models and data governance frameworks.

Across Asia-Pacific, governments are simultaneously attempting to accelerate digital transformation while balancing concerns around cybersecurity, national data sovereignty and long-term technological dependence on external ecosystems.

The research suggests that future Sovereign AI success in the region may depend less on technology availability and more on governments’ ability to develop trusted governance frameworks, resilient infrastructure and highly specialised AI talent pipelines.

As AI adoption accelerates globally, the report argues that trust, governance and infrastructure readiness are increasingly becoming the defining factors separating successful national AI ecosystems from fragmented experimentation.