Businesses across the UAE are becoming increasingly dependent on their artificial intelligence (AI) providers, raising concerns about resilience, operational continuity and long-term technology strategy, according to a new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) study.
The Calculus of AI Sovereignty report found that 88% of surveyed UAE executives say switching their primary AI vendor or model would be difficult. That compares with 71% globally, highlighting a sharper dependence among UAE organisations.
Moreover, 96% of UAE respondents admitted they do not fully understand their organisation’s dependencies across AI vendors, models and infrastructure. The findings suggest that many businesses have adopted AI rapidly without gaining full visibility into the technology ecosystems supporting their operations.
The study surveyed 1,000 senior executives across 16 countries and 17 industries between February and April 2026 in collaboration with Oxford Economics.
AI disruption remains a growing business risk
The report found that UAE organisations experienced an average of seven AI-related disruptions during the past two years. In addition, 84% of executives said a seven-day outage involving a key AI vendor would cause severe or critical disruption to business operations.
Although 82% of UAE organisations describe their AI environments as intentionally multivendor, the research indicates that many remain heavily dependent on individual providers.
For example, 80% of executives said migrating core AI systems to another vendor would require at least six months. On average, organisations estimate it would take 150 days to move AI training and operational data into a different environment.
Meanwhile, 74% of UAE respondents also reported challenges in meeting data residency and AI sovereignty requirements across multiple jurisdictions.
Flexibility is becoming a strategic priority
The study also highlights a growing willingness among business leaders to invest in flexibility rather than simply reduce technology costs.
According to the report, 78% of UAE executives said they would accept a 20% increase in AI costs if it improved their strategic flexibility and reduced dependence on individual providers. The global average stood at 72%.
IBM’s research further found that organisations with advanced control over their AI infrastructure protect 55% more operating profit from AI-related disruptions than their peers. However, only 7% of surveyed organisations worldwide currently operate with that level of AI control.
IBM recommends selective AI sovereignty
Rather than pursuing complete independence from technology providers, IBM recommends what it describes as “selective AI sovereignty.”
The approach encourages organisations to classify AI systems according to business risk. Companies should prioritise flexibility for mission-critical applications such as fraud detection, financial operations and customer-facing systems. At the same time, they can accept greater vendor dependency for lower-risk services, including transcription and translation, where switching costs are less significant.
The report also noted that enterprises currently allow AI systems to make roughly 25% of operational decisions, a figure expected to rise to 48% by 2030. However, only 9% of executives globally believe they fully understand their AI dependencies, underscoring the growing importance of governance as AI adoption accelerates.
