Most Canadian execs say sovereign AI is important. Few know what it actually means

By August 25, 2026
portrait of aidan gomez speaking at event
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez.
Cohere study shows one in three executives have difficulty describing sovereign AI.

Businesses and IT leaders have a limited understanding of what sovereign AI means or what opportunities it may offer, according to a new study sponsored by Toronto-based AI developer Cohere. 

The news: The study, performed by analyst firm IDC on behalf of Cohere, found that more than half of executive leaders believe sovereign AI is a priority, but there was little agreement on its definition. According to the report, one in three respondents had difficulty describing sovereign AI in their own words, and only 13 percent said it’s widely understood across their organizations. 

From the source: IDC defined sovereign AI as “the ability to have free choice and control over the design, development, deployment, accessibility, operation, maintenance, and governance of AI systems and applications, as well as the underlying technology foundations they depend on.”

The report found that Canadian organizations understand the concept of sovereign AI the least, with only 10 percent reporting a high awareness while 89 percent reported a low awareness.

A bar graph from IDC's Cohere survey showing the gulf in the understanding of AI sovereignty between countries.
Image courtsy IDC’s Cohere AI Sovereignty Survey, May 2026.

The context: For the report, IDC surveyed 508 IT and business decision-makers behind their organization’s AI purchasing decisions. The respondents represented large enterprises with over $1 billion USD ($1.4 billion CAD) in annual revenue across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. 

While Canadian organizations lagged in awareness, they still identified it as a potential business benefit. Thirty-five percent of Canadian respondents said the competitive advantage was their primary driver for pursuing sovereign AI, leading all other countries, including the US at 28 percent and Germany at 23 percent. 

Final thought: Sovereignty is not just one of Cohere’s key selling points, but a broader concern of Canadian governments and businesses in light of ongoing geopolitical disputes with the US. However, policymakers have sometimes struggled to articulate its definition or how it may be achieved.

By commissioning this study, Cohere said it wanted to see how enterprise AI decision-makers think about data ownership, governance, security, and operational control. Based on the results, the company concluded that there’s “a clear need” for C-suite leaders to have shared definitions, training, and actionable strategies around sovereign AI.

Feature image courtesy of World Economic Forum on Flickr. Shared under CC license BY-NC-SA 2.0.

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