EAIGG and Draup Launch “The AI Sovereignty Paradox,” Introducing a New Framework for Understanding National AI Competitiveness

New report introduces the “AI Sovereignty Paradox,” arguing that long-term AI advantage depends on maintaining strategic control and choice while participating in global AI ecosystems.

The Ethical AI Governance Group (EAIGG), in collaboration with Draup, announced the release of The AI Sovereignty Paradox: Why AI Advantage Depends on Interdependence, a new research report examining how nations build and sustain competitive AI ecosystems in an increasingly interconnected world.

The report introduces the Global AI Adoption Scorecard, a framework for evaluating national AI readiness across talent, workforce readiness, infrastructure, data ecosystems, innovation, capital formation, and policy. The inaugural study examines five leading AI ecosystems—the United States, Israel, France, India, and Japan—and explores how countries are translating AI capability into long-term economic and strategic advantage.

“Much of today’s AI conversation is focused on models, chips, and compute,” said Emmanuel Benhamou, Managing Director of EAIGG and lead author of the report. “Our research suggests that long-term AI advantage is increasingly determined by a country’s ability to deploy AI effectively, cultivate talent, build trusted institutions, and leverage global ecosystems.”

The report challenges a prevailing assumption in global technology policy: that AI sovereignty requires complete national control over critical AI assets.

The research frames sovereignty around strategic control and optionality: ensuring that countries maintain enough choice across models, infrastructure, talent, data, and partnerships that no single provider, platform, supply chain, or geopolitical shift can dictate their AI future. This can include a mix of domestic and global capabilities, proprietary and open-source models, and large and small models based on the needs of each ecosystem.

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“The debate around AI sovereignty is often framed as a question of control,” said Anik Bose, Executive Director of EAIGG and co-author of the report. “Our research suggests that competitive advantage increasingly comes from connectivity. Nations that build trusted partnerships, participate in global innovation ecosystems, and translate AI capability into deployment at scale may be better positioned than those pursuing complete independence.”

The report identifies a growing AI deployment gap—the disconnect between AI capability and large-scale operational adoption—as one of the defining challenges facing governments, enterprises, and institutions worldwide. Closing that gap requires more than access to advanced technology. It requires the talent, institutions, organizational readiness, and operating models needed to translate AI capability into economic value at scale.

Among the report’s key findings:

• AI competitiveness extends beyond frontier model development and infrastructure ownership.
• National AI advantage increasingly depends on ecosystem coordination and deployment readiness.
• Human capital, workforce adaptation, and institutional capacity are becoming critical AI assets.
• Countries can strengthen AI sovereignty through strategic specialization and architectural optionality rather than attempting to own every layer of the AI stack.
• Cross-border partnerships can strengthen sovereignty by expanding access to talent, capital, infrastructure, research, and markets without requiring dependence on any single ecosystem.

The report serves as the foundation for the broader EAIGG initiative which focuses on advancing dialogue around AI sovereignty, competitiveness, and deployment through international collaboration between policymakers, industry leaders, investors, and ecosystem builders.

“The layer of talent that makes the AI models work in a tangible way for enterprises (which is a combination of technologists and domain experts) will be the most crucial talent to accelerate AI adoption in enterprises,” said Vijay Swaminathan, CEO of Draup.

The AI Sovereignty Paradox is intended for policymakers, economic development agencies, institutional investors, enterprise leaders, technology strategists, and researchers seeking to understand the evolving dynamics of global AI competitiveness.