In an exclusive interview with Lana at GITEX Global Dubai 2025, Dr. Abed Benaichouche, CEO and Co-founder of Open Innovation AI, discussed how sovereign AI extends beyond data security to include the entire value chain of infrastructure, software, platforms, and operations.
During the conversation, he addressed the misconception that sovereign AI only concerns data location and access, noting that organisations must think holistically about infrastructure control and operational autonomy. He also highlighted the partnership with Oracle to accelerate sovereign AI in EMEA.
Benaichouche stressed that sovereignty requires control across all elements. “When we talk about sovereign AI, it’s not really only about the data, where it resides, and who can access it,” he said, adding “sovereignty is a holistic view about what AI does.”
“What Open Innovation does in that partnership is we bring all this optimisation of using this compute, but also simplifying all the user experience for the market,” he said, explaining the complementary approach to the Oracle partnership.
On data sharing between public sector agencies, he identified mindset as the barrier. “When it comes to technology, all the technologies that can help this data sharing, it’s all available. But right now, the big challenge is really on onboarding people, the mindset for all these stakeholders,” Benaichouche explained.
Moreover, he called for collaboration on ecosystem development. “Having a strong ecosystem that can collaborate, that can tackle different challenges and problem, I think is the only recipe for all the ecosystem and all the companies to succeed. Otherwise, it will be duplication, duplication, duplication without any added value at the end,” he said.
