AI sovereignty demands control beyond data residency, says Abdelilah Nejjari

Abdelilah Nejjari, Managing Director for the Gulf, Levant, Türkiye, Caucasus & Central Asia, Cisco. Cisco’s Abdelilah Nejjari discusses how workload priorities, operational skills and agent security shape sovereign AI infrastructure across the UAE and wider region. AI sovereignty is widening the enterprise conversation from where data resides to who can access it, operate the underlying infrastructure and govern its use.