IBM and Yotta Data Services have unveiled plans to construct a sovereign “agentic AI” platform tailored for enterprises and government organizations across India. The collaboration, announced on May 5, seeks to address the growing demand for AI systems that adhere to local data residency and governance requirements within the country.
The proposed platform will integrate IBM’s advanced watsonx Orchestrate capabilities with Yotta’s robust Shakti Cloud infrastructure. This synergy is designed to empower organizations to deploy and effectively manage AI agents across a wide range of functions, including IT service management, finance, procurement, human resources, and customer support.
Ensuring Data Sovereignty and Compliance
A key aspect of this partnership involves bringing IBM Sovereign Core to India, leveraging Yotta’s Shakti Cloud. IBM Sovereign Core is specifically engineered to assist enterprises in establishing AI-ready sovereign environments, complete with features for compliance monitoring, governance, and controlled AI execution.
Sunil Gupta, Co-founder, Managing Director, and CEO of Yotta Data Services, emphasized the importance of local control. “AI innovation in India must be anchored in sovereignty, security, and performance. Together with IBM, we propose to enable enterprises to harness the power of agentic AI on a secure, India-hosted cloud, so they can innovate with confidence while maintaining control over their data and operations,” he stated.
Four Pillars of Sovereignty
IBM highlights that the platform is structured around four critical sovereignty pillars: operational sovereignty, data sovereignty, technology sovereignty, and AI sovereignty. The offering includes advanced features such as customer-operated control planes, in-boundary encryption, continuous compliance monitoring, and governed AI execution.
The companies confirmed that the sovereign infrastructure will be hosted within Yotta’s India-based, MeitY-empanelled cloud environment. This setup will be crucial for enterprises to comply with local regulatory and audit requirements, ensuring that all AI workloads remain within defined sovereign boundaries.
Scaling AI Responsibly in India
Sandip Patel, Managing Director of IBM India & South Asia, underscored the initiative's alignment with national priorities. “Indian enterprises are increasingly focused on operationalising AI in a way that is secure, governed, and aligned with regulatory expectations. This collaboration will combine IBM's AI capabilities with Yotta's sovereign cloud infrastructure to help organisations scale AI responsibly — embedding sovereignty, governance, transparency, and trust from the outset,” he remarked.
The partnership also intends to jointly pursue proofs-of-concept, co-create solutions, and implement technical enablement programs across diverse industries. Target sectors include Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), the public sector, manufacturing, and digital-native businesses, reflecting a broad effort to integrate responsible AI across India's economy.