Data Faces Podcast — On Location · BARC Data and Analytics Retreat 2026
Dr. Carsten Bange, founder and CEO of BARC, on data sovereignty, digital sovereignty, AI sovereignty, and why North American companies are investing faster than many people expected.
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About Carsten Bange
Dr. Carsten Bange is the founder and CEO of BARC, an analyst and research firm focused on data, analytics, business intelligence, planning, and AI. He created the BARC Data and Analytics Retreat to bring experienced data and AI leaders into a smaller setting where presentations turn into working conversations, and where vendors can pressure-test what they are seeing in the market.
In this interview
- How data sovereignty, digital sovereignty, and AI sovereignty relate to one another
- Why control over data and AI models matters as enterprise AI adoption spreads
- Why BARC research found stronger sovereignty interest and investment from North American companies
- Why the retreat format favors live debate over one-way conference presentations
→ Read the companion article: Governance now decides whether AI delivers value
→ Browse all on-location interviews: Data Faces Podcast — On Location
Full transcript
David Sweenor 0:04 All right. Hello and welcome to the Data Faces podcast on location. We’re coming to you live from Devil’s Thumb Ranch in beautiful Colorado. I’m here with Carsten Bange, the CEO and founder of BARC. Yes. How’s the retreat going, Carsten?
Carsten Bange 0:20 Excellent. We’re on the first day and people are very interactive, which is always a good sign. And we are presenting strategically relevant content to vendors and it seems to be going very well.
David Sweenor 0:31 Yeah, it’s not like a typical conference. There’s been a lot of dialogue. You remarked earlier, it’s like first presentation, five minutes in, the conversation started.
Carsten Bange 0:40 You don’t see that at a lot of conferences. No, that’s true, but that’s the essence here. That’s not only presenting facts and findings from our surveys and also our insights and impressions, but it’s also really discussing it because there’s so much know-how in the room. I mean, many people have 20, 30 years experience in the data and AI segment, and it makes a lot of sense to activate that and get everyone’s opinions, and that’s how we all grow and learn more.
David Sweenor 1:05 That’s right, and so you kicked off the event. Can you tell everybody a little bit about your presentation? What are sort of the key takeaways that people should be thinking about?
Carsten Bange 1:13 Yeah, so my topic was about data sovereignty, which is one of the hottest topics, and not only in Europe, but across the world. Also, we see many American companies really concerned about that topic and how to strengthen their sovereignty because data became more important. And having control over the data is crucial for enterprises. And so there are lots of questions. Where is it? Who has control over it? What about vendor lock-in?
David Sweenor 1:38 Things like that. And is there a difference between data sovereignty, digital sovereignty, AI sovereignty? I think there’s a lot of confusion out there. Do you distinguish them or are they sort of all the same related?
Carsten Bange 1:50 No, they’re obviously related, but data sovereignty is part of the digital sovereignty, and digital sovereignty is also about the processes, also about the technology overall. So that’s a broader concept, and data sovereignty is part of it. AI sovereignty has come up as a more important topic now, and it’s really focusing on the AI-specific topics. For example, who has control over my models that I’m using?
David Sweenor 2:11 Right. And do you see any differences between, you know, you’re based in EMEA in Germany, and do you see just regional differences between how people are thinking about it, how they’re investing it, or anything along those dimensions?
Carsten Bange 2:24 Yeah, right. I think we did a recent survey and we found very interesting things. So if you think about the topic, many people associated with Europe and Europe being very concerned about digital sovereignty and with that also about data sovereignty. But our survey found that the topic and the importance is even higher with US companies. So more US companies said it’s an important topic for us than European companies, which we found interesting. And then we looked at investments. So we were looking at, okay, one thing is to think it’s important, but the other thing is to actually act on it. Right, put your money where your mouth is, right? Exactly. And we see that North American companies are investing even more than European companies.
David Sweenor 3:08 What do you think is driving that? Because you mentioned Europe has been at the forefront of the regulatory piece of it, but according to what you just said, maybe underinvesting compared to the United States.
Carsten Bange 3:18 Right now, that’s true. So my interpretation is that U.S. companies are acting just faster and really go into this topic in a stronger way. And yeah, I think that’s one of the biggest reasons there.
David Sweenor 3:33 Okay, and so if people want to get a hold of the survey, where can they find it? On barc.com. BARC.com. All right, well, Carsten, thanks for joining the Data Faces podcast on location. It’s been a great event so far, and looking for more insights to come. Thanks, David.
Carsten Bange 3:44 All right, cheers. Cheers. Thanks.