Welcome

Digital sovereignty and AI at scale: Balancing control and innovation in financial services

Sponsored by Rackspace

Thursday 11th June 2026

The Ivy City Garden, Dashwood House, 69 Old Broad St, London EC2M 1QS

Managing data effectively is central to modern financial services infrastructure, particularly as organisations look to scale AI in an environment of increasing regulatory scrutiny and data sovereignty requirements. This FStech roundtable, sponsored by Rackspace Technology, brings together senior technologists from banks, insurers, and other financial institutions to share experiences and learn from peers tackling these challenges.

The discussion will focus on how firms are designing and operating platforms that provide the control, visibility, and governance needed to support and develop AI safely at scale. Participants will explore approaches to digital sovereignty, infrastructure design, and hybrid deployment, with a focus not just on where the data resides but how it is accessed, and how regulatory obligations are met without constraining innovation.

Debate will centre on practical considerations when developing new AI use cases, such as workload placement, access control, and auditability, alongside the trade-offs between private, public, and hybrid models. Attendees will examine how control frameworks can accelerate AI adoption by reducing risk and increasing organisational confidence to innovate, and leave with practical insights on building the right foundations to scale AI responsibly.

Topics for discussion:

• How financial institutions are redefining ownership, governance, and accountability for data in the context of AI and platform modernisation.

• What real-world AI deployments reveal about the strengths and limitations of current data architectures, operating models, and governance frameworks.

• Approaches to maintaining regulatory alignment while supporting increasingly data-intensive workloads and distributed AI capabilities.

• The strategic considerations shaping how organisations determine the appropriate environments for data and AI workloads across private, public, and hybrid models.

• How robust governance, visibility, and sovereignty frameworks can build organisational confidence and accelerate responsible AI adoption, including the trade-offs firms are willing to accept.

Timings for the evening:

18:30 - 19:00 Welcome and refreshments

19:00 - 20:00 Introduction to fellow guests and roundtable discussion

20:00 onwards Complimentary three-course meal

Register now!

Brought to you by FStech