AI platforms blur jurisdictional lines quickly. Data leaves a region when prompts, embeddings or logs cross borders. Build with explicit residency and sovereignty controls from day one.
Start with data zoning. Classify datasets by residency requirement and sensitivity, and design separate control, processing and storage planes per region. Keep identity, keys and observability data local unless explicitly exempted.
Choose providers and models that support in-region processing and configurable retention. Where that is not possible, use privacy gateways that tokenize or hash sensitive fields before they leave the zone, and block payloads that contain forbidden data classes.
Control egress tightly. Route traffic through dedicated regional egress, enforce DNS pinning to approved endpoints, and use per-region KMS keys with strict access boundaries. Encrypt prompts, embeddings and logs in transit and at rest, and minimise cross-region replication.
Design for auditability. Record when and why data crosses borders, who approved it, and which legal basis applies. Make contracts and DPIAs part of your delivery lifecycle and rehearse failover so you can exit a provider or region without losing continuity.
Residency is a product choice, not just a compliance checkbox. Systems that respect regional boundaries earn trust with regulators and customers while reducing the blast radius of inevitable incidents.