An in-depth look at the EMEA findings from our 2026 Global Data Insights Survey (GDIS)—and what they mean for the region's digital infrastructure agenda.

A region at a crossroads

EMEA’s AI infrastructure story begins with a contradiction: colocation is central to AI training in the region, but integrated infrastructure and measurable outcomes still lag. More than half of EMEA respondents say their AI training data is located in colocation data centers, yet the region reports the lowest level of fully integrated hybrid infrastructure and trails its peers in turning AI initiatives into measurable business outcomes.

That tension defines the EMEA findings from Digital Realty’s 2026 Global Data Insights Survey. Based on 668 decision-makers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa—part of a global sample of 2,131 IT, networking, security, and business leaders—the data reveals a region that is highly committed to AI execution, deeply shaped by regulation and sovereignty requirements, and still working to connect the infrastructure needed to scale AI with confidence.

The regulation reflex: data privacy as the defining constraint

If a single theme defines EMEA, it is regulation. When asked about obstacles to drawing insights from data, 49% of EMEA respondents ranked data privacy regulations among their top three obstacles. This is not surprising in a post-General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) world, but its pervasiveness is striking. Regulation is not a niche compliance concern; it is the single most cited barrier to data-driven value.

This regulatory gravity pulls many other findings into orbit. EMEA organizations are the most likely to demand secure data exchanges from their IT locations (39%). When evaluating data center providers, 52% of EMEA respondents rank "enabling secure data exchange between users, networks, clouds, and IT providers on a single data center platform" as a top requirement.

The sovereignty thread runs deeper still. 33% of EMEA organizations treat sovereign AI as a requirement (where both data and AI models remain within a single jurisdiction), with a further 53% actively exploring sovereign AI options. When deciding where to host AI workloads, 38% of EMEA respondents cite regulatory compliance (e.g., GDPR, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)) as a top three driver—the highest of any region.

Distributed data: EMEA's reluctant embrace

One of the most telling EMEA divergences is its relationship with distributed data. Only 84% of EMEA organizations follow a distributed data approach—the lowest of any region (Americas: 93%, APAC: 88%)—while 13% explicitly do not, the highest "no" rate globally. A further 3% are unsure.

This reluctance is nuanced. Among those who do embrace distribution, the reasons skew toward governance and strategy: 44% cite the company's IT strategy (highest globally), 44% point to better overall data governance, and 43% value faster processing. EMEA's distributed data adopters are motivated by control and architectural coherence, not mere opportunism. Among the smaller group who reject distribution, the reasoning centers on risk reduction (46% cite fewer data breaches) and consolidated systems (49% value reducing the number of systems needed to collect and analyze data).

AI: operational efficiency over bold bets

EMEA's AI story is one of pragmatic operationalism. The region leads in formal AI strategies actively executed for operational efficiency and/or cost reduction (39%). Notably, EMEA is also the most likely to have a formal AI strategy aimed at launching a new business offering (19%)—but having a strategy and expecting value from it are different things. When it comes to expected value, EMEA is overwhelmingly efficiency-oriented: 39% expect AI to make business operations more efficient, while only 19% are building AI into products or services. In other words, EMEA organizations plan for innovation but budget for efficiency; the strategy deck includes bold bets, but the return-on-investment (ROI) expectations rest on operational gains.

This efficiency-first posture is reflected in how EMEA uses AI today. 21% use AI to automate human-intensive tasks (the highest of any region). And when EMEA invests in AI capabilities, it leads the world in prioritizing AI/machine learning (ML) technology investment: 52% rank investing in AI/ML among their top critical requirements (versus 48% globally), and 46% prioritize improving data infrastructure (also the highest).

Yet maturity tells a more sobering story. EMEA has the highest share of organizations at AI maturity level 1 (1%) and level 2 (6%), while only 24% have reached the transformative level 5. EMEA's AI ambitions are real, but its transformation is mid-flight, not landed.

The colocation AI story: EMEA's standout advantage

Perhaps the most strategically significant EMEA finding is where AI training data lives. When asked where training data is located, 51% of EMEA respondents cite colocation data centers, compared with 36% in the Americas and 43% in APAC.

This colocation orientation extends to model hosting. EMEA leads in hosting custom-built AI models in private cloud (53%) and foundation models on-premises (35%), while open-source or fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) on-premises are hosted by 32% of EMEA organizations, the highest globally. The result is a highly hybrid AI infrastructure, with colocation at its center.

The AI workload footprint is expanding rapidly: today, 42% of EMEA organizations deploy AI projects at 26–50% of their locations, and within a year 41% expect that band to hold while 29% anticipate 51–75% penetration. EMEA's AI deployment is broadening across the estate, not concentrating in a single hub—reinforcing the need for distributed, colocation-anchored capacity that follows the data.

Investment caution and ROI reality

EMEA's AI investment trajectory is more conservative than its peers. 15% of EMEA organizations will increase AI investment by less than 10% in 2026. The bulk (36%) plan modest 10–25% increases. EMEA is investing steadily but not explosively.

The ROI picture is correspondingly measured. EMEA leads in having identified repeatable, high-impact AI use cases (41%), yet it lags in achieving measurable business outcomes like revenue growth or cost reduction (28%)—the lowest of any region and well behind the Americas (40%). Meanwhile, 4% report no measurable AI ROI to date, the highest globally. EMEA organizations are finding patterns that work but struggling to convert them into board-level financial proof.

Infrastructure maturity: a region still connecting the dots

EMEA's infrastructure integration trails its peers. Only 19% report fully integrated hybrid infrastructure across public cloud, private cloud, on-premises, and colocation—the lowest globally (Americas: 24%). Meanwhile, 36% report only limited integration, and 12% describe environments as siloed with little or no integration—both the highest of any region.

A similar pattern emerges in interconnection. Just 5% of EMEA organizations say dynamic, on-demand interconnection is core to their architecture—less than half the Americas rate (13%)—while 6% have no intentional interconnection strategy at all, the highest globally. EMEA is reliant on ad hoc or point-to-point connections (25%) and "some integration" approaches (32%). The architecture is evolving, but it has not yet converged.

This immaturity coexists with strong intent: when choosing where to host AI workloads, 45% of EMEA respondents rank integration with existing IT or data infrastructure as a top driver—the highest of any region. EMEA buyers know their environments are fragmented; their top priority is finding providers who can integrate rather than add another silo.

Sustainability: renewable mandates, nuanced strategy

EMEA's sustainability profile is paradoxical. On concrete metrics, EMEA leads: 52% evaluate vendors on 100% renewable energy (the highest of any region), and 49% consider building green credentials. Yet when asked about sustainability's impact on AI strategy, EMEA is the least likely to call it "the most important factor" (42%, versus 55% in the Americas) and the most likely to say it has "some impact" (52%).

The interpretation: EMEA treats sustainability as a non-negotiable procurement criterion but resists elevating it to a singular strategic lens. Renewable energy is baked into vendor evaluation, but AI strategy is driven by efficiency, compliance, and sovereignty.

Part of the EMEA AI Imperative Series—featuring insights from the Global Data Insights Survey 2026 (GDIS)