AI, And Data Sovereignty Are Rewriting Global Trade

Reference: Found here

By Dr. (Cand.) Sandya Bhat, Aerospace ⁘ Defense Industry Strategist and Digital Transformation Leader at SAP

Far above us, satellites are capturing a live feed of our planet. This isn't just imagery, it's intelligence.

What was once the domain of national space agencies and scientific research, satellite data, orbital imagery, and Earth intelligence is now becoming foundational to enterprise IT strategy.

With real-time visibility into rainfall, crop stress, shipping congestion, and deforestation, these constellations are quietly reshaping how global businesses move goods, predict risks, and make decisions.

For years, supply chains have relied on historical trends. When a disruption occurred; a port closed or a crop failed, companies scrambled to respond.

Today, data from orbit is being combined with ground-level enterprise signals to anticipate change before it happens. A delay at a port in Singapore, rising soil salinity in Brazil, or a storm brewing off the Pacific can all be sensed, analysed, and acted upon before they cause a ripple. This isn't visibility — it's foresight, engineered into the flow of commerce.

Picture a system: space-based environmental alerts trigger automated adjustments to inventory levels, shipment routes, or even pricing strategies. Where customs data, freight status, and regional climate trends are no longer in separate dashboards, but part of a single intelligent flow.

The result is not faster reactions.

It is coordinated, intelligent orchestration that support the integration of satellite data, real-time analytics, and AI-powered scenario planning. Instead of siloed dashboards, AI-infused scenario engines are capable of real-time modelling, cost forecasting, and operational triage. This turns IT into a dynamic enabler of enterprise agility, rather than a backend function.

Today's CIO must balance scale with sovereignty ensuring data localization, industry-grade encryption, and national compliance are built into architecture from the start, particularly space-based data sources that cross multiple geographies in real time.