Most UK companies can't see where their AI sends their data

27 April 2026

A survey of senior technology and data leaders at large UK companies, carried out by research group Harbr Data and reported in the Financial Times, should worry every CIO, DPO and CISO in the country. The headline finding is simple: most of them cannot say where their data goes once AI processes it abroad.

Among leaders at companies with £100m or more in revenue, 61% do not fully understand how their data is handled when it is processed by AI overseas. And that data is moving constantly.

How often UK data leaves the country through AI

At least weekly 75%

Daily 33%

Confidence holds inside Europe, then collapses the moment data leaves it.

Confidence in how data is handled, by region

United Kingdom 70%

European Union 62%

North America 31%

Asia-Pacific 12%

And leaders are clear about what that lack of oversight could cost them.

The risks leaders see from limited oversight

Breaches of international regulations 50%

Fines or investigations 36%

Geopolitical exposure 35%

This is not an edge case. It is the daily reality of how AI is used inside large UK organisations right now, at scale, across borders, and largely without visibility. Analysts expect more UK companies to move to region-specific AI over the next couple of years as regulatory pressure grows.

We built Pendra so the answer does not have to be "trust us, it's fine" from a US-owned cloud provider. It is sovereign UK infrastructure with zero data retention by design, and you can run it on our GPUs, your GPUs, or both.

If you are in that 61%, the first question is not where is our data going. It is why don't we know? If you would rather have a clear answer, get in touch, or browse the models you can run on Pendra today.