Leading Canadian organizations across AI, cloud infrastructure, data centres, government, and enterprise have proactively launched measures to assess sovereignty voluntarily and transparently, in support of a consistent, national framework for digital sovereignty and security.
OTTAWA and MONTREAL All IN, September 16, 2026 – Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index is now available to organizations across the AI ecosystem who are looking to measure and improve the sovereignty of the digital infrastructure Canadians rely on. This industry movement, driven by the organizations themselves, as well as independent reviewers, complements the federal government’s ongoing examination of how best to implement a sovereignty benchmark.
“This momentum is emerging against a noisy backdrop. Sovereignty has become one of the most used, and most argued about, words in Canadian technology, with claims multiplying faster than anyone can verify them,” said Niraj Bhargava, CEO and Co-Founder of NuEnergy.ai. “Some organizations have earned it, some are actively closing the gap, and some have simply attached the word to infrastructure that was never built to carry it. Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index exists to cut through that noise with evidence instead of assertion by giving organizations the independent assessment to measure trust, and to improve on it over time.”
The index provides a third-party, evidence-based assessment of how AI systems and digital infrastructure operating in Canada measure up on safety, accountability and Canadian control, consistent with the principles outlined in the government’s AI for All strategy. It scores organizations across four sovereignty pillars: organizational control; supply chain & stack dependencies; data and lifecycle governance; and AI governance and risk mitigation. The result is an AI Sovereignty Index: a specific, evidence-based, and repeatable assessment provided alongside risk mitigation recommendations.
Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index is built on the Government of Canada’s Digital Sovereignty Framework to improve digital readiness and the Canadian AI Sovereignty Assessment Framework, an open standard NuEnergy.ai released under a Creative Commons licence. NuEnergy.ai co-created the assessment framework through more than a dozen sessions with federal departments, industry partners, and members of Canada’s AI Sovereignty and Innovation Cluster (CAISIC), and has updated it to align with the Government of Canada’s framework. It may serve as a shared starting point for the AI standards that groups like the Standards Council of Canada and the Digital Governance Council are now developing.
The organizations already measuring themselves against the Index reflect the breadth of the movement now underway, spanning Canadian AI companies, sovereign cloud infrastructure providers, federal government programs and regulated enterprises.
TELUS, one of Canada’s largest communications technology and enterprise services companies, has engaged NuEnergy.ai for the Index.
“TELUS’ approach to AI has always been built on a foundation of trust, transparency and responsibility,” said Chris Madan, Vice-President, Customer Digital Solutions and Product, TELUS. “With a consistent framework built on agreed-upon principles, we demonstrate our commitment to responsible data governance built on world-class computational power. Together we are embracing Canada’s opportunity to set the standard globally and show the world what AI done right looks like: powerful, sovereign, sustainable and in collaboration with the communities it serves. ”
Agentiiv Inc., a Canadian AI company, was among the early participants.
“We’re early on sovereignty by choice. We think it’s where trust in AI is heading for the customers we serve, and we want to be there first,” said Karla Congson, CEO/CTO of Agentiiv Inc. “That’s exactly why Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index by NuEnergy.ai mattered to us. It made the conviction measurable, with an evidence-based read on where we stand and a clear path to get stronger. Because the Index is re-assessed as the landscape shifts, we can keep showing we’re ahead of it, not just say we are.”
ThinkOn, a Canadian sovereign cloud infrastructure provider, is among the organizations advancing measurement of its own sovereignty posture.
“Everyone wants to call themselves sovereign right now, and that’s exactly the confusion this industry needs to cut through,” said Craig McLellan, CEO of ThinkOn. “Sovereignty isn’t about where your data sits. It’s about who actually controls it, and whether a foreign government can still compel your provider to restrict or hand it over no matter where it’s hosted. If you can’t answer both of those questions with certainty, what you have is residency, not sovereignty, and customers deserve to know the difference. Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index gave us a rigorous, evidence-based way to prove where ThinkOn stands: Canadian sovereignty measured, so our customers don’t have to take our word for it.”
CAISIC leadership sees the Index as a milestone for the cluster’s founding purpose.
“Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index is a timely example of why sovereignty conversations matter to the future of innovation and AI in Canada,” said Joel Semeniuk, Board Chair, Canada’s AI Sovereignty and Innovation Cluster (CAISIC). “NuEnergy.ai is a founding member of CAISIC, and the Index reflects the kind of innovation emerging from Canada’s AI ecosystem that CAISIC was created to spotlight. Its development through collaboration among Canadian organizations also demonstrates how we must work together to advance digital sovereignty.”
On the policy front, the Council of Canadian Innovators sees the Index as a strategic lever for Canadian competitiveness.
“Canadian innovators have been telling policymakers for years that sovereignty needs specifics, not just aspiration,” said Patrick Searle, CEO, Council of Canadian Innovators “Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index is exactly the kind of home-grown measurement infrastructure that lets Canadian companies compete in federal procurement, differentiate in enterprise sales, and demonstrate to global partners that Canadian AI is built on measurable trust.”
On the public-sector side, the Index has been deployed with the Benefits Delivery Modernization (BDM) Program at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), one of the largest federal digital transformation programs in Canada.
The work began before Canada’s AI for All strategy was published, at a point when measuring trust and sovereignty in the AI the program relies on was already a stated priority. With sovereignty now set as a pillar of that strategy, the program can approach alignment with assessment evidence already in hand rather than from a standing start.
NuEnergy.ai’s role is not to set the national standard. It is to be an independent third-party measurement company with its software platform and operate on the front line, generating real-world measurement data that continuously informs the standards Canada is building as AI evolves.
“Canada’s AI for All strategy names sovereignty as a national imperative, and trust as its North Star. AI and digital sovereignty aren’t a compliance checkbox,” said Bhargava. “They are trust commitments, and like all trust commitments, they have to be measured. Independently. Continuously. With evidence.”
Canada’s AI & Digital Sovereignty Index is now available to any organization deploying or procuring AI and digital infrastructure in Canada. It is offered as a standalone assessment or alongside NuEnergy.ai’s commercially-deployed Machine Trust Platform™, using the same 0–100 scoring methodology and Red, Yellow, and Green thresholds organizations across government and enterprise use to measure AI Trust.
About NuEnergy.ai
AI can be trusted, but only with the right measures, mitigations and third party validation. NuEnergy.ai ensures effective and practical AI governance by helping customers establish responsible AI trust guardrails, manage accountability for AI impacts, and maintain transparent AI trust scores. NuEnergy.ai provides organizations with a comprehensive third-party AI Trust Process, a powerful AI Trust Platform (the NuEnergy.ai Machine Trust Platform™), and independent reviews with a knowledgeable AI Trust Faculty. Founded in 2018, NuEnergy.ai serves global AI governance customers from headquarters in Ottawa, Canada.
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