How AI is Reshaping Enterprise Risk and Security
Risk has always been a part of doing business, but its scale, speed, and impact are changing. What once could be managed within discrete functions is now embedded across platforms, workflows, and decisions, shaped by accelerating technology change, growing interconnection, and persistent uncertainty. The 2026 Risk and Security Outlook examines how this shift is changing the risk environment.
Based on a global survey of 1,000 risk and security leaders across industries, we found that technology and AI now sit at the center of the global risk landscape. Digital transformation, cloud migration, and the rapid spread of generative and agentic AI are widening attack surfaces and introducing new vulnerabilities, often faster than defenses can adapt.
At the same time, with tightly connected digital ecosystems and global markets, failures rarely stay contained. A cyber incident, system outage, or regulatory shock in one area can cascade quickly, amplifying impact and compressing response time.
While many executives expect some external pressures, such as macroeconomic volatility and regulatory change, to stabilize in the year ahead, the center of gravity is shifting inward. Organizational weaknesses, including skills gaps, fragmented governance, misaligned teams, and immature risk systems, are increasingly determining whether threats are absorbed or escalate into disruption.
Readiness is not keeping up with exposure. Even as adversaries rapidly weaponize AI, many organizations report limited confidence in their ability to manage AI-enabled threats. Our report unpacks these dynamics to show where risk is intensifying, how preparedness varies by industry and region, and what leaders are doing to close the resilience gap.
