[{"id":176839,"date":"2026-11-02T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riskonnect.com\/uncategorized-en-gb\/report-2026-new-generation-of-risk-survey-overview\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T12:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:00:12","slug":"report-2026-new-generation-of-risk-survey-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riskonnect.com\/en-gb\/thought-leadership-en-gb\/report-2026-new-generation-of-risk-survey-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Riskonnect Survey: Pressure Mounts as Risk Teams Cope with Iran War, Tariffs, and AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iran war disrupted global energy and shipping markets. Trade policies and tariffs impacted costs, market access, and supply chains. And AI continues to reshape how companies operate and their risk exposures, according to Riskonnect\u2019s 2026 New Generation of Risk Report<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This fourth annual report surveyed more than 250 risk, compliance, and resilience professionals worldwide on how they and their organisations are responding to a risk environment moving faster than ever.<\/p>\n

Top Risk Drivers in 2026<\/h2>\n

Economic risk rose to the top this year, tying cyber risk as the #1 business risk. More than half of respondents say economic risk is having a \u201csevere\u201d or \u201csignificant\u201d impact on their business, fueled by tariffs, persistent inflation, and a cooling labour market.<\/p>\n

Other top risks identified by respondents as having a severe or significant impact on their business are political risks (38%), geopolitical risks (37%), and talent risks (37%). All are hitting at once, which underscores the pressure risk teams are under as they manage a wide field of threats.
\nTop Five Risk Drivers
\n\"Top<\/p>\n

Geopolitical risk remains at the top, specifically the Iran war, which was named by 40% of respondents this year. The impacts are showing up in higher operating or production costs (65%), increased cybersecurity threats or attacks (58%), supply chain and shipping disruptions or delays (50%), and increased energy costs (49%).<\/p>\n

Some 58% of respondents say they had a plan for geopolitical volatility heading into 2026. Of those, 31% said the impact was worse than they expected. Just 19% of survey respondents said they are very prepared to assess, manage, and recover from geopolitical risk \u2013 essentially flat over 2025.<\/p>\n

According to the report, these threats are also compounding in ways that are harder to predict. Respondents said they were least prepared to manage secondary impacts like energy shortages and political volatility (20%), supply shortages and inventory stockouts (14%), and increases in logistics and transportation costs (14%).<\/p>\n

Risk Management Workload Is Up, Budgets Are Not<\/h2>\n

The risk function is feeling the heat. Some 75% of respondents say pressure on them has increased over the past year \u2013 and 37% say the pressure is \u201chigh\u201d or \u201cextreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to the load, 41% of respondents say that in the past year, another department didn\u2019t consult the risk team before making a risk-based decision that had a significant, unforeseen disruption on a different area of the organisation.<\/p>\n

While risk teams are taking on more, only 25% of survey respondents say their budget for risk management technology has increased in the past six months. The majority (66%) said their budgets have stayed the same, up slightly over previous years. This is a clear indication that investment isn\u2019t keeping pace with higher expectations, an escalating workload, and the needs of a function that\u2019s only grown more strategically important.<\/p>\n

More Turn to AI as a Power Multiplier<\/h2>\n

To cope with the heavier workload, more risk leaders are using AI to see more, move faster, and adjust confidently the moment conditions change.<\/p>\n

Nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) say they currently use or are planning to use AI for risk management. That\u2019s up from 70% last year and 62% in 2024. Risk teams most often use AI today for assessing risks, scenario planning and simulations, and for surfacing risks they hadn\u2019t previously considered.<\/p>\n

Top Use Cases for AI in Risk Management
\n\"Top<\/p>\n

AI is also helping risk leaders identify a risk or vulnerability that would have been difficult to detect on their own. Thirty-one percent of survey respondents say AI has helped them uncover gaps or weaknesses in internal processes or controls in the past 12 months. Other ways AI has helped include identifying patterns or anomalies in large or unstructured data sets (25%), highlighting connections between risks that were not previously visible (22%), and detecting emerging or previously unrecognised risks (21%).<\/p>\n

Risk Leadership Is Changing Shape<\/h2>\n

Just over half (53%) of companies have a chief risk officer. Of those that don\u2019t, 91% say they have no plans to hire one in the next 6-12 months. These numbers haven\u2019t meaningfully changed over the past four years.<\/p>\n

The lack of movement, however, is less a sign that risk representation at the leadership level is stalling and more that it\u2019s changing shape. Instead of concentrating risk ownership in a single person, more companies appear to be centralising ownership in risk committees where connected technology keeps everyone working with the same facts, using the same language, and measuring status with the same metrics.<\/p>\n

Risk teams are also actively working to make their value more visible and relatable to the C-suite. When asked what actions they\u2019re taking to help the board and executive leadership team understand risks and the impacts, survey respondents point to a few clear tactics:<\/p>\n