Allianz said that growing reliance on a small number of third-party suppliers in areas like cloud services, software as a service, AI solutions and data processing is particularly concern
ing, noting that several attacks and outages over the past 12 months have caused significant disruption to businesses, their supply chains, customers and the wider economy.
“Digital infrastructure and technology are now critical to all businesses and their supply chains. Complex interconnected systems exist within organizations, third-party suppliers and customers. As we have seen with recent incidents,
a cloud outage, technical glitch or malicious attack can have huge implications for a business’s ability to produce and sell its goods and services, with the effects rippling through supply chains,” said Rishi Baviskar, Global Head of Cyber Risk Consulting at Allianz Commercial.
Artificial intelligence climbed to No. 2 (32% of responses) in this year’s Risk Barometer—its highest-ever position, up from No. 10 in 2025.
Allianz said that AI’s rapid climb up the rankings this year reflects both the risks associated with AI as well as its potential societal, political and economic implications. The ris
Watch More Image Part 2 >>>
is interlinked with other key risks in the top 10, Allianz said, including cyber, political risk, macroeconomic and market developments, and changes in legislation and regulation.
“Companies increasingly see AI not only as a powerful strategic opportunity, but also as a complex source of operational, legal, and reputational risk. In many cases, adoption is moving faster
than governance, regulation, and workforce readiness can keep up—pushing AI into the top tier of global risks for the first time,” said Ludovic Subran, Chief Economist, Allianz.
Organizations are becoming more aware of the challenges that come with AI implementation, such as data-quality constraints, integration hurdles and a shortage of AI-skilled talent. New liability exposures are emerging around automated decision-making, biased or discriminatory models, intellectual-property misuse, and uncertainty over who is responsible when AI-generated outputs cause harm. Respondents also cited disinformation and the potential for deepfakes as growing risks.
Education, retraining and upskilling initiatives are the main actions being taken by companies to mitigate the impact of increasing AI adoption on the workforce (49% of respondents). Some companies are looking to reshape roles to focus on adaptability and collaborative problem solving (45%), while others say they are eliminating low-skilled roles and replacing them with high-skilled ones (40%).
Asked about the most plausible “black swan” scenarios that could occur in the next five years, 19% of respondents said they fear a breakthrough in quantum computing that renders current encryption obsolete.
Business interruption dropped to the third spot in 2026 (29%) after having ranked either No. 1 or 2 for the last decade. Allianz said the peril remains a significant concern since supply chains can be impacted by other risks in the global top 10, such as cyber, climate change, trade policies and geopolitical conflict.
Allianz noted that 2025 saw a shift toward protectionist trade policies and tariff wars, bringing uncertainty to the world economy. There were also regional conflicts in the Middle East and Russia/Ukraine, as well as border disputes between India/Pakistan and Thailand/Cambodia, and civil wars in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar.
Global supply chain paralysis due to a geopolitical conflict ranked as the most plausible “black swan” scenario likely to materialize for business interruption in the next five years (51%), according to respondents. Mass social unrest and political instability impacting business continuity ranks No. 4 (29%).
Despite the rising pressure from geopolitical risks, only 3% of survey respondents view their supply chains as “very resilient.”