Article | January 2026
Allianz Risk Barometer 2026 -
Global risk #2: Artificial intelligence (32%)
AI climbs to its highest-ever position of #2, up from #10. Both cyber and AI now rank as top five concerns for companies in almost every industry sector. As AI adoption accelerates and becomes more deeply embedded in core business operations, respondents expect related risks to intensify.
This article is part of the overview of the most important business risks in 2026, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2026.
Uncertainty and expected intensification of risks propel AI to #2 in the ranking
Artificial intelligence (AI) has surged into the top tier of global business concerns, rising to #2 in 2026 from #10 in 2025 – the biggest jump in this year’s ranking. It is a big mover in all regions – ranked #2 in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Africa and the Middle East, and #3 in Europe – and is a growing risk for companies of all sizes too, moving into the top three risks for large, mid-sized and small firms.
AI’s rapid ascent up the rankings in this year’s Allianz Risk Barometer is a reflection of both the risks associated with AI and its potential wider societal, political and economic implications. In just a few years since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, AI applications and automation have become widespread, with new solutions and use cases in the pipeline.
AI is closely related to cyber, the top risk in this year’s Allianz Risk Barometer. It also interlinks with other key risks in the top 10, including political risk, macroeconomic and market developments, and changes in legislation and regulation.
Overview
Artificial intelligence (e.g., implementation challenges, liability exposures, misinformation / disinformation)
Ranking history:
- 2026: rank 2
- 2025: rank 10
- 2024: rank 12
- 2023: rank 14
- 2022: rank 12
- 2021: rank 11
Top risk in:
- Australia
- Austria
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Greece
- Hungary
- Mexico
Looking ahead to 2026, as AI adoption accelerates and becomes more deeply embedded in core business operations, respondents expect AI-related risks to intensify. The rapid spread of generative and agentic AI systems, paired with their growing real-world use, has raised awareness of just how exposed organizations have become.
“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,” says Allianz Chief Economist, Ludovic Subran.
At the same time, organizations are becoming more aware of the practical challenges that come with implementation. Most remain in pilot or experimentation mode, and only a small group has begun scaling AI across the enterprise. This reveals a clear gap between ambition and actual readiness.
As more firms attempt to scale in 2026, they will face greater exposure to system-reliability issues, data-quality constraints, integration hurdles, and shortages of AI-skilled talent. Staying stuck in pilot mode carries its own risks too – investments and expectations rise, but the business value may not follow. Meanwhile, 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.
Concerns about the resources required to manage these risks are also growing. Nearly half of respondents (47%) say the investment needed to handle AI- and cyber-intensified threats is “moderate,” while another 43% rate it as “high,” underscoring the expanding operational burden of AI adoption. And although many organizations still see AI as delivering more benefits than risks, a rising share now views it as a distinct and increasingly complex risk category.
How do you view the impact that AI is having on your industry?
Source: Allianz Risk Barometer 2026. Respondents: 1,084.
Almost half of Allianz Risk Barometer respondents (44%) believe AI is bringing more benefits to their industry than risks. However, almost a fifth (19%) say they see more risks than benefits from AI.
“There will be many opportunities with AI, but there is also huge uncertainty about the longer-term implications for employment, cyber security, regulation and geopolitics,” says Michael Bruch, Global Head of Risk Consulting Advisory Services, Allianz Commercial. “Many also question whether we are in an AI bubble. There are potentially huge opportunities for organizations to use AI, but for many it has yet to be proven whether the big investments and current business models of the large technology companies will pay off. This underscores the importance of strategic investment, robust risk management, and flexibility as the AI landscape continues to evolve.”
The complexity, speed of development and disruptive nature of AI are creating some unease around the new technology, adds Rishi Baviskar, Global Head of Cyber Risk Consulting, Allianz Commercial: “Many people and organizations do not yet have the necessary skills and knowledge. There are many trends to monitor and lots of solutions available. You can start to work on a proposal only to find a new development in the technology emerges. But it is important to focus on the business value and not just chase the latest technology.”
"Respondents also flag misinformation and disinformation as a rapidly growing risk. Advances in generative AI have dramatically lowered the cost and increased the sophistication of synthetic media, deepfakes, and automated persuasion. These developments threaten political stability, consumer trust, brand integrity, and even financial-market behavior. What was once a niche technical concern has now become a mainstream business and societal challenge, driven by the potential for coordinated AI-enabled information attacks,” says Subran.
Across the survey, respondents point to three primary categories of AI risk:
- Operational risks: business interruption, failed or misaligned systems, and errors cascading through automated workflows
- Legal and compliance risks: breaches of emerging regulations, liability for harmful AI outcomes, and sanctions under evolving governance frameworks
- Reputational risks: brand damage tied to misinformation, unethical AI use, data breaches, or biased decisions affecting customers or employees.
Looking ahead, organizations identify AI governance and compliance as the most urgent environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related technology priority for 2026. Strengthening cyber security resilience and preparing for expanding regulatory and disclosure requirements in automated decision-making follow close behind.
To address these risks, companies are focusing on three core actions:
- Upgrading AI governance frameworks, including model-risk management, monitoring, and human-in-the-loop oversight
- Investing in employee training and responsible-AI practices, from bias detection to data-quality assurance
- Developing contingency and incident-response plans for AI-related failures or misuse, such as misinformation incidents, model malfunctions, or rapid rollback needs.
“Taken together, these trends signal that 2026 will be a pivotal year – a point where AI moves from experimentation toward early scaling, expanding both its strategic value and the breadth of risks organizations must manage,” says Subran.
How is your company addressing the impact of increased adoption of automation technologies on the workforce?
Top 5 responses
Source: Allianz Risk Barometer 2026. Respondents: 1,084. Figures represent how often a risk was selected as a percentage of all responses. Figures don’t add up to 100% as up to three risks could be selected.
According to Allianz Risk Barometer respondents, 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 45% say their companies are looking to reshape roles to focus on adaptability and collaborative problem-solving, while 40% say they are eliminating low-skilled roles and replacing them with high-skilled ones.
Given that harnessing the business benefits of AI is as much about empowering the workforce as it is about integrating AI into business workflows, it is no surprise that the top focus is on investing in education, retraining and upskilling initiatives, as well as reshaping roles, according to Denise De Bilio, Innovation and Transformation Leader at Allianz Commercial.
“AI brings multiple challenges including workforce skills and readiness gaps required to operate and maintain automated systems, and to use them to deliver superior business outcomes and customer value. Today, business leaders and employees lack knowledge in a technology that is rapidly maturing yet still in search of its business model. For those that do understand the technology, digital natives, there are fears about AI inaccuracy and cyber security risks,” says De Bilio.
“The businesses who will succeed with AI will be those that excel at bringing the technology, people and processes together.”
Robust risk management and governance
Organizations will also need to implement the right risk management and governance frameworks if they are to successfully capture AI opportunities, according to Michael Bruch, Global Head of Risk Consulting Advisory Services, Allianz Commercial. According to the Allianz Risk Barometer, only a third of respondents see setting up robust governance to manage the ethical aspects of automation, including privacy issues and job displacement, as one of their top three priority actions.
“To fully realize AI’s potential, organizations must embrace change at every level,” says Bruch. “At Allianz, we are looking at using AI for automation and efficiency, for example we are exploring the use of agentic AI in underwriting to capture and process more information, more accurately and in a faster time. This not only streamlines operations but also enhances decision-making quality and customer outcomes. By freeing up our risk engineers from routine work, we can focus on delivering higher-value insights and tailored solutions. As an organization you need to be flexible, develop new skills and test AI applications with the right governance and risk management frameworks.”
Emerging technologies take off
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not the first emerging technology, and it will not be the last.
“Technology moves at lightspeed. A year ago, AI was barely in the top 10 risks in the Allianz Risk Barometer and today it ranks second,” says Daniel Muller, Head of Emerging Risk Trends, Allianz Commercial. “And AI is not the only emerging technology with the potential to disrupt. Technology risks can escalate rapidly, so organizations must embed continuous horizon scanning and stress testing into their risk frameworks to anticipate these accelerations before they become systemic threats.”
Muller highlights the rapid emergence of quantum computing, a technology that could unlock entirely new forms of cyber-attacks and undermine today’s encryption standards. Almost a fifth (19%) of Allianz Risk Barometer respondents fear a breakthrough in quantum computing that renders current encryption obsolete, when quizzed about the most plausible “black swan” or “perfect storm” scenarios that could occur in the next five years.
However, faster, more powerful computing could also create exciting opportunities for the automotive industry, chemicals, finance and life sciences among others. According to McKinsey [1], surging investment and faster-than-expected innovation could propel the quantum computing market to US$100bn within a decade).
“Until recently, quantum computing was largely theoretical, but it is now moving rapidly toward real-world application. The pace of advancement is extraordinary – underscoring how quickly emerging technologies can shift from concept to disruption,” says Muller.
References
[1] McKinsey & Company, The Rise of Quantum Computing, June 23, 2025
Photo: Shutterstock
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