Business leaders split on AI: 35% see it as defense, 33% as cyber threat
One-third of global business leaders view AI as a specific cyber risk, while another third are betting on AI investments to protect against emerging threats, according to Beazley's latest risk survey.
The insurance broker's "Risk & Resilience: Cyber Threat and Tech Advances 2026" report found that 31% of executives rank cyber risks-data breaches, attacks, and outages-as their top concern. AI's role in that threat landscape is splitting opinion: 33% cite AI specifically as a risk factor, while 35% are turning to AI tools to build resilience.
The disconnect runs deeper. Eighty-three percent of U.S. executives believe they could fully recover financially from a cyber attack. Yet the majority of businesses across all markets overestimate their actual ability to bounce back from an incident.
The AI paradox: tool and threat
AI introduces a double bind for insurers and their clients. While 80% of respondents expect AI to boost their bottom line, the technology also creates new cyber, intellectual property, reputational, regulatory, and operational risks that require active management.
Alessandro Lezzi, group head of cyber risks at Beazley, said the gap between perceived and actual resilience matters because cyber risk is becoming more systemic. "As businesses become more interconnected and adopt technologies such as AI, disruption can spread faster across organizations and supply chains making incidents harder to contain," he said.
One bright spot: 33% of businesses are increasing cybersecurity spending, and over one-third of U.S. companies plan to invest in stronger security infrastructure, including access to specialist expertise.
Supply chain risk compounds the problem
Data risk no longer exists in isolation. Digital interconnectivity across supply chains means a breach at one point can trigger systemic disruption with operational, regulatory, and reputational fallout across multiple organizations.
The 2025 high-profile incidents underscored this reality. As businesses add more interconnected systems and adopt AI, containing damage becomes harder.
For insurance professionals, this means reassessing how clients calculate their true exposure and stress-testing their incident response plans against realistic disruption scenarios.
Learn more: AI for Insurance covers risk assessment and underwriting applications. AI for Cybersecurity Analysts focuses on threat detection and risk monitoring.
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