Artificial intelligence has overtaken climate change as the top concern among risk experts globally. According to the AXA Future Risks Report, it is only the second time in the survey’s 13-year history that climate has not led the expert ranking. The first was in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift, documented in a survey conducted by Ipsos between 14 May and 24 June 2026, drawing on 4,345 experts across 62 countries and a separate panel of 24,000 members of the general public across 19 countries, captures something the insurance market is already grappling with: AI is moving faster than the systems designed to manage it.
Among experts who named AI and big data as a top risk, 54% described it as rapidly emerging. Yet only 9% believe public authorities are well prepared to address it. That figure drops to 3% in Europe. The gap between recognition and readiness describes the conditions under which coverage disputes arise, underwriting assumptions become unreliable, and clients discover mid-claim that what they thought was covered isn’t.
The report lands at a moment when the market is actively trying to answer a question it has been avoiding. What does a standard policy cover when AI is involved? For years, AI-related losses sat inside conventional cyber, tech errors and omissions, and general liability policies without being named. That arrangement - AI losses sitting inside conventional policies without being named - is breaking down in a pattern some practitioners describe as analogous to the "silent cyber" problem the market worked through a decade ago. Carriers are introducing AI-specific exclusions, revised policy forms, and affirmative endorsements. The approaches vary enough across lines that policyholders can end up with coverage gaps between each layer of the insurance tower.
According to Garrett Droege, fintech and digital assets leader for North America at WTW, AI is dominating conversations across the cyber market. “Insureds are wondering whether their cyber policy covers generative AI-caused losses, and carriers are cautiously assessing their portfolios to gauge systemic risk,” Droege said. He added that many losses ultimately trace back to third parties who may not carry robust cyber coverage themselves.
The AXA report reinforces why that concern is growing. Generative AI is making impersonation, fraud, and misinformation more sophisticated and harder to detect. That helps explain why the general population’s primary cyber concern has shifted from infrastructure attacks to reputation and impersonation risks, including identity theft and deepfakes. Experts still rate cyberwarfare against critical infrastructure as their leading cyber worry. But both groups see the threat environment as settled and worsening rather than speculative. Among experts who selected cyber as a top risk, 90% described it as either rapidly emerging or already entrenched.
Energy risks climbed back to fifth place among experts in 2026, reversing three years of decline. The survey was conducted while disruptions from tensions around the Strait of Hormuz were fresh in respondents’ minds. The report draws a direct line between geopolitical instability and energy vulnerability. It also names a newer driver: AI’s surge in power demand is putting additional strain on electricity grids, compounding traditional pressure on affordability and supply security.
A 2026 report from claims management company Sedgwick found that 65% of Fortune 500 companies cited economic and geopolitical volatility as their primary supply chain concern. A further 38% identified cyber risk as a core vulnerability within those supply chains. That configuration mirrors the AXA findings on how geopolitical, energy, and technology risks are converging into each other. It is the kind of multi-risk exposure that is difficult to price within a single line of business.
Across nearly every risk category the report examines, a consistent pattern emerges: recognition is high, preparedness is not. Only 13% of experts believe authorities are well prepared for climate change. Fifteen percent (15%) say the same for geopolitical instability. Social fragmentation and AI both sit at 9%, the joint lowest in the survey.
The Triple-I and Munich Re RiskScan 2026, published in June, found that cyber incidents, economic pressures, and AI emerged as the top concerns across all market segments. It noted that recognition of risk was “only the first step,” with persistent protection gaps remaining across both cyber and flood insurance.
The AXA survey adds the demand side of that equation. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of the general population believe insurers have an important role in protecting against emerging risks. Among commercial clients, knowledge sharing and risk education ranked nearly as highly as risk transfer itself as an expectation of their insurer relationships. That expectation is strongest among younger clients. Seventy-two percent of those under 45 said insurers play an important role in protection, compared with 65% of those aged 45 and over.
