Clyde & Co Survey: 86% of Business Leaders Now Rate Technology Risk as High Impact, Up From 46%

A new survey from global law firm Clyde & Co paints a picture of a corporate world grappling with rapidly compounding and interconnected risks. The firm's Corporate Risk Radar 2026, published June 25, 2026, is based on responses from 700 senior decision-makers — including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, general counsel, and board members — across eight regions and ten sectors, representing organizations with an average global turnover of $14.7 billion.

The headline finding is the dramatic escalation of perceived technology risk. 86% of business leaders now rate technological risk as high impact, up from just 46% in 2025 — the largest year-on-year increase of any category in the research. The driver is the rapid and unpredictable evolution of artificial intelligence. Clyde & Co partner Tim Crockford noted that businesses are trying to adapt to AI as quickly as they can, but the speed at which it changes makes governance a major challenge: an AI governance framework that is mature today may be out of date tomorrow. The survey found that while 76% of organizations say AI, data privacy, and cybersecurity requirements are evolving rapidly, only 68% have a mature AI governance framework in place.

Geopolitical risk is also rising sharply. 72% of organizations say geopolitical volatility is having a direct commercial impact on performance, up from 49% the prior year. Four in five report that geopolitical shifts, trade policy changes, and evolving tariff environments are materially influencing where and how they operate globally. Looking ahead, 73% of leaders say deglobalization driven by geopolitical decisions is creating uncertainty that could materially affect growth over the next five years, while 60% expect conflict escalation and international instability to significantly impact their business within 12 months. As a result, organizations are restructuring operations to reduce dependency on single markets, suppliers, and jurisdictions.

Regulatory and compliance burden rounds out the picture, cited as high impact by 85% of leaders, up from 54%. Nearly six in ten respondents identified the complexity of overlapping risks as the single biggest barrier to managing them effectively. For the insurance industry specifically, these converging risks reshape both the demand for coverage — particularly in cyber, political risk, and D&O lines — and the underwriting challenges insurers face. Despite the rising pressure, 95% of organizations expressed confidence in management's ability to identify and mitigate material risks.