AI & Information Integrity Emerge as Top Enterprise Risks

Key Takeaways

• Information Integrity Tops the List: Gartner’s survey identified information integrity risk as the leading emerging concern, highlighting fears around unreliable datasets, AI-generated content, and politicized information driving poor decision-making.
• AI Risks Are Becoming Operational Risks: Two of the top five risks focused directly on AI, including agentic AI and workforce preparedness gaps, signaling that organizations increasingly view AI governance as a practical business issue rather than a theoretical future concern.
• Policy Uncertainty Is Affecting Global Investment Decisions: Respondents cited unpredictable U.S. policy shifts, trade actions, and broader geopolitical uncertainty as significant drivers of investment and economic instability.
• Financial Exposure Extends Beyond Insurance Costs: The survey connected disasters, cyber incidents, and geopolitical events to rising financial exposure, though the broader operational and supply chain consequences may be even more significant.
• Boards and Operating Management Face Shared Concerns: The article argues that these risks should not remain isolated within ERM teams and instead require attention from operating management, executives, and boards alike.

Deep Dive

In this article, Norman Marks examines the findings from Gartner’s latest emerging risk survey, arguing that the growing prominence of AI-related concerns signals a meaningful shift in how enterprise leaders are thinking about operational risk, decision-making, and organizational preparedness.

AI Risk Is No Longer a Future Problem

Survey after survey puts the same sources of risk in their top echelon. But the world is changing, and a new survey from Gartner is more in line with what I would expect to be on the minds of effective CROs.

The latest Gartner Quarterly Emerging Risk Report surveyed 337 “enterprise risk management (ERM) leaders, risk management professionals, auditors and senior executives”. It identified the top five emerging risks in the first quarter of this year. As their research director said:

The emerging risks in the first quarter of 2026 show new concern related to AI in the workforce and how preparedness is an increasing issue.

The top risk according to the survey is “Information integrity risk“, described as:

The risk that the proliferation of unreliable and low-quality public datasets, AI-generated content, and politicization of data reduces access to accurate information, leading to costly decisions and misinformed decisions.

In other words, the data used by AI agents is incomplete, inaccurate, out of date, or even bogus. As a result, poor decisions are made.

The second source of risk is “US-policy-induced investment uncertainty“. I am assuming that this is an objective and not political result. It is described as:

The risk that unpredictable U.S. policy shifts, including shutdowns and trade actions, could trigger capital flight from foreign markets, destabilizing local economies and global investment strategies.

For some organizations, such as in the farming sector, this description might be expanded to include immigration-related policies and their impact on the workforce. Others might be concerned about the effect of tariffs on their cash flow and availability of imported products.

The third risk identified by the survey, consistent with the prior year, is “increased financial exposure“. The description explains:

The risk that frequent natural and manmade disasters and events (such as cyberbreaches, geopolitical conflicts, and wildfires) can increase organizations’ financial exposure through high insurance premiums or the potential withdrawal of coverage.

Surely, the consequences of all of these diverse sources of risk go far beyond insurance premiums and coverage! Let’s assume they meant to include disruption of operations or the supply chain, loss of production facilities, and more.

The fourth is simply, “Agentic AI“. Gartner explains:

The risk that agentic AI could make decisions and act in ways not aligned with organizational policies, goals, ethical principles or legal requirements, ;eading to operational disruptions, compliance challenges, and reputational harm.

This is something that worries me, as I have written in earlier posts. These agents can change, and while they may function as desired today, will they do so next week or the week after?

The final source of risk in their top five is “AI workforce preparedness gap“.

The risk that rapid adoption of AI-enabled roles outpaces organizations’ ability to build employee proficiency by defining effective training approaches, establishing clear learning pathways amd developing role-appropriate capabilities, resulting in persistent skills gaps and diminishing returns on AI investments.

Again, I don’t think this goes far enough. How about the risk that organizations will let the wrong people go and create more unacceptable risk and control issues? But this top-five list is a decent start and merits thought and discussion.

It’s a survey of “enterprise risk management (ERM) leaders, risk management professionals, auditors and senior executives”. But what would operating management say are the top risks affecting how they run the organization and make decisions every day?

While some of these should be on the minds of every manager, I am sure there are other risks that are of more immediate concern. For example, what are the decisions that need to be made now and which risks and opportunities need to be considered? But at the same time, I think that the top three and the fifth item in this list should be of concern to operating management as well as the board and top management.

What do you think? Do you agree with me that the inclusion of AI-related risks is encouraging?

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