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The Changing Landscape of Business Risk

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The Changing Landscape of Business Risk

The Changing Landscape of Business Risk

View the high resolution version of today’s graphic by clicking here.

In the modern era, the pace of business is fast – but the pace of technological change is even faster.

As a result, the landscape of business risks is constantly shifting and changing, and both entrepreneurs and investors need to be on top of the potential factors that could disrupt their chances of success. At the same time, they also need to be prepared to address and mitigate new risks as they crop up.

Today’s Biggest Risks

Today’s infographic comes to us from Raconteur, and it highlights the forces that have been shaping the business risk landscape – both today and as projected for the future.

Using data from the 2017 Global Risk Management Survey done by insurance company Aon, it shows the top business risks according to 1,843 risk decision-makers from 33 industry sectors in over 60 countries.

Here were the top risks from 2017, as well as the corresponding portion of business leaders that said they were prepared for each risk:

Rank (2017)Business RiskReadiness
#1Damage to reputation/brand51%
#2Economic slowdown/slow recovery30%
#3Increasing competition45%
#4Regulatory/legislative changes44%
#5Cybercrime, hacking, viruses, malicious codes79%
#6Failure to innovate/meet customer needs59%
#7Failure to attract or retain talent57%
#8Business interruption67%
#9Political risk/uncertainties27%
#10Third-party liability70%

The insurer noted that many of these top business risks were uninsurable – and that in general, that such risks are continuing to gain precedence.

Future Business Risk

Interestingly, the survey also asked respondents to predict the risks in 2020 based on current trends and conditions.

Here is the same list, but for 2020, including the current ranks as well:

Rank (2020)Business RiskPrevious Rank (2017)
#1Economic slowdown/slow recovery2
#2Increasing competition3
#3Failure to innovate/meet customer needs6
#4Regulatory/legislative changes4
#5Cybercrime, hacking, viruses, malicious codes5
#6Damage to reputation/brand1
#7Failure to attract or retain talent7
#8Political risk/uncertainties9
#9Commodity price riskn/a
#10Disruptive technologies/innovationn/a

Damage to risk/brand fell out of the top spot all the way to #6, and two new entrants appear for the first time: commodity price risk and disruptive technology/innovation.

Cybercrime Overconfidence

Raconteur’s infographic also points to the biggest long-term risks to business, and the risks that get the most underestimated. These both come from a 2018 report by German asset manager Allianz, which includes opinions from a selection of risk experts.

The Biggest Long Term Risks
1. Cyberincidents
2. New technologies
3. Climate change/increasing volatility of weather

The Most Underestimated Risks
1. Cyberincidents
2. Business interruption
3. New technologies

As you’ll notice, the risk of “cyberincidents” tops both lists.

This is particularly interesting, because in the previous survey of business leaders, the potential business risk of “cybercrime, hacking, viruses, and malicious codes” was the one that leaders said they were most prepared for, with a 79% readiness level.

Yet, cyberincidents – which have an estimated annual impact of $450 billion per year – are both the top long-term risk and the most underestimated risk according to risk experts in the Allianz report.

Could business leaders be overconfident about this kind of threat?

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Technology

Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

We visualized the results of an analysis by the World Economic Forum, which uncovered the jobs most impacted by AI.

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Charted: The Jobs Most Impacted by AI

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI tools haven’t been around for very long, but they’re expected to have far-reaching impacts on the way people do their jobs. With this in mind, researchers have already begun studying the potential impacts of this transformative technology.

In this graphic, we’ve visualized the results of a World Economic Forum report, which estimated how different job departments will be exposed to AI disruption.

Data and Methodology

To identify the job departments most impacted by AI, researchers assessed over 19,000 occupational tasks (e.g. reading documents) to determine if they relied on language. If a task was deemed language-based, it was then determined how much human involvement was needed to complete that task.

With this analysis, researchers were then able to estimate how AI would impact different occupational groups.

DepartmentLarge impact (%)Small impact (%)No impact (%)
IT73261
Finance70219
Customer Sales671617
Operations651817
HR57412
Marketing56413
Legal46504
Supply Chain431839

In our graphic, large impact refers to tasks that will be fully automated or significantly altered by AI technologies. Small impact refers to tasks that have a lesser potential for disruption.

Where AI will make the biggest impact

Jobs in information technology (IT) and finance have the highest share of tasks expected to be largely impacted by AI.

Within IT, tasks that are expected to be automated include software quality assurance and customer support. On the finance side, researchers believe that AI could be significantly useful for bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing.

Still interested in AI? Check out this graphic which ranked the most commonly used AI tools in 2023.

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