Business leaders in the world’s most important economies have ranked misinformation/disinformation, cyber insecurity and the adverse effects of AI among the biggest threats to their respective countries, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF Executive Opinion Survey 2025 was compiled from interviews with 11,000 executives across 116 economies. They were asked to select the top five risks most likely to pose the biggest threat to their respective countries in the next two years, out of a total of 34 risks.
Although economic (eg inflation, downturn) and societal factors (eg polarization, lack of opportunity, poor public services) dominated, technological risks also featured prominently.
In G20 countries, “adverse outcomes of AI technologies” was ranked first in Germany and fourth in the US, while “adverse outcomes of frontier technologies” (like quantum) was placed fourth by Australian respondents.
Read more on WEF risk reports: WEF Warns of Growing Cyber Inequity Amid Escalating Complexities in Cyberspace.
Misinformation and disinformation was ranked as the third-biggest threat by executives in the UK, US and Canada. Cyber insecurity, or threats to critical systems, was judged the number one risk in India.
In terms of regional risk patterns, mis/disinformation placed second in North America, third in Europe and fourth in East Asia. Cyber insecurity came third in Central Asia, while “adverse outcomes of AI technologies” was ranked fourth by South-east Asian executives.
AI the Root Cause of Risk
It’s not hard to see AI running throughout these technological risks. It is helping to create highly convincing disinformation campaigns at scale, including via realistic deepfake audio and video.
It is also increasing cyber insecurity risks by upskilling threat actors in areas like social engineering, reconnaissance and vulnerability research and exploit development, according to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
The agency’s latest forward-looking threat assessment warns that AI will “almost certainly” make certain elements of intrusion activity “more effective and efficient” over the coming two years.
The “adverse outcomes” of AI cited by many executives could also be relevant for network defenders, signifying malicious use of legitimate agentic and generative AI tools, or the exploitation of AI models for disruption, espionage and other ends.
A September report revealed that 26% of US and UK firms have suffered a data poisoning attack in the past year.
“With the rise of AI, the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation is enabling bad actors to operate more broadly,” said Andrew George, president of Marsh Specialty. “As such, the challenges posed by the rapid adoption of AI and associated cyber threats now top boardroom agendas.”
