Global Directors’ and Officers’ Survey Results 2026

Key findings:

• Health & safety remains the top risk for D&Os, underscoring its continued primacy despite increasing competition from emerging and fast-evolving risk categories.
• Cyber-related risks continue to dominate the agenda, with data loss and cyber attack retaining the #2 and #3 positions respectively, highlighting the persistent and systemic nature of digital exposure.

Geopolitical risks

• Geopolitical risk has entered the global top seven for the first time, signaling heightened macroeconomic and political volatility; however its relevance is uneven, most pronounced in Europe and select sectors (Industrial, transportation and retail), but not yet a top-tier concern for the largest organizations.
• Relatedly, supply chain disruption remains a key regional and sectoral risk, featuring in the top seven across the U.S., Africa and the Middle East, and in industries including industrial, healthcare, transportation and retail, as well as energy & utilities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) risk is rising sharply (+5%), reflecting accelerating adoption and concern:

• Now a top five risk in the U.S. and a top seven risk in the services sector, though not yet consistently ranked across other regions.
• Primary concerns center on AI-generated errors and misinformation, followed by fraud/social engineering, failure to adopt AI strategically and weak governance or uncontrolled use.
• Despite growing importance, board-level capability remains limited, with relatively few respondents confident in oversight skills; AI ranks only mid-tier for time investment and lower for perceived materiality, indicating a governance gap.