Human vulnerability is emerging as one of the defining dimensions of systemic risk. By 2050, the world’s population will exceed 9.7 billion, with two-thirds living in cities. More than 1.6 billion people will be over the age of 65, and nearly one in three workers will live in regions exposed to extreme heat for at least one month each year. Climate, technology, and demographic shifts are converging to test the limits of physical, mental, and economic resilience. From extreme heat and aging societies to AI and toxic exposures, the forces shaping global resilience are increasingly measured not only in physical or financial terms but through their impact on people – the workers, communities, and institutions that keep economies functioning.
These pressures are not theoretical. The World Health Organization estimates that over 250,000 additional deaths each year will be attributable to climate-related stress by mid-century, while the International Labour Organization warns that heat stress could reduce total global working hours by 2.2%, equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs.
1.6bn+ people will be over the age of 65 by 2050
Meanwhile, AI and automation are reshaping the world of work and wellbeing in quieter ways—altering employment, social connection, and human agency. Together, these trends highlight how the core assets of modern economies are also their most fragile: people.
As climate, technology, and demographic change accelerate, the boundary between human and systemic risk continues to erode. Heatwaves drive mortality and productivity losses. Displacement fractures social networks and slows recovery. Automation and data-driven systems introduce new psychological, ethical, and occupational strains. These are not only humanitarian concerns; they are material exposures that affect labor markets, health systems, supply chains, and asset values.
Yet, while risk models have advanced in measuring hazards to property and capital, few capture the vulnerabilities embedded in human systems: workforce dependence, access to care, adaptive capacity, or social cohesion. As populations age, urbanize, and digital technologies reshape the workplace, the resilience of these systems is increasingly under stress. For the insurance sector, the challenge and the opportunity lie in understanding how shifts in wellbeing, health, and capability translate into measurable risk.
This edition of the Risk and Resilience Review explores the human dimension of emerging perils, drawing on research from the Willis Research Network and its academic and industry partners. Together, the articles examine how climate, technological, and social pressures are reshaping the limits of human endurance – and what this means for the future of risk management.
A consistent theme runs through the work: vulnerability is not fixed. It evolves with exposure, inequality, and the capacity to adapt. As insurers, investors, and policymakers look to model increasingly complex risk, placing people at the center of resilience is becoming both an ethical obligation and a commercial necessity.
Artificial intelligence is introducing a new category of exposure – not to systems, but to the people who depend on them. Drawing on Chief Innovation & Acceleration Officer at WTW John Bremen’s research, this piece explores five dimensions of human vulnerability to AI: mental wellbeing, economic insecurity, social disruption, loss of agency, and erosion of meaning. It argues for a new generation of human-centered metrics and governance that can detect and reduce these risks while preserving trust and dignity.
With global populations over 65 expected to double by 2050, aging is often seen purely as a risk multiplier. Yet it can also be a source of resilience. This article explores the dual nature of aging societies – the vulnerabilities of health, mobility, and isolation, and the strengths of experience, cohesion, and collective response that older populations can bring to times of crisis.
Research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Willis Research Network shows that humid heat is now one of the clearest signals of climate change in cities worldwide. This article examines how rising temperatures are affecting labor productivity, health outcomes, and insurability – and why risk managers must increasingly treat the human body itself as critical infrastructure.
Drawing on work by Nicole Paul at UCL, this piece looks at the consequences of climate-induced displacement beyond immediate loss – the long-term effects on mental health, wellbeing, and community recovery. It also considers how the duration and nature of displacement influence recovery trajectories, with implications for insurers modelling post-disaster risk and social stability.
PFAS contamination – now found in the blood of nearly every person on Earth – represents a slow-moving global crisis. This article traces the health, environmental, and liability dimensions of PFAS exposure and examines how their persistence and regulatory uncertainty are creating one of the longest-tail risks in modern insurance portfolios.
The digitization of healthcare has created new intersections between cyber and biological risk. This article examines how cyberattacks on hospitals, medical data systems, and biotech research can quickly translate into human harm—delayed treatment, compromised diagnostics, and loss of trust in public health infrastructure. It also explores the limits of technology-focused cybersecurity approaches and argues that resilience depends on understanding behavioral, ethical, and operational vulnerabilities within health systems themselves.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has receded, its aftershocks remain. This piece revisits how behavioral fatigue, social trust, and health system capacity shaped outcomes—and how future outbreaks will test them again. It explores what has been learned about resilience in human systems: how misinformation spreads faster than pathogens, how economic insecurity compounds biological risk, and how insurers can help bridge the gap between preparedness and protection.
Ultimately, resilience begins and ends with people. As physical and financial systems are digitized, automated, and globalized, the human dimension becomes both the first point of failure and the foundation of recovery. Understanding how vulnerability is created, transmitted, and mitigated through human systems is no longer peripheral to risk management; it is central to it. The insurance sector has a unique vantage point translating these insights into action by embedding human vulnerability into modelling, pricing, and investment decisions, and by supporting clients in strengthening the systems that sustain wellbeing. The next frontier of resilience will not be built on stronger walls, but on stronger lives.
