Risks are becoming increasingly interconnected, with artificial intelligence and supply chains emerging as key points of connection, creating new pathways through which relatively contained shocks can spread faster and further.

This is among the findings of research published today by Swiss Re Institute and LSE. It shows that the majority of Fortune 100 companies note a materially greater linkage between reported risks now than they did in 2019.

The findings point to growing links between digital, natural-hazard, financial and socio-economic risks. Greater dependence on common suppliers, technology platforms and critical infrastructure means disruption in one area can increasingly affect others.

Jérôme Haegeli, group chief economist and head of Swiss Re Institute, said: "Interconnected risks leave less room for error, while governments in many advanced economies have less room to respond. High debt and constrained policy buffers mean resilience cannot start when a crisis hits – it has to be built beforehand, by reducing critical dependencies, strengthening buffers and preserving the capacity to transfer risk."

According to the research, AI risk reporting has increased by around 30% between 2019 and 2026, extending beyond technology into retail firms, pharmaceutical companies and airlines. The analysis found that increasing reliance on common technologies and similar AI models could lead to faster and more synchronised reactions to shocks.

Jón Daníelsson, director of the Systemic Risk Centre and reader in finance at LSE, said: "We tend to prepare for the last crisis and try to predict the trigger for the next. But systemic crises are defined by what happens after the shock, and AI could fundamentally change that dynamic. If institutions increasingly use similar models and react at machine speed, a containable shock can become systemic before there is time to respond. The challenge is not to predict the next crisis, but to be prepared for shocks we cannot foresee."

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