Airmic 2025: How risk managers are thinking about the threats they face

NAT CATS

Most Airmic members said their organisations are ʻvery well prepared’ or ʻsomewhat prepared’ for weather-related natural catastrophes. But, with 2024 the first year the global mean temperature exceeded 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels, the insurance protection gap for natural catastrophes stands at 60%, says WTW’s Natural Catastrophe Review.

Airmic CEO Julia Graham said: “Risk professionals must build greater resilience against natural catastrophe events. Besides risk assessments and physical protection solutions, they need to ensure that their supply chains are adequately protected.”

STRATEGIC INFLUENCE

Those who lead in risk management are very or somewhat involved or in strategic decisionmaking, said two-thirds of respondents. But some warned that there is lingering cynicism as to whether risk management can contribute to strategic opportunities for businesses.

Leigh-Anne Slade, head of media, communications and interest groups, said: “For many of our members’ organisations, risk management is already largely involved in preserving and enabling the organisation to deliver on its strategic goals – but they could be much more involved in setting that strategy with the board, especially before crisis hits.”

RUSSIA-UKRAINE

US CLIMATE POLICIES

AI ADOPTION

Almost half say their organisations are accelerating their adoption of AI, while a further 39% said it remains constant. Graham said: “The clear message is that AI is the way to go for organisations to meet today’s economic challenges. There may have been some hype accompanying the emergence of generative AI in the past few years, but the promise of AI has become more apparent as AI use reaches a crucial threshold of scalability.”

SOURCING STRATEGIES

Half of risk managers say their organisations are still using ESG scores and assessments to inform their sourcing and sustainability strategy, when managing supply chain risks. Loke said: “While the prevalence of ESG scores and assessments could be explained by reasons of regulatory compliance, their use in informing the organisation’s sourcing and sustainability strategy simply demonstrates good risk management in evaluating and monitoring your suppliers.”