More than a third of businesses rank a cyber incident as the single biggest threat to continuity over the next year, well ahead of geopolitical instability, tariffs, or labour disruption.
New research from supply chain intelligence firm Zero100, based on a survey of chief operating officers (COOs) from $1bn+ companies, finds cyber incidents stand out not just as the top concern, but as the fastest-moving shock companies expect to face. 62 percent say they can respond to a cyber incident within minutes or hours, compared with disruptions such as tariffs, which take the vast majority of businesses days or weeks to respond to (83 percent).
However, opinion is sharply divided among COOs on whether AI will reduce or increase cyber risk (50 percent say better, vs. 43 percent say worse), even as a majority believe it will help manage supply shortages (64 percent) and ease skill gaps (58 percent).
The research also highlights a growing credibility gap between what companies are telling investors and what they believe they can deliver. Fewer than one in five COOs believe a majority of their company’s AI commitments to shareholders can be delivered on time (17 percent).
Lauren Acoba, VP, research and advisory services at Zero100, says:
Despite all the recent fallout from Davos, cybersecurity breaches rank as a much bigger business concern than geopolitical conflict. A major cyber failure can do far more immediate damage than tariffs or trade disputes to company profitability — and even entire economies, as last year’s JLR incident in the UK demonstrated.
Furthermore, while CEOs are talking up AI to shareholders as a productivity engine, inside the business the mood is far more guarded. Operations leaders believe in AI’s potential, but they don’t believe the timelines.
Expectations around agentic AI are particularly restrained. Just seven percent believe agentic systems will fundamentally redesign a majority of workflows within the next two years. The most common view, held by two in five COOs (43 percent), is that agentic AI will reshape just 11–25 percent of workflows, pointing to selective deployment rather than wholesale transformation.
“Companies have the tools, but not yet the organizational muscle to change how work gets done using agentic AI,” Acoba adds. “Cost control still dominates how they’re measured; they’re asked to chase growth, but are judged on profit. The result is an operating model that rewards not breaking things, more than trying new ideas. Until that changes, AI’s impact on resilience will be more incremental than transformational.”
You can find out more on the Zero100 site.
Image credit: denisismagilov/depositphotos.com
