The 2024 BDO Global Risk Landscape report shows that almost half of the global business leaders surveyed believe their organisations have an antifragile approach to risk.

Antifragile organisations are resilient and improve and prosper when stressed and exposed to risk. They look for opportunities to disrupt and seek to turn risk into a competitive advantage.

When economic, geopolitical, and political landscapes seem almost continually volatile, this proactive mindset may be the key to sustainable long-term success.

The ninth edition of the Global Risk Landscape Report, based on a survey of 500 C-suite executives across the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Americas is now available.

The survey examines their risk management approach and response to emerging global events that threaten their businesses.

Key findings

The report highlights how quickly risk priorities are changing in response to the shifting business landscape, and key findings include:

• Regulatory risk climbed 14 places to #1 – a major concern for 37 per cent of respondents compared to just 7 per cent last year
• Geopolitical tensions rose three places to third, cited by 26 per cent of respondents
• Cyber risk dropped to fifth, cited by 24 per cent of respondents
• Environmental risk has fallen to 9th place despite being the risk business leaders said they were least prepared for in 2023.

Marita Corbett, BDO Australia’s Risk Advisory Services National Leader, has co-authored a whitepaper exploring business risks and attitudes specifically for the Asia Pacific Region.

The whitepaper details the diverging risk challenges of AI and how the region’s risk appetite for technology is viewed as substantial compared to other regions worldwide.

“There is no doubting the impact of AI on businesses over the past year. However, the risk appetite for the technology differs substantially across regions,” the whitepaper said.

“Another impediment is Australia’s strong worker protection commitments and concerns that AI could oust humans from the workforce and increase unemployment.”

Corbett said Australia was a laggard when it comes to adopting new innovation and actively seeks to avoid the costs and risks associated with being first adopters.

“There is a conservative element at play,” she said.

“There’s cultural conservatism around relying on AI to make decisions when it’s still a little bit too unfounded.”

AI is also being adopted by hackers, BDO Hong Kong director and head of risk advisory Ricky Cheng said, to impersonate people and steal money or information.

“Individuals are being tricked to transfer their money to some unknown third party, so these individuals are not well educated on some of the latest tech such as phishing or deep fake AI,” Cheng said.

“Hackers nowadays are very advanced with the emergence of deepfake technology that heightens the likelihood of a social engineering attack.”

Read the Global Risk Landscape Report here, and the BDO whitepaper here.