Recommendations
Overall, the survey indicates that organisations are aware of where actions are required, but they face difficulties in translating this awareness into an integrated approach.
Next steps
The key challenge lies in connecting analytics, governance, strategic planning, operational execution, and workforce capability in a sufficiently integrated way to support proactive decision making. To address this challenge, organisations should focus on the following priorities, based on the topics covered in the survey:
- To enhance the integration of risk management into organisations’ decision-making from both short- and long-term perspectives, risk management should continue to build capabilities that deliver timely, actionable insights at the point of decision-making. This may require a further shift toward quantitative analysis, alongside greater use of analytics, data, and AI to improve risk assessment for both internal and external risk triggers. At the same time, risk appetite is not yet widely embedded to support decision-making. Defining a small set of measurable but meaningful indicators and thresholds may help trigger proactive action plans for key risks. Further collaboration among the risk, finance, and strategy functions would strengthen the use of scenario analysis and stress testing, providing the organisation with additional perspectives. More formally defining the role of risk management in decision-making moments may also help better integrate risk analysis earlier in the process.
- The volatile external context requires organisations to strengthen supply chain risk management, as most respondents recognise. Deploying technology and risk-based approaches will be key to extending supply chain visibility beyond direct suppliers and enabling real-time event monitoring, thereby improving risk-informed supplier relationship management in the face of geopolitical uncertainty and increasingly severe extreme weather events.
More formally defining the role of risk management in decision-making moments may also help better integrate risk analysis earlier in the process.
- AI and analytics should be leveraged as enablers of risk management. At the same time, the associated risk dimension should not be ignored, including regulatory implications and the potential to amplify existing risks. Practical applications should be prioritised where AI can add value to risk management by capturing the characteristics of individual risks. As technology advances, it may further challenge approaches that rely too heavily on qualitative analysis without a clear link to decision-making moments. This transformation, therefore, marks a key moment for risk management to demonstrate its practical value to business units across the organisation and support risk managers in having an interconnected view on risk challenges. It may also require changes to the design of the risk management architecture and the integration of agentic AI solutions that support and optimise risk management activities.
- Workforce adaptability in the context of transformation requires capturing early risk signals in areas more exposed to external trends and shocks. It also requires ensuring that reskilling, upskilling, attraction, and retention of the right capabilities are strongly prioritised to support a smoother organisational transition. This means balancing medium and short-term perspectives and ensuring a shared risk analysis approach between risk management, human resources, and business units.
- Climate adaptation and mitigation remain key prerequisites for companies’ resilience, alongside regulatory requirements. In the European context, they are also important drivers of competitiveness. Transition can support autonomy and stability in an unstable geopolitical environment, while adaptation is essential to the continuity of operations across the entire value chain. In this context, the energy transition should be addressed in a structured way, with clear consideration of the project risks that may arise and the evolving risk-mitigation levers required to support strategy design and implementation, as well as to enhance the bankability of individual projects. More broadly, a clear understanding of physical risk drivers affecting value chain continuity and integrity, supported by approaches that balance asset-level and portfolio views, should help inform capital expenditure prioritisation and strengthen long-term resilience.
At Marsh, we help organisations build that capability — bringing together data, insight, and practical advice to support stronger, more confident decision-making.
If you would like to discuss the findings in this report and how they may apply to your organisation, please contact your Marsh advisor or a member of our team.