Risk leaders concerned about low economic growth for second straight quarter

The low-growth environment in Q4 2025 was caused by global trade tensions and increased volatility in financial markets, according to a new report by Gartner.

Released this month and surveying 367 professionals, including enterprise risk management (ERM) leaders, risk management professionals, auditors, and senior executives on emerging and over-the-horizon risk, the Quarterly Emerging Risk Report revealed that economic and AI concerns rank high.

Financial instability, trade concerns, high unemployment, and inflation contributed to the low-growth economic environment, a concern that also held the top spot in Q32025.

Increased information integrity risk, which – Gartner defines as reduced access to accurate information through compromised datasets, AI-generated content and politicised data, leading to costly decisions and misinformed strategy – ranked as the second greatest concern.

The increased risk of financial exposure for organisations through high insurance premiums or the potential withdrawal of coverage following natural or man-made disasters ranked third.

Rogue agentic AI ranked as the fourth emerging risk. Gartner defined the risk as AI making decisions and acting in ways not aligned with organisational policies, goals, ethical principles or legal requirements, leading to operational disruptions, compliance challenges and reputational harm.

Rounding out the top five emerging risks in Q4 2025 was the risk that unpredictable US policy, including shutdowns and trade actions, could trigger capital flight from foreign markets, which could destabilise both global investment strategies and local economies.

According to Gartner risk and audit practice research director, Gamika Takkar, these determinations show “growing awareness of the potential organisational risk involved with the rapid growth of AI use inside and outside the organisation by good and bad actors alike.”

Artificial intelligence increasingly features in emerging risk concerns due to its increasing capability in automation and calculation. Deployment of agentic AI in particular was expected to rise over the next two years.

Increased AI deployment, however, amplifies existing risks, including bias, inaccuracies, and data leakage.

"As agentic AI systems gain more autonomy and complexity, human intervention becomes increasingly challenging, raising the stakes for risk management,” Takkar said.