- The percentage of executives identifying AI-related conduct risks as the most important risk has increased from 16% in the past three years to 56% over the next three years, making it No. 1 among non-financial risks.
- Although executives report a 55% increase in large-scale conduct risk incidents between 2023 and 2025, with each incident costing an average of $14 million, the majority of companies continue to invest in conduct data reactively rather than proactively.
- As financial companies extend AI across risk workflows, trusted data will be essential to keep output relevant, accurate, and auditable, preventing illusions from spreading across models, dashboards, portfolios, and decision-making.
zurich, June 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — RepRisk, the world’s most respected DaaS company in business conduct risk, today announced new analysis from its global Business Conduct Risk Intelligence Report 2026, based on a survey of more than 500 executives from banks, asset managers, asset owners and other financial institutions conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics.
As costs increase, so do critical risk incidents
A new analysis from RepRisk estimates that companies face between $28 million and $43 million annually in costs from reputational and conduct of business risks, and that companies experience two to three major incidents per year on average, with each incident costing approximately $14 million. The most severe incidents cost an average of US$37.6 million, highlighting the economic value of early detection and prevention.
Even small improvements in monitoring, such as reducing the frequency of incidents by 5% to 10% or accelerating escalation before problems become serious, can potentially save millions of dollars annually. Structured business conduct risk intelligence creates measurable value by enabling companies to reduce blind spots, shorten decision-making cycles, strengthen governance, and improve auditability and confidence in decisions, and executives surveyed expect the ROI from these capabilities to double within three years.
AI risks skyrocket as adoption grows
According to the report, while only 16% of executives identified AI-related conduct risk as their top material risk over the past three years, 56% expect AI-related conduct risk to become their top material risk over the next three years. Against this backdrop, executives report that significant conduct of business risk incidents will increase by 55% between 2023 and 2025, and 67% report an increase in overall risk complexity over the past year.
AI risks are exploding as banks, asset managers, asset owners, and other financial institutions incorporate AI into core workflows, from transaction due diligence and risk oversight to portfolio monitoring, compliance, KYC, and stewardship engagement. For financial institutions, the risk increases with size. Business behavioral risk data can inform decisions across large portfolios, customer relationships, counterparties, transactions, and internal control frameworks. When flawed or inconsistent data enters AI-driven workflows, errors can spread across models, dashboards, portfolios, and decisions, making them difficult to identify, explain, or reverse after the fact.
“As we celebrate RepRisk’s 20th anniversary, our founding mission to bring transparency to business behavioral risk and drive positive change has never been more important,” he said. Philipp Aeby, RepRisk CEO and Co-Founder. He added: “AI is moving deeper into financial decision-making, but the reliability of models depends on the data and guardrails behind them. Illusions, inconsistent sources of information, and opaque methodologies can quickly escalate into costly business decisions.” “Finance leaders want the speed of AI without the risk of black-box automation. They want trusted AI-powered risk intelligence built on data that humans can lead, explain, defend, and support.”
This study shows a clear preference for human-driven AI when business conduct risk data informs critical decisions. Across the entire sample, 73% of executives report using a hybrid human-AI approach, and 67% trust hybrid data for key risk and investment decisions, compared to 35% for an AI-only approach. This trend is even stronger among banks, with 74% of respondents expressing confidence in hybrid human-AI data, highlighting the demand for technology powered by expert oversight rather than full automation.
About RepRisk
RepRisk is the world’s most rated Data as a Service (DaaS) company for reputational risk and responsible business operations. Since 2006, RepRisk’s data has been trusted by the world’s largest banks, investment managers, Fortune 500 companies, sovereign wealth funds, and organizations such as the OECD and the United Nations. Combining advanced AI, deep human expertise, and proven methodologies at their core, RepRisk’s solutions give customers peace of mind and enable them to “Know more, act faster, with more confidence.” Our pioneering solutions help strengthen due diligence processes across business conduct themes such as biodiversity, deforestation, human rights and corruption, enabling clients to identify, monitor and mitigate reputational, compliance and financial risks. Headquartered in Zurich with offices in Toronto, New York, London, Berlin, Manila and Tokyo, we are always close to our clients and bring a unique perspective to the industry. United by a shared belief in the power of data, our 400 employees are proud to set the global standard for business behavioral data and drive positive change through transparency. Visit reprisk.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Contact – Matthias Führer, +41 41 552 30 01, [email protected]
Source RepRisk
