How IT Leaders Are Preparing For Rising AI-Fueled Risk In 2026

A new report from ServiceNow finds that despite the business benefits of AI, the technology has widened the global risk landscape.

Based on a global survey of 1,000 risk and security leaders across industries, a new report from cloud automation provider ServiceNow dives into the biggest risk challenges organizations will face this year.

The report touches on various kinds of risks: technology and cyber, organizational, market and economic, geopolitical and regulatory.

“We found that technology and AI now sit at the center of the global risk landscape. Digital transformation, cloud migration, and the rapid spread of generative and agentic AI are widening attack surfaces and introducing new vulnerabilities, often faster than defenses can adapt,” Ben de Bont, chief information security officer, ServiceNow, in a statement.

While ServiceNow has Fortune 500 enterprises in its customer base, company executives said that they saw a growing opportunity with midmarket customers following its acquisition of Veza, a tech firm specializing in identity security, in December 2025.

The acquisition makes the company “perfectly positioned” to assist midmarket organizations with the rise in AI adoption, said Pablo Stern, executive vice president and general manager of technology workflow products, ServiceNow, in an email interview with MES Computing.

“ServiceNow has a midmarket base, and we are perfectly positioned to help these companies gain the governance, control, and security they need to scale and adapt to the AI era,” Stern said.

There are also several key takeaways for midmarket IT leaders from ServiceNow’s report.

7 Tech And AI Risk Trends In 2026 Midmarket Leaders Should Know

Midmarket Leaders Should Prepare For Rising AI- And Tech-Related Risks

Tech risks will steadily rise in the next two months, according to the report. Risks will largely involve tech systems and platforms, shadow AI and IT, and insider threats.

“Organization weaknesses” will amplify risks. It’s time for midmarket leaders to do a full infrastructure risk assessment.

Some Business Verticals Will Be Hit Harder

Midmarket organizations in technology, financial services, consumer goods, and telecom anticipate being most vulnerable to risk this year.

AI Threats Are Outpacing Organizational Defenses

Executives surveyed said they were least confident in mitigating these AI-powered threats: cloud misconfigurations, insider threats, ransomware, disinformation, and data/IP theft.

Not Preparing For Risk Is ‘Dangerous’

Among those surveyed, only 52 percent said they have taken steps to prepare their organizations for risk. Those that haven’t face a “dangerous, widening gap between the level of risk they face and the risk management capabilities they possess.”

Keep The Boardroom In The Loop

Only 44 percent of boards for organizations with under-$5-billion revenue have a clear view of risk, the report stated.

Risk preparedness and board involvement are “intrinsically linked,” according to the report.

Risk Technology Buying Decisions Should Be A Team Effort

Risk tech buying decisions are mostly made by a handful of executives: CTOs, CEOs and CIOs. However, the report researchers argue that such decisions should include the organization’s risk and security executives—CIOSs, CSOs, CROs, and AI officers and experts.

IT Leaders Are Investing In These Risk Tools

Executives surveyed said they planned to spend more this year on risk tools for cloud and multi-cloud security, operational risk and analysis, risk simulators and analysis, and regulatory-tracking solutions.

How IT Leaders Say They Will Tackle Risk This Year

The report quoted several unnamed IT executives who spoke about their risk-combating strategies in 2026.

“We are using centralized AI governance and approval,” to address shadow AI challenges, one CFO at an insurance firm said.

“We are offering flexible work options and career development programs to keep employees engaged,” a senior executive in the telecom space.

Another executive at a Canadian consumer goods company said their company’s biggest risk was “margin pressure from rising input costs and supply chain volatility. To mitigate these risks, the executive say the company was making automation investments, implementing cost optimization initiatives as well as “strategic hedging.”

Another attributed their organization’s business risk to geopolitical instability.

“We are expanding partnerships and scenario planning,” a senior executive at an Indian governmental agency shared.

Access ServiceNow’s full report here.