The low-growth economic environment, caused by global trade tensions and increased volatility in financial markets, continued to hold the top rank of emerging risks for the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Gartner.
The Gartner Quarterly Emerging Risk Report series captures the viewpoints and concerns of enterprise risk management (ERM) leaders, risk management professionals, auditors, and senior executives views on emerging risks or over-the-horizon risk.
The survey of 367 senior risk and assurance executives – taken in the final quarter of 2025 – revealed that the low-growth economic environment, which relates to financial instability, trade concerns, high unemployment and inflation, continued to concern risk leaders, as it also held the most cited spot in 3Q25.
“The emerging risks in the fourth quarter of 2025 show both continued concern related to economic, geopolitical and environmental issues, and growing awareness of the potential organizational risk involved with the rapid growth of AI use inside and outside the organization by good and bad actors alike,” says Gamika Takkar, director: research, in the Gartner Risk & Audit Practice.
Top Emerging Risks of 4Q 2025
Source: Gartner (February 2026)
Agentic AI – the next evolution in AI
The 4Q25 Emerging Risks Report notes a rapid increase in agentic AI adoption, with organisations planning significant deployments over the next two years. While agentic AI offers significant opportunities, it also inherits and amplifies existing AI risks, such as bias, inaccuracies and data leakage.
“Agentic AI represents a major leap forward in enterprise automation and decision-making,” says Takkar. “Unlike traditional AI models that require human prompts, agentic AI systems operate autonomously, and as agentic AI systems gain more autonomy and complexity, human intervention becomes increasingly challenging, raising the stakes for risk management.”