Latin America can no longer afford siloed risk management, says Allianz MD

AI is now the top risk in Latin America — but it is not acting alone. Allianz’s David Colmenares warns that cyber, political and operational risks are converging faster than many businesses realise.

Key Points:
Cyber and AI now inseparable
Data quality amplifies AI risk
Siloed risk management no longer works

The era of “siloed risk management” is over in Latin America. As artificial intelligence embeds itself in core operations, cyber threats grow more sophisticated and political risk remains elevated, businesses are facing a convergence of risks they can no longer afford to manage separately. 

That is the warning from David Colmenares, managing director of Allianz Commercial Latin America and chief executive of Allianz Colombia, who says many businesses are still underestimating how quickly the region’s risk landscape is changing, and how interconnected those risks have become.

“AI is no longer a future consideration, but a present reality,” Colmenares said. “It is already shaping credit decisions, customer service, supply chains and fraud detection. And once it moves into the core of operations, the risks become very real.”

He was speaking to Miami Reinsurance Week Today as the re/insurance market convened in Miami for the season’s big conversations, with the Allianz Risk Barometer 2026 sharpening how executives are thinking about what lies ahead.

For the first time, AI (42%) has overtaken cyber incidents (41%) as the top risk concern in the region. For Colmenares, that shift signals implications that go well beyond the rankings.

“Latin America has moved from the periphery to the front line of global digital risk,” he said. “Companies here are leapfrogging legacy technologies and adopting AI and generative AI very quickly. That brings opportunity, but also exposes readiness gaps.”

Those gaps are already becoming visible. One of the most pressing is data quality. Many organisations are deploying AI on fragmented or incomplete data infrastructure, with limited governance in place.

“AI amplifies whatever you feed it,” Colmenares said. “If the data has gaps, AI will magnify those gaps at scale. That’s where risk accelerates.”

Workforce readiness is another fault line. While education, retraining and upskilling initiatives are among the most common responses to rising AI adoption, the pace of technological change is proving difficult to match.

“The speed of adoption is faster than the speed of governance and skills development,” Colmenares said. “That creates tension, especially when AI-driven decisions start carrying legal and reputational consequences.”

Cyber risk, meanwhile, has not fallen away. Instead, AI and cyber are becoming increasingly inseparable – a shift, Colmenares says, many organisations are still struggling to recognise.

“The AI-cyber convergence may intensify,” he warned. “We’ll see more sophisticated AI-powered attacks and more legal scrutiny when AI-generated decisions cause harm.

“We’re already seeing more convincing phishing, automated attacks, deepfakes and fraud schemes.”

At the same time, AI systems are creating new vulnerabilities of their own. Models can be manipulated, training data poisoned and AI-driven decisions compromised at scale. Heavy reliance on third-party AI providers adds further points of exposure.

This digital convergence is unfolding against a backdrop of persistent geopolitical and climate-related risk. Political risk and violence have risen to their highest-ever levels globally, ranking sixth in Latin America. With elections due in major markets such as Brazil and Colombia in 2026, uncertainty remains firmly on the agenda.

Supply chains remain a particular pressure point. Only 3% of companies globally describe their supply chains as very resilient – a figure that resonates strongly in Latin America, where digital dependence often intersects with political instability and climate disruption.

“Businesses can’t address AI risk without addressing cyber security.”

“None of those risks exists in isolation,” Colmenares said. “A cyber breach doesn’t just compromise data. It can shut down AI-driven production systems. A climate events doesn’t just disrupt logistics, it exposes vulnerabilities in the digital management. Regulatory changes don’t just create compliance burdens.”

The result is a practical challenge many companies are still grappling with.

“Businesses can’t address AI risk without addressing cyber security,” he said. “They can’t build supply-chain resilience without considering climate adaptation, and can’t plan for growth without factoring in regulatory divergence across markets.”

For business leaders, that means rethinking not just insurance cover, but how true resilience is built. Protection alone is no longer enough.

“Resilience means being able to recover quickly when incidents occur,” Colmenares said. “That requires robust business continuity plans, diversified supply chains, cyber incident response capabilities and appropriate insurance coverage.”

It also requires a shift in mindset.

“Move from preventive to predictive action,” he said. “Companies now need forward-looking approaches to managing risk, including horizon scanning, scenario modelling and stress testing. Use AI to scan for vulnerabilities, monitor regulatory developments proactively and conduct scenario planning for geopolitical shifts.”

“Strategic divergence will be one of the defining regulatory risks of 2026,” Colmenares concluded.

David Colmenares is the managing director of Allianz Commercial Latin America and CEO of Allianz Colombia. He can be contacted at: david.colmenares@allianz.com.

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