Half of Organizations Lack a Formal Critical Event Management Strategy as Global Threats Accelerate, New Everbridge Report Finds

2027 Global Risk & Resilience Outlook identifies widening readiness gap as cyberattacks, geopolitical conflict, and extreme weather test organizational resilience

VIENNA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Everbridge, the global leader in High Velocity Critical Event Management (CEM) and national public warning solutions, today released its 2027 Global Risk & Resilience Outlook, revealing significant gaps in organizational preparedness as cyberattacks, geopolitical instability, and other interconnected threats challenge businesses and governments worldwide.

Titled Closing the Readiness Gap, the report identifies the ten most consequential risks facing organizations in 2027 and highlights a growing challenge: while organizations have more information about emerging threats than ever before, many remain unprepared to translate that intelligence into timely, coordinated action.

Drawing on Everbridge risk intelligence, authoritative industry research, and findings from the company's 2026 Best in Resilience Study, the outlook highlights several concerning findings:

• 50% of organizations have limited or no formal critical event management strategy, raising questions about their ability to coordinate an effective response when disruption occurs.
• 77% of leadership teams were caught off guard by a geopolitical development at least once in the past year, underscoring the challenges of anticipating and preparing for rapidly evolving global events.
• 24% of organizations never test their business continuity plans, leaving critical response procedures unproven.
• 29 minutes is the average breakout time for AI-enabled cyberattacks, illustrating how quickly threats can escalate and compress the window for effective response.

Together, these findings underscore the report's central conclusion: the greatest challenge for organizations in 2027 is not simply understanding the risks they face but closing the gap between awareness and action.

"The defining challenge for organizations in 2027 isn't simply identifying the risks ahead. It's being ready to act when those risks become reality," said Dave Wagner, Chief Executive Officer of Everbridge. "We're seeing threats move faster and become more interconnected, yet too many organizations still rely on disconnected processes and plans that haven't been tested under pressure. That's why we recently introduced Everbridge 360 AI Advisor, helping organizations turn intelligence into decisions, empower teams to act, and coordinate their response before disruption escalates. That's what will separate organizations that simply respond to critical events from those that are truly resilient."

Top 2027 Risk Rankings

The outlook ranks cyberattacks and systemic cyber risk as the leading global threat for 2027, followed by geopolitical conflict and geoeconomic confrontation, and natural disasters and climate-driven extremes. The report also examines emerging challenges involving artificial intelligence, supply-chain disruption, misinformation, and other risks that increasingly intersect and amplify one another.

A central theme is that threats rarely occur in isolation. A cyberattack can disrupt critical services while misinformation complicates response efforts. Geopolitical conflict can trigger supply-chain interruptions, regulatory changes, and workforce safety concerns across multiple regions. Severe weather can simultaneously threaten infrastructure, employees, and essential operations.

Closing the Readiness Gap

Beyond identifying the most pressing threats, the report examines the operational barriers that prevent organizations from responding effectively, including unclear decision-making authority, fragmented risk intelligence, and delays in activating response plans.

The outlook outlines practical steps organizations can take to strengthen preparedness, improve coordination, and accelerate decision-making. It also includes real-world examples, compound-risk scenarios, executive-level considerations, and a 90-day roadmap to help leaders turn resilience strategies into measurable action.

Everbridge will host a webinar on November 18 to discuss the report's key findings and share best practices for navigating the evolving global risk landscape. Register for the webinar here.

Download the full Everbridge 2027 Global Risk & Resilience Outlook: Closing the Readiness Gap for the complete ranking of all ten risks, in-depth analysis, and actionable recommendations for 2027.

About Everbridge

Everbridge helps more than 6,500 enterprises and government organizations manage critical events by enabling them to know earlier, respond faster, and improve continuously. Through an all-in-one AI-powered platform, Everbridge High Velocity CEM™ is autonomous when you want it to be and human-guided when you need it to be, so every incident response is optimized. For more information, visit everbridge.com and follow us on LinkedIn.