A.I.-Powered Cyber Threats Are Here: What Consumers, Business Owners and Agents Need to Know

A new Nationwide survey reveals a widening gap between awareness of A.I.-enabled cyber risks and preparedness to respond — and points to the growing role of insurers in closing it.

Cyber threats are evolving faster than the people and businesses they target.

According to Nationwide’s latest Agency Forward cybersecurity survey, more than 8 in 10 consumers (84%) are concerned about criminals using A.I. to steal someone’s identity, and 81% of mid-market business owners worry about a potential cyberattack on their business. Yet across every audience surveyed; consumers, small business owners, mid-market business owners and independent insurance agents, awareness of the threat is outpacing readiness to respond.

The findings, drawn from a survey of 1,000 consumers, 300 small business owners, 300 mid-market business owners and 300 independent agents conducted in July 2026, paint a picture of an insurance landscape in which cyber risk has moved from an emerging concern to a core business and household exposure. They also point to a growing opportunity for agents to serve as trusted advisers in a space where knowledge gaps remain wide.

The Chief Cyber Concerns

Among consumers, the top-of-mind cyber worries center on the security of personal information. More than 8 in 10 are moderately or very worried about data breaches exposing personal information (82%), loss of privacy from data collection (80%), identity theft (79%) and financial fraud (79%). Three-quarters are concerned about A.I.-generated scams and impersonation attempts, including cloned voices, fake videos and fake messages.

Baby Boomers are particularly alert to the A.I. threat. Ninety-one percent of them are concerned about criminals using A.I. to steal someone’s identity, compared with 84% of consumers overall. Despite that heightened awareness, a third of Boomers (33%) say they are not at all confident they could identify an A.I.-powered scam.

For business owners, concern is just as sharp. More than two-thirds of small business owners (68%) and 4 in 5 mid-market business owners (81%) are concerned about a potential cyberattack, citing financial loss, business disruption and exposure of sensitive customer, employee or business information as their top worries.

Roughly three-quarters of small business owners (72%), mid-market business owners (76%) and agents (73%) are also moderately or extremely concerned that A.I. is increasing the speed, scale and sophistication of cyberattacks.

Agents are hearing those concerns loud and clear from their clients. Nearly 8 in 10 agents (79%) report that their commercial lines clients are moderately or extremely concerned about potential cyberattacks, and 62% say the same of personal lines clients. At the same time, 80% of agents are concerned about the general lack of cybersecurity knowledge among their clients, and 76% say many clients are unaware of their exposure to cyberattacks.

Where Losses Are Hitting Hardest

The data shows that cyber incidents are no longer rare events. They are frequent, costly and increasingly powered by A.I.

Among consumers, 80% report that they or someone they know has experienced a cybersecurity threat in the past year. Phishing is the most common incident (53%), followed by financial fraud (48%), data breaches (45%) and online shopping scams (40%). Nearly a third (32%) have experienced identity theft. For those affected, the greatest impacts are the time spent resolving the issue and the emotional stress and anxiety that follow — impacts that can linger well beyond any direct financial loss.

For businesses, the exposure is even more pronounced in the middle market. Sixty-two percent of mid-market business owners say their business has experienced a cyberattack — a six-point increase since 2024 — compared with just 16% of small business owners. Phishing (45%), password attacks (33%) and A.I.-assisted phishing or social engineering attacks (38%) top the list of threats experienced among mid-market business owners.

Strikingly, 55% of mid-market business owners who have been attacked say the incident involved threats powered by or generated using A.I. Roughly a quarter of small business owners (26%) and more than a third of mid-market business owners (36%) say their company was targeted by a generative-A.I. scam or fraud attempt in the past year — often an email impersonating an executive or an A.I.-generated phishing message.

The financial toll is rising. Among businesses that experienced a cyberattack, 86% of mid-market business owners report that the attack impacted or jeopardized their finances — a 19-point increase since 2024. Nearly every victim (94%) also reports damage to customer trust. Agents are seeing the same pattern, with 52% reporting an increase in claims related to generative-A.I. scams or fraud attempts in the past 12 months.

What Consumers and Business Owners Are Asking of Their Agents

As the threat landscape expands, so does the demand for guidance and coverage and agents are increasingly at the center of the conversation.

Nine in 10 agents (90%) say clients view them as a credible source of cybersecurity information, and 89% say they regularly recommend cyber insurance to their customers.

Among business owners, interest in cyber protection resources is overwhelming: more than 9 in 10 small business owners express interest in business interruption protection (92%), data compromise protection (91%) and identity recovery protection (90%), with similarly strong interest among mid-market business owners.

Cyber insurance adoption is accelerating in the middle market. Nearly three-quarters of mid-market business owners (73%) now purchase cyber insurance — a 34-point jump since 2024. Small business adoption, however, has remained stagnant at 42%, in part because of knowledge gaps. Among uninsured small business owners, 29% say they don’t know enough about cyber insurance and 24% didn’t know it was available.

Business owners are also asking for more than just a policy. The top-ranked offerings small business owners want from an insurer include cyber defense preparation programs (85%), discount offers tied to a track record of better cyber defense (84%) and a system where the insurer works directly with a security service provider to manage a claim (83%). Mid-market business owners rank similar services at the top of their wish list.

The need for guidance is just as clear on the preparedness side. Just 24% of agents estimate that most of their commercial clients have an incident response plan in place, and only 30% say most clients keep their cyber coverage level up to date with the evolving threat landscape. Two-thirds of small business owners (66%) admit they haven’t given much thought to what they would do if they fell victim to a cyberattack.

A.I. is only sharpening the urgency. Eighty-eight percent of small business owners and 75% of mid-market business owners say they need more information and resources to protect their businesses from A.I.-enabled cyberattacks. Among agents, 62% say they need more information and resources to help protect their clients from the same.

Consumers are asking for help, too. More than half (55%) say they would be interested in a service to help individuals or families respond to cyberbullying or online harassment — a reflection of how cyber risk has expanded well beyond financial accounts into everyday digital life.

Closing the Gap

The survey makes clear that awareness alone is no longer enough. Consumers know the A.I. threat is here, but only 19% are highly confident they could identify an A.I.-powered scam, and just 17% have created a family code phrase to verify a loved one’s identity during an urgent call. Businesses recognize the risk, but many lack the training, planning and coverage to match it.

For agents, the data points to an expanding advisory role — one that extends beyond selling a policy to helping clients build incident response plans, reassess coverage as exposures change, and understand how A.I. is reshaping the threat landscape. For consumers and business owners, it points to a simple truth: the time to prepare is before the attack, not after.

Click here to view Nationwide’s latest Agency Forward cybersecurity survey. &

The R&I Editorial Team can be reached at [email protected].

How Life Sciences Companies Can Build Resilience Amid Economic and Geopolitical Volatility

Tariffs, shifting trade routes, and supply chain disruptions are adding more complexity to managing risk for life sciences companies. That’s on top of existing operational, technology and intellectual property concerns. Here's how insurers are helping clients adapt.

By: The Hartford | October 1, 2026

The life sciences industry has entered a new era of economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The drumbeat of stiff tariffs, evolving trade routes, and shifting supply chain priorities are forcing companies to rethink how they operate, source materials, and deliver products to market. For an industry that depends heavily on cross-border trade for both inputs and finished goods, these forces are creating unprecedented complexity.

At the same time, the pace of change is accelerating. A single trade restriction can send ripples through global supply networks, affecting where companies source parts, how they ship products, and how they reach the end user. For insurers underwriting life sciences risk, understanding these interconnected exposures has never been more important because economic pressures can fundamentally change how companies operate.

“We’re clearly in a new era for international trade, with the reality that trade is evolving and adding risk and uncertainty to the economy,” said Ben Wright, Head of The Hartford’s Global Insights Center.

“Trade routes are shifting from high tariff markets to low tariff markets. Supply chain priorities are changing as well.”

The Macroeconomic Forces Reshaping Life Sciences

Ben Wright, Head of The Hartford’s Global Insights Center

For years, life sciences supply chains were optimized primarily for low cost. That priority is shifting quickly, according to Wright, as companies focus on building resiliency instead. The combination of tariffs, shifting trade routes, and reprioritized supply chains is adding cost, uncertainty, and risk across the economy — and the life sciences sector is particularly exposed.

“We have seen high tariffs placed on pharmaceuticals recently, with additional high tariffs planned for pharmaceuticals in the future,” Wright said.

“If that raises the cost for those pharmaceutical products, it raises questions about underwriting decisions.”

Another emerging issue is access to rare earth elements, which are critical to manufacturing certain equipment used throughout the life sciences supply chain. Because most rare earth production takes place internationally, any restriction on access could meaningfully change the risk profile for parts of the industry.

Wright believes companies should prepare for continued volatility.

“While we don’t know what the future holds, the one thing we can prepare for and expect is change.”

How Complexity Is Reshaping Underwriting

Brad John, Head of Life Science Industry Practice, The Hartford

The heightened complexity of the global operating environment is fundamentally changing how underwriters evaluate life sciences risk. According to Brad John, Head of Life Science Industry Practice at The Hartford, complexity and speed have become the two most significant forces shaping the risk landscape.

“Several years ago, underwriters certainly evaluated supplier concentration, contract manufacturing, and the supply chain,” John said.

“But what I think is different today is how interconnected those issues have become and how quickly the effects can spread. If you have one trade restriction change, it has a lot of downstream impact in terms of where companies are sourcing parts, where they’ve got to ship products to, and how they’re getting them to the end user.”

That interconnectedness has pushed underwriters to focus increasingly on organizational resilience and contingent exposures. Many life sciences companies do not own the facilities where their products are manufactured, tested, or sterilized, meaning they rely heavily on partners throughout the value chain.

Tariffs can begin as a cost or trade issue, but their effects can quickly move into operations, John noted, disrupting established processes and forcing companies to pivot to new suppliers or distributors.

“It becomes a question of how well they can recoup and how valid the controls are that they’ve had in place,” he said.

Geopolitical instability is also interrupting shipping lanes, energy supplies, and raw material sourcing. As the values of goods shift locations and follow different paths, exposures change with them.

“It’s prudent for not only the insured but also for the carrier to dive deep into these changes and ask the questions necessary to pinpoint what has shifted,” John said.

“This allows both parties to determine how the insurance program needs to change as a result.”

Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence are adding yet another layer to the risk equation. While A.I. can help companies stress-test scenarios and identify solutions more quickly, it also introduces potential risks around biased data or flawed thinking.

“A.I. can make flaws become apparent much more quickly and potentially exacerbate their impact as well,” John said. From an economic perspective, Wright noted that the use of A.I. is likely to shift the skills and job requirements needed for success in life sciences.

How The Hartford Helps Life Sciences Clients Navigate the New Normal

To help clients respond to this environment, The Hartford has invested in dedicated economic and geopolitical intelligence capabilities. Its Global Insights Center serves as the company’s internal think tank, conducting bespoke research that examines the insurance industry through an economic and geopolitical lens.

“Our role is to be a partner to the underwriters, providing them with the knowledge and intelligence they need to gain an edge in the marketplace,” Wright said.

That intelligence flows directly into underwriting conversations, helping underwriters understand how broader developments in trade, inflation, and interest rates might manifest in the operations of a specific insured.

For life sciences companies looking to strengthen resilience, John recommends several practical approaches: mapping critical dependencies, evaluating concentration risk and developing qualified alternatives to primary suppliers and partners.

“It’s okay to have a plan B, but you also have to make sure that plan B is as qualified as plan A, particularly in a highly regulated industry,” he said.

Companies should also proactively stress-test their continuity plans, an area where carriers can offer meaningful expertise. And as values and locations shift, the insurance program itself must evolve to reflect new exposures.

Wright emphasizes the importance of scenario planning.

“Prepare early, try to quantify risk as best you can, and build resiliency against different scenarios of future states of the economy,” he said.

“Doing that type of planning ahead of time can help you make decisions quickly when things change in real time.”

Looking ahead, geopolitical instability, manufacturing shifts, and financial impacts are likely to continue shaping the life sciences risk landscape. Flexibility, informed by strong economic and geopolitical intelligence, will be essential for companies and their insurance partners alike.

“In this new world of economic and geopolitical volatility, having access to economic and geopolitical intelligence and bespoke intelligence has now become a critical facet of doing business,” Wright said.

“It positions us well to provide economic and geopolitical insights to help our partners in the marketplace be more successful.”

To learn more, visit https://www.thehartford.com/business-insurance/midsize-life-science/life-science-solutions.

The information provided in these materials is intended to be general and advisory in nature. It shall not be considered legal advice. The Hartford does not warrant that the implementation of any view or recommendation contained herein will: (i) result in the elimination of any unsafe conditions at your business locations or with respect to your business operations; or (ii) be an appropriate legal or business practice. The Hartford assumes no responsibility for the control or correction of hazards or legal compliance with respect to your business practices, and the views and recommendations contained herein shall not constitute our undertaking, on your behalf or for the benefit of others, to determine or warrant that your business premises, locations or operations are safe or healthful, or are in compliance with any law, rule or regulation. Readers seeking to resolve specific safety, legal or business issues or concerns related to the information provided in these materials should consult their safety consultant, attorney or business advisors. All information and representations contained herein are as of October 2026.

The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc., (NYSE: HIG) operates through its subsidiaries, including the underwriting company Hartford Fire insurance Company, under the brand name, The Hartford®, and is headquartered in Hartford, CT. For additional details, please read The Hartford’s legal notice at www.thehartford.com.

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with The Hartford. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.

The Hartford is a leader in property and casualty insurance, group benefits and mutual funds. With more than 200 years of expertise, The Hartford is widely recognized for its service excellence, sustainability practices, trust and integrity.