Business Continuity Institute publishes Horizon Scan Report 2025

Organisations are facing risks and disruptions that are more complex and interconnected than ever before and spanning the digital, environmental, operational and human dimensions, often occurring simultaneously and compounding one another.

Along with cyber security threats, technological failures, climate-related events and supply chain vulnerabilities, these all have the potential to disrupt operations, affect service delivery and erode stakeholder confidence.

The Horizon Scan Report 2025 examines these trends, combining findings from both quantitative survey data and qualitative interviews with practitioners on the front lines of business continuity and resilience. Their insights highlight that efforts towards improved response measures and better compliance should be considerate of the Health and Safety of the workforce.

Safety and IT

In the past 12 months, safety incidents and IT-related disruptions rank very highly: a trend that has continued for the past five years. Safety incidents are top of the list, closely followed by cyber attacks, fraud/attempted fraud, security incidents and IT and telecoms outages. Interestingly, extreme weather is the single largest cause of disruption over the past 12 months for the first time since 2017.

Looking at the next 12 months, the foremost five concerns also have a distinct technology flavour. In order, they are cyber attacks, extreme weather events, IT and telecoms outages, data breaches and third party failure/critical infrastructure failure.

This mix of disruptions exerts a broad impact, affecting operational performance, staff morale and customer experience. Consequences affect both internal and external stakeholders, with growing concerns over staff mental health.

Near future outlook 

The future threat landscape is a complex combination of digital challenges, climate risk and geopolitical uncertainty. In many cases, the adoption of digital solutions represents both an opportunity and a potential risk for organisations.

The top concerns for organisations over the next five-to-ten years are cyber security: 63.6%, climate risk: 40.7%, the role of Artificial Intelligence: 30.5%, geopolitical changes: 28.8% and supply chain issues: 26.3%. 

Trend analysis

Trend analysis remains a key tool for understanding emerging threats and guiding resilience planning. Just under half of organisations conduct trend analyses by a central corporate function (47.9%), with 23,5% having a decentralised approach across departments. One-fifth (21.1%) don’t conduct these at all.

To conduct trend analyses, organisations rely on a combination of internal assessments and external insights to inform their risk landscape understanding. Interpersonal interaction remains a valuable option to practitioners. Internal risk and threat assessments came in at 87.2%, with external reports and industry insight (such as this report) a close second (75.2%).

In the interpersonal interaction bucket come participation in industry events and conferences (at 55.6%) and collaboration with peers (52.1%).

The report also covers some of the legislation approaches (the relationship of business continuity management programmes to ISO 22301 and the benefits of ISO 22301 certification) and takes a look at investment levels in business continuity and resilience programmes.

People, not paperwork

Belen Santa-Olalla, chief creative officer at Conductrr, commented: “We are proud to support the BCI Horizon Scan Report 2025. Its findings echo what we see every crisis: resilience depends on people, not paperwork. When the pressure rises, it’s human clarity, confidence and connection that carry organisations through. That’s why we focus on helping teams rehearse real situations in safe, authentic and realistic ways.”

Santa-Olalla concluded: “This report is a reminder that preparation only becomes powerful when people are given space to practice, learn and grow together.”

*Download copies of the BCI Horizon Scan Report 2025