When Risk Becomes Strategy: How interos.ai Changed the Conversation with its Risky Business Event

For the second year, I attended interos.ai’s Risky Business event in Washington, D.C. and once again, the energy in the room was up but the air was thick with the constant barrage of global headlines and shifting narratives, from cyberattacks and trade wars to sanctions and natural disasters. The world’s two biggest economies are, as one speaker put it, “duking it out on the political stage, posturing for economic privilege across the globe.”

Everyone in the room was feeling the pressure. Tariff spikes, new sanctions, disrupted trade routes, and a surge in bankruptcies are creating a kind of economic whiplash that keeps CFOs, CISOs, and supply chain leaders up at night.

When Ted Krantz, CEO of interos.ai, took the stage, he didn’t just talk about threats, he showed the data, mapped the vulnerabilities, and made a powerful case for visibility. His message was clear: the only way to fight back is to see everything—every supplier, every dependency, every external risk factor—in real time and in one place.

Here are a few highlights from this year’s event.

A World in Flux: Tariffs, Sanctions, and the Geopolitical “Bermuda Triangle”

Krantz opened with a striking view of today’s macro landscape: tariffs, regulations, and sanctions are now operating at fever pitch simultaneously, creating what he called a “Bermuda Triangle” of global pressure points. The numbers behind that metaphor were staggering with over 100,000 global conflicts impacting 4.7 million entities across 127 countries, and 85% of China’s trade, representing $3.5 trillion in commerce, flowing through contested Asian trade routes.

In this environment, economic and political shocks have merged, creating a new era of complexity. Over the past year alone, global tariffs have surged 376%, adding more than $762 million in import costs, while 580 bankruptcies—a 16% increase year-over-year—signal how instability is hitting balance sheets worldwide.

And yet, amid the turbulence, Krantz highlighted a different narrative taking shape: resilience through reinvestment. Companies like Apple are doubling down on U.S. manufacturing, underscoring a strategic shift toward sovereignty and sustainability. As Krantz put it, “The data doesn’t just reveal risk, it reveals opportunity.”

From Recession to Resilience: The Macroeconomic View

One of the most fascinating parts of the event came from the macroeconomic session, which reminded everyone in the room that today’s volatility isn’t just noise, it’s the new normal. The discussion reframed economic uncertainty not as a passing storm but as a structural transformation driven by trade fragmentation, resource nationalism, and unpredictable shocks.

The economist on stage noted that unlike the Great Recession or the short, sharp COVID-19 downturn, today’s disruptions are visible and we can see them coming, which means we can plan for them. “If you can see the train wreck,” one speaker said, “you can mitigate the impact.” That comment resonated with the entire audience.

The point was clear: visibility is economic armor. The companies that will weather the next decade are those that track every dependency — from rare earth minerals to trade routes — and use that intelligence to make faster, better decisions. Supply chain transparency isn’t just an operational advantage anymore; it’s a macroeconomic one.

AI at the Helm: Turning Data Chaos into Control

Another standout session focused on the role of AI in transforming how organizations manage risk. The panelists from NVIDIA, Seroda Ventures, and interos.ai described how AI is shifting supply chain management from reactive firefighting to predictive foresight.

For years, companies have been drowning in data but starved for insight. As one panelist put it, “Everyone thinks you just collect all the data and magic happens. In reality, you’ve just scaled your mess.” The breakthrough now is not more data, but smarter data that is integrated, deduplicated, and contextualized in real time.

interos.ai’s engine is at the center of that transformation. By connecting 360 data sources across cyber, ESG, financial, and geopolitical domains, the platform creates a “control center” that continuously monitors, infers, and acts, surfacing risks that traditional ERP systems can’t even see. Each new event feeds the system’s reinforcement learning loop, making it faster, sharper, and more adaptive over time.

It was clear from the session: AI isn’t replacing human decision-making, it’s amplifying it. The future of risk management will belong to the leaders who can interpret, trust, and act on AI-powered insights at machine speed.

Risk as Strategy: Boards Are Paying Attention

The conversation shifted from technology to governance, and it was striking how unified the message was. Risk management is no longer a compliance issue; it’s a growth strategy.

Panelists revealed a stunning data point: only 2% of enterprises today have true end-to-end visibility across all supplier tiers and risk domains. Yet, boards are beginning to demand it. At events like the National Association of Manufacturers and NACD gatherings, resilience has become the top agenda item.

As one speaker put it, “Resilience isn’t a department anymore; it’s an operating model.” Forward-thinking organizations are moving beyond one-off solutions and building integrated platforms that pull risk intelligence into every business decision — from sourcing and logistics to finance and reputation.

That shift mirrors the evolution of CRM and ERP systems, which went from siloed tools to enterprise-wide operating systems. The companies that get there first will not only survive the next disruption; they’ll use it as a competitive edge.

The Human Factor: Trust, Mitigation, and Leadership

The day ended on a deeply human note. A retired Marine on one of the panels offered what might have been the simplest but most important truth of the event: “You’re never going to eliminate risk. You operate through it. The key is training, resilience, and trust.”

Trust between public and private partners, between boards and operators, between humans and AI emerged as the connective tissue running through every conversation.

If 2024 was the year of seeing risk, 2025 is the year of acting on it. And as Ted Krantz and his team reminded us, the future of resilience won’t belong to those who avoid risk, it will belong to those who understand it faster, mitigate it smarter, and turn it into momentum.

Thank you for letting me be part of the event and we’re ready to tackle what’s next!

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