2024 Intangible vs. Tangible Risks Comparison Report

De-risking AI, IP, and Cyber

2024 Intangible Versus Tangible Risks Comparison Report

Sponsored by Aon. Independently conducted by the Ponemon Institute. Published May 2024.

The 2024 Intangible versus Tangible Risks Comparison Report is based on insights from 2,462 small, medium and large organizations across a broad range of industries throughout the world.

Potential losses related to intangible asset values from evolving perils such as generative artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security, and intellectual property (IP) misappropriation are already significant. As we journey through a highly complex multi-decade AI transformation – where the upside rewards and downside perils are uncertain – the velocity of these risks is set to increase.

Despite this, a significant protection gap persists for intangible assets, with only 19 percent insured according to our research. Tangible assets, despite their lower relative value, are insured to a level three times greater, at 60 percent.

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2024 Intangible versus Tangible Risks Comparison Report Diagram

44%

Only 44 percent of respondents said they are prepared for a cyber or IP ‘Black Swan’ event.

The industry traditionally reflects history as a way to predict the future. It’s not enough in the context of cyber or generative AI. At any point in time, there are these shocks... but over time, can we understand and model this risk? Yes.

Greg Case

Chief Executive Officer, Aon

What is the report about?

This research aims to provide a better understanding of the evolving threats of generative AI, cyber and IP. It highlights the role insurance can play in protecting intangible assets to help organizations make better decisions regarding allocation of their finite resources to protect against tangible and intangible perils.

In the report, we compare the relative:

Value of certain tangible (Property, Plant & Equipment) compared to certain intangible assets (Information assets and IP)
Quantification of potential losses from tangible compared to intangible assets
Insurance protection of tangible compared to intangible assets

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2024 Intangible versus Tangible Risks Comparison Report

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The likelihood of a loss is higher for intangible assets than for tangible assets.
The average total value of intangible assets is nearly 14% higher than that of tangible assets.
The average Probable Maximum Loss for intangible assets is almost 37% higher than that of tangible assets.
67% of organizations use or intend to use AI products or services.
56% of organizations had a material or significantly disruptive security exploit or data breach one or more times in the past 24 months.
While most organizations do not have specific IP insurance policies, nearly two-thirds of organizations say they have an interest in purchasing them.

About this research

The consolidated sampling frame is composed of 63,112 individuals located in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Japan and Latin America. Respondents are involved in their company’s cyber risk management as well as enterprise risk management activities. 2,790 respondents completed the survey, of which 327 were rejected for reliability issues. The final sample consisted of 2,462 surveys.