Fed survey respondents rank AI as the top financial-system risk

AI has moved well ahead of other concerns in the Federal Reserve’s financial stability survey. In the report released November 13, 87% of respondents cited AI as a salient financial-system risk, up from 50% in spring 2026. Their worries span stock prices, cybersecurity and the financing behind AI—not just whether the technology works.

The findings come from the Fed’s twice-yearly financial stability report, according to CNBC. Respondents included market participants, economists, analysts and institutional sources. The report covered conditions through October 28, making it a snapshot of concerns before its November release rather than a real-time reading of financial markets.

AI was the most frequently cited risk by a wide margin. The next concern, a correction in risk assets—a fall in prices of investments exposed to market losses—was mentioned by 52% of respondents. The ranking reflects what participants identified as risks, not a Fed estimate of the probability that each will occur.

Three different routes to financial damage

The AI category brings together distinct concerns. Respondents were not identifying only a technology failure or only a stock-market bubble. The report separated their answers into three areas, covering the expectations attached to AI businesses, threats involving advanced models and the structures used to finance AI activity.

• Stock valuations: Respondents flagged elevated share prices and the possibility that earnings could fall short of expectations. Their concern was that disappointing profits could lead investors to assign lower values to companies, triggering a market correction.
• Cybersecurity: Concerns included malicious attacks by sophisticated state actors, as well as damage caused by frontier AI models themselves. The category therefore covered both deliberate attacks and risks associated with the advanced models, rather than treating all AI-related cyber danger as the same threat.
• Financing: Respondents also identified risks associated with complex forms of AI-related financing. That concern was listed separately from equity valuations, putting the financial arrangements supporting AI activity alongside the prices investors are willing to pay for shares.

Heightened concern, not a finding of instability

Other prominent concerns remained on the list. Higher long-term interest rates were cited by 48% of respondents. Cyberattacks and fiscal debt sustainability were each cited by 43%. Cyberattacks thus appeared as a broader concern in their own right, as well as within respondents’ descriptions of AI-related risks.

The report’s overall assessment was more measured than the sharp rise in AI concern might suggest. It described the financial system as fairly stable, while noting that hedge-fund leverage—borrowing used to increase investment exposure—was at its highest level since 2013 and concentrated among a relatively small group.

Those findings can coexist: AI topped respondents’ list of potential threats, while the Fed’s report still judged the system fairly stable overall. The survey records a substantial change in concern, not a conclusion that an AI-driven financial crisis is underway.