The International Risk Podcast

In Episode 399 of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic and Craig examine the real economics of artificial intelligence: how CFOs should measure AI returns, when automation becomes job displacement, why agentic workflows are changing competitive advantage, and how AI is becoming a geopolitical and governance challenge.

They discuss:
- How CFOs can distinguish durable AI value from hype
- Why some companies are cutting headcount while others avoid new hiring
- The shift from AI experimentation to operational agentic workflows
- Competition and regulation across the United States, Europe and China
- How professionals can future-proof their careers
- Mass employment change, taxation and pressure on the middle class
- Who captures the profits when machines replace human work
- Shrinking business moats, talent risk and AI dependency
- Defence, data centres, energy, water and international risk

What concerns you most: job displacement, concentrated profits, weak governance or geopolitical competition? Share your view in the comments.

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The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.

Craig Unsworth is a Portfolio Chief Product Officer and senior adviser who works with private-equity firms and their portfolio companies. His work focuses on product strategy, transformation, growth and agentic AI.
Craig's website: https://www.craigunsworth.com/

Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.
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Podcast Chapters
00:00 AI value, jobs and risk
00:22 How CFOs should measure AI returns
01:50 AI productivity, layoffs and fewer new hires
04:14 From experiments to agentic workflows
06:14 AI geopolitics: America, Europe and China
08:39 How to future-proof your career
11:07 The AI tools and workflows leaders overlook
14:57 The cost of waiting to adopt AI
18:47 Who captures the gains from automation?
23:14 Who should govern AI?
23:34 Shrinking business moats and hidden risks
26:27 Defence, resources and data-centre risk
29:08 The leadership skills businesses need now
29:46 Closing thoughts

#ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Geopolitics #AI
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In this episode of the International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen is joined by Simeon de Brouwer, policy advisor at European Digital Rights (EDRi), Europe’s largest network of digital rights organisations. Simeon explains the controversial EU proposal known as “Chat Control” and explores what mandatory scanning of private communications could mean for encryption, privacy, security and child protection across Europe.
We discuss:
What the EU’s Chat Control proposal would actually require messaging and hosting platforms to scan for child sexual abuse material and grooming
Why scanning everyone’s private communications raises fundamental questions about the presumption of innocence and proportionality
How client-side scanning could affect end-to-end encryption on services such as WhatsApp and Signal
The risks of false positives, including innocent communications being flagged, accounts being suspended and private material being reviewed by authorities
Why mass scanning could create opportunities for “function creep”, allowing surveillance infrastructure introduced for child protection to be expanded to terrorism, organised crime or political dissent
Why encryption is essential not only for ordinary users, but also for journalists, human rights defenders and businesses
How criminals can adapt their behaviour to evade automated detection, potentially leaving the most sophisticated perpetrators beyond the reach of the technology
The tension between privacy and child safety, and why EDRi argues that the two do not have to be mutually exclusive
What alternative approaches could better protect children online, including addressing how platforms enable adults to find and contact young people
Where negotiations over Chat Control currently stand, and what could happen as the European Parliament, Council and European Commission continue negotiations
Why Simeon is concerned about Europe’s broader push to simplify digital regulation, and the risk that weakening protections in the name of innovation could ultimately create new security and privacy risks
The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.
Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.
Tell us what you liked!

In this episode of the International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen is joined by Dr. Holly Bell, economist, former professor and academic administrator at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and author of the geopolitical novel Occupied Alaska. Holly shares the real events that inspired her book, drawing on her own work opposing a proposed $43 billion Chinese-backed gas pipeline deal in Alaska, and explains why economic dependence on foreign capital, technology and infrastructure can constrain a nation's sovereignty just as effectively as military force.
We discuss:
How a 2017 agreement between Alaska and a Chinese state-linked company for a $43 billion LNG project became the basis for a speculative novel about foreign occupation
Why economically unviable infrastructure deals can still attract foreign investment, and what predatory lending terms reveal about the true intent behind them
How debt-trap dynamics that have played out in Sri Lanka and Djibouti could realistically unfold within a U.S. state
The accumulation risk of individually rational investments in energy, agriculture and finance, and how they can combine into a national security threat
Why Alaska's abundance of rare earths, oil, gas and proximity to Russia make it strategically indispensable, and strategically vulnerable
The structural disadvantage democracies face when competing against authoritarian states that plan in decades rather than election cycles
How economic leverage translates into political influence, from campaign financing to land use regulation
What current developments, including foreign interest in U.S. data infrastructure, reveal about where these risks are heading next
The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.
Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.
Tell us what you liked!

In this episode of The International Risk Podcast, Dominic Bowen speaks with Stephanie Wolters about security, governance, and stability across the Democratic Republic of Congo. Stephanie Wolters unpacks why the DRC cannot be ignored, and why the roots of the conflict stretch far beyond its own borders.

The discussion examines the international intervention in DRC, including MONUSCO, and what daily life actually looks like for communities living under armed group control. It also explores Rwanda's influence in the crisis.

The conversation explores:
 
-The regionally-driven roots of the conflict and why it's about power more than resources
-Rwanda's role in the crisis
-The impact and limits of international intervention on the ground
-What daily life is actually like for communities in areas controlled by armed groups
-The challenge of managing outbreaks like Ebola in conflict-affected areas

Stephanie Wolters is a Senior Research Fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs and founding director of Okapi Consulting, with over 25 years of experience researching conflict and political economy across the Great Lakes region.

The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.
Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.
 

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#Geopolitics #DRC #GreatLakes #MONUSCO #Congo #Rwanda #PoliticalRisk #InternationalRisk #Strategy #Africa
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In this episode of the International Risk Podcast, host Dominic Bowen is joined by Kirtan Pandit, conservation researcher and co-founder of GeoSutra, an environmental intelligence company whose team deployed drones within 24 hours of the catastrophic Nepal flood to carry out rapid damage assessments in Nuwakot district. Kirtan shares a firsthand account of the disaster response, drawing on his work using drones to assess and deliver aid to flood affected communities, and explains why this event, and Nepal's growing exposure to glacial hazards, must be understood as a climate risk issue with global implications.
We discuss:
What triggered the flood, and how a glacier collapse near the Nepal-China border unleashed one of the deadliest disasters in Nepal's modern history
How GeoSutra's team accessed the affected area and used drones to assess damage and deliver aid across a river with no remaining crossings
The scale of destruction to critical infrastructure, including roads, bridges, the Rasuwagadhi border crossing and hydropower stations
The ongoing search for workers trapped in a hydropower tunnel and the mounting challenge of managing the dead
Why the flood is directly linked to climate change and global warming's effect on Himalayan glaciers
The limitations of Nepal's current early warning systems and what stronger, climate resilient infrastructure would require
Why Nepal and other low emitting mountainous nations are demanding climate finance and loss and damage funding as grants rather than loans
What this disaster reveals about the growing risk facing mountain communities across the Himalayas and beyond
The International Risk Podcast brings you conversations with global experts, frontline practitioners, and senior decision-makers who are shaping how we understand and respond to international risk. From geopolitical instability and organised crime to cybersecurity threats and hybrid warfare, each episode explores the forces transforming our world and what smart leaders must do to navigate them. Whether you’re a board member, policymaker, or risk professional, The International Risk Podcast delivers actionable insights, sharp analysis, and real-world stories that matter.
Dominic Bowen is the host of The International Risk Podcast and Europe’s leading expert on international risk and crisis management. As Head of Strategic Advisory and Partner at one of Europe’s leading risk management consulting firms, Dominic advises CEOs, boards, and senior executives across the continent on how to prepare for uncertainty and act with intent. He has spent decades working in war zones, advising multinational companies, and supporting Europe’s business leaders. Dominic is the go-to business advisor for leaders navigating risk, crisis, and strategy; trusted for his clarity, calmness under pressure, and ability to turn volatility into competitive advantage. Dominic equips today’s business leaders with the insight and confidence to lead through disruption and deliver sustained strategic advantage.
Tell us what you liked!