Definition
This describes how a single AI-related failure or attack could spread rapidly across an entire industry — much faster than past financial or technology crises — because many institutions now rely on the same small set of AI models, vendors, and cloud infrastructure. A leading global financial-stability body flagged the speed of this potential spread, not just the novelty of the attacks, as the real danger.
Why it matters
Boards in regulated industries like banking should plan for AI risk the same way they plan for systemic financial contagion — a single shared vendor or model failure could cascade across many firms almost simultaneously.