[MTE] [Mar 2026] [P2] Smarter Crisis Decisions with AI

Part 2: Smarter Crisis Decisions with AI: From Faster BIA to Better Crisis Monitoring

Introduction

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming one of the most practical enablers of modern business continuity management (BCM). In her presentation, Sirilah Raman, Head of Business Continuity Management (VP) of Bank Simpanan Nasional, made it clear that AI should not be viewed as a replacement for crisis managers, incident commanders, or leadership teams.

Instead, AI should be treated as a support tool that helps organisations process information faster, identify patterns earlier, and respond with greater speed and confidence during disruptions. In a crisis, decision-makers are often overwhelmed by fragmented updates, urgent requests, conflicting signals, and time pressure.

AI helps reduce this burden by organising data, highlighting anomalies, and presenting insights in a more usable way so that humans can make better-informed decisions.

This is Part 2 of the two-part summary of Sirilah's presentation during BCM Institute's Meet-the-Expert webinar. The webinar is summarised by Dr Goh Moh Heng, President of the BCM Institute.

The second article focused more on operational lessons and real-world applications. One major takeaway is that AI delivers value when it solves everyday BCM problems. In many organisations, BIA exercises still involve multiple spreadsheets, inconsistent definitions, laborious consolidation, and long delays before analysis is ready for management. AI and automation can streamline this work by cleaning data, connecting dependencies, and extracting more useful findings from the information already collected. The lesson is that AI can turn BCM from an administrative burden into a more analytical and value-adding function.

Another lesson is the importance of early warning and monitoring. During cyber incidents, system outages, or third-party failures, organisations often lose precious time waiting for confirmation that something is wrong. AI-powered monitoring can identify abnormalities, suspicious activity, or missing transaction patterns earlier than conventional escalation routes. This is especially relevant for sectors with heavy dependence on outsourced providers, digital services, and interconnected supply chains. The lesson is that resilience now depends not only on having a recovery plan, but also on having better visibility into what may be going wrong before an incident fully escalates.

The article also showed that crisis communication can benefit significantly from AI. Reputational crises unfold quickly, especially on social media, and organisations need to respond with speed. AI can help draft initial responses, structure key messages, and accelerate communication workflows. But the lesson here is also a caution: customers in distress still need human empathy. AI can help prepare a response, but it should not be allowed to replace human sensitivity in high-stress situations. In BCM, communication is not only about speed; it is also about trust.

Finally, the second article underscored the risks of AI itself. Poor-quality data, biased outputs, silent errors, and over-reliance can all create false confidence and lead to bad decisions. This is perhaps one of the most important lessons of all: AI is powerful, but it must be governed. It should be introduced gradually, validated carefully, and used within a controlled framework, especially when sensitive operational or customer information is involved. Effective AI use in BCM requires discipline, not enthusiasm alone.

Dr Goh Moh Heng, President of BCM Institute, summarises this webinar. If you have any questions, please speak to the author.