The physical infrastructure behind digital services is becoming a critical business risk.

In their YouTube channel Impact Analysis, Jerome Ryan and Mike Janko explore a rapidly emerging risk tied to the growth of artificial intelligence — data center water and energy consumption.

While most attention has focused on the electricity demands of AI, another critical and often overlooked resource is now under pressure, water.  Modern data centers require massive cooling systems to manage heat generated by high performance computing. A single hyperscale facility can consume millions of gallons of water per day, and across the United States, total usage reaches into the hundreds of billions of gallons annually.

As AI adoption accelerates, this demand is increasing at an unprecedented pace. At the same time, data center capacity is heavily concentrated in specific regions, many of which already face water stress and infrastructure constraints. This creates a growing tension between digital expansion and local resource availability, particularly as electricity demand from data centers is also expected to rise significantly over the next decade.

In this episode, Mike & Jerome break down the systemic risks emerging at the intersection of digital infrastructure, energy systems, and water resources. They also outline key considerations for leaders, including geographic concentration risk, regulatory developments, and the potential for government intervention or project delays.

As AI continues to scale, this episode highlights why the physical infrastructure behind digital services is becoming a critical business risk.

Listen to Mike & Jerome’s 9 minute discussion on the impact of AI on DataCenters  >> 

About the Impact Analysis YouTube Channel

The Impact Analysis YouTube channel helps business leaders, risk professionals, and operations teams understand the real-world events that disrupt organizations, supply chains, and critical operations. Hosted by Michael Janko and Jerome Ryan, the channel breaks down crises, disasters, emerging risks, and operational resilience lessons from events shaping business today, including tariffs, artificial intelligence, supply chain shocks, severe weather, business continuity, crisis management, enterprise risk, and strategic response.

Each episode turns complex events into practical insights leaders can use to improve preparedness, decision-making, resilience, and recovery. If you work in business continuity, operational resilience, crisis leadership, risk management, supply chain strategy, or corporate preparedness, subscribe for expert analysis, actionable lessons learned, and timely breakdowns of the risks affecting organizations worldwide.