WTW Appoints Spike Lipkin as Chief AI Officer and Gordon Wintrob as Head of AI Acceleration
Insurance brokerages are turning to purpose‑built, vertical AI to overcome labor shortages, regulatory complexity, and mounting administrative burdens. Fulcrum, a specialist AI platform, embeds itself directly into brokerage workflows, delivering industry‑specific data extraction, document generation, and system integrations. The company already serves 20 of the top 50 U.S. brokers, reporting dramatic reductions in policy‑check times—from weeks to minutes—and a shift from eight‑hour proposals to one‑hour exercises. By automating routine tasks, Fulcrum enables brokers to focus on higher‑value activities such as client advising and cross‑selling, driving both efficiency and revenue growth.
Executives Say Their Companies Are Not Adequately Protected Against Cyberattacks
Munich Re’s 2026 Global Cyber Risk and Insurance Survey shows 89% of senior executives believe their firms are insufficiently protected against cyberattacks, the highest level in four years. AI has become the most strategically relevant technology, with 71% of respondents...
Brilliance in Focus: Gallagher’s Michael Zimmerschied
Risk & Insurance’s Brilliance in Focus series profiles Gallagher’s Michael Zimmerschied, a 2025 Power Broker in the Captives category. Zimmerschied credits his father’s mentorship for a client‑partner mindset and highlights captives as flexible tools for tailoring insurance programs. He warns...
Nuclear Verdicts and Rising Claims Costs: How Hospitals Can Navigate an Increasingly Difficult Liability Market
The U.S. hospital liability market is entering a hard‑market phase as nuclear verdicts—cases exceeding $10 million—have surged from 48 in 2022 to 55 in 2025, with total damages climbing from $1.3 billion to $2.5 billion. Insurers cite rising claim frequency and severity, especially...
Why the GLP-1 Boom Has a Litigation Wave Right Behind It
GLP‑1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide and tirzepatide have surged from diabetes treatment to popular weight‑loss drugs, creating a multi‑billion‑dollar market. Their rapid adoption across physician offices, weight‑loss centers, compounding pharmacies, and online platforms has exposed gaps in patient screening,...
Brilliance in Focus: Marsh Risk’s Philippe Dion
Marsh Risk’s Philippe Dion explains that Canada’s construction insurance market is becoming increasingly fragmented, with British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec and parts of Ontario presenting the toughest underwriting environments. Regional hazards—wildfires, seismic risk, hailstorms and historic flooding—have driven higher deductibles, sub‑limits and...
How Convective Storms Are Rewriting the Risk Landscape — and What Property Owners Can Do About It
MSIG USA is redefining property‑and‑casualty claims by pairing AI‑driven offer generation with a culture that treats the claims team as an extension of the insured’s organization. Chief Claims Officer Ron Morrison stresses that technology accelerates efficiency, but skilled adjusters and...
Workers’ Compensation Medical Inflation Holds Steady in Q1 2026 as Broader Price Pressures Build
The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) reported that workers’ compensation medical prices rose 1.8% year‑over‑year in March 2026, well below the 4.0% increase in consumer‑paid medical costs and the 2.4% rise in the health‑care services producer price index. Headline...
Three Critical Factors Insurance Companies Must Address Before Integrating AI
Musculoskeletal disorders remain a leading occupational health issue in the U.S., driving high medical costs and productivity losses. The Hartford is promoting AI‑driven computer‑vision tools that analyze short workplace videos to generate risk scores and visual heat maps of body...
Insurance Distribution M&A Activity Hits Decade Low as Three-Year Slide Shows Signs of Bottoming Out
Insurance distribution M&A fell to a decade low in Q1 2026, with 148 deals—a 6% drop from a year earlier and 16% below the five‑year average. The total 12‑month count slipped to 686, far from the 2021 peak of 1,108....
Rising Hail Risk Poses Growing Threat to Solar Farm Insurability
A new white paper from Gallagher Re and AXIS warns that rapidly expanding solar photovoltaic farms are increasingly vulnerable to hail damage, which now accounts for 27% of global solar PV catastrophe losses. In 2025, severe convective storms generated $60 billion...
The Cyber Insurance Conundrum
Cyber insurance premiums have slipped 5‑7% over the last 11 quarters, with some policies 22% cheaper than their 2022 peak, even as ransomware attacks surged 34% in 2025, accounting for 44% of breaches. The average cost of a data breach...
AI Isn’t the Strategy. Outcomes Are.
The insurance claims sector is moving beyond the question of whether to use AI and is now concentrating on how AI can improve outcomes. AI has shifted from a visibility‑only tool to one that delivers actionable insight directly within adjusters'...
Medical Malpractice Claim Severity Escalating as Social Inflation Drives Casualty Costs Higher
Medical professional liability now leads casualty lines in claim severity, with unpaid severity per open claim hitting $151,768 in 2018—the highest across the sector. The rise is driven by social inflation, litigation financing, and an uptick in "nuclear" verdicts, rather...
U.S. Storms and European Flooding Drive Below-Average Q1 Catastrophe Losses
Global economic losses from natural disasters in Q1 2026 fell to about $37 billion, roughly 43% below the long‑term average. Insurers covered roughly $20 billion, matching the 21st‑century Q1 norm, while the U.S. alone accounted for more than three‑quarters of insured losses at...