Investors may be gung-ho about GenAI but insurers, whilst keen to talk use cases, are proving more cautious when it comes to deployment. Live polls conducted at Insurance Innovators, with a cohort skewed to favour innovation, found almost half (47%) are still brainstorming their GenAI strategy while only one-in-five (22%) are already pioneering active GenAI solutions. And this isn’t surprising, because a majority (53%) cited AI risk as the trend that will skyrocket to the top of the innovation agenda in 2025.

But AI risk is not the only innovation trend. Insurtech is seizing opportunities to deliver innovative solutions to cover unmet needs and emerging risks. While the climate crisis is attracting investment for those start-ups with carbon and green energy propositions, Dominique Roudaut, Partner, Innovation at MS&AD Ventures, is concerned that biodiversity is a neglected risk.

‘More than 50% of global GDP is based on nature, and nature is dying,’ said Roudaut. ‘In the ecosystem of insurance, there are a few start-ups coming up to address the risk around biodiversity, first to assess the risk, quantify that, have an action plan and what’s left, can it be insured.’

Novel insurance needs are emerging in other areas, whether it’s protecting the revenue streams of live gamers and the influencer community, the under-served yet fast-growing cryptoverse, solutions for the gig and circular economies or even protecting the carbon offset provided by a city’s trees. ‘There are 800,000 trees in New York. They’re worth $340 million a year in terms of their social service value but those trees are not insured,’ said Roudaut.