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As demand for insurance and reinsurance continues to rise, in terms of both risk transfer and risk expertise, industry giant Swiss Re has made artificial intelligence (AI) a core pillar of its Group strategy, enabling the firm to better capture growing demand and assist clients in an increasingly complex risk landscape, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Andreas Berger.
During a call with the media following the release of a strong set of results for the first half of 2026, with net income up 9% to $2.8 billion, Swiss Re’s CEO commented on demand for risk transfer solutions, and the growing influence of AI across its business.
“Looking beyond the current year, we see demand for reinsurance and insurance also increasing, but it’s not only the risk transfer; it’s also the risk expertise that we see increasing demand in a rapidly changing world, ” said Berger. “The risks are becoming much more interconnected and complex. As recurring supply shocks, geopolitical fragmentation, large-scale investments in new infrastructure reshape the global economy, the role of the insurance and reinsurance industry in helping businesses and societies build resilience is becoming increasingly important.”
The global re/insurance industry faces numerous challenges from rapid technological shifts, escalating climate disruptions, and volatile global economics, but as highlighted by numerous leaders at global carriers over the years, challenges create opportunities for reinsurers to demonstrate their role as the world’s shock absorbers.
As Swiss Re works to help its clients navigate the shifting risk landscape, Berger explained how AI is amplifying the expertise of its people.
“It’s enabling us to analyse larger and more complex datasets, and identify patterns earlier, generate deeper insights, and develop better solutions. This allows us to deliver greater client value,” he said.
As an example, Berger highlighted Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ international programme business, which he described as a differentiation and key strategic pillar, while at the same time noting that one pain point for clients in this market is the time it takes to issue local policies.
According to Berger, the industry average for these policies is 45 days, but with the use of AI by applying data-driven rules, automation in AI and AI-enabled workflows, Swiss Re is now able to issue local policies at a pace faster than five days, and importantly with greater consistency and fewer handovers.
Another example used by Berger was Swiss Re’s efforts to transform the underwriting process in facultative reinsurance.
Berger explained: “The pain point here for this business is that every year we receive more than 100,000 deal submissions in different formats from clients and brokers. That volume is impossible to handle manually, and some opportunities have to be declined because they can’t even be reviewed because of the sheer capacity and volume, and that is a constraint. By using AI, we can dramatically improve the triaging process and unlock capacity. AI will help to analyse each submission, identify the most attractive risks, highlight issues that deserve attention, and ensure important factors aren’t overlooked.”
The CEO stated that efforts like this will enable Swiss Re’s underwriters to focus on their expertise on the deals most likely to succeed, enabling faster and more informed decision making, and ultimately grow an already highly profitable portfolio while maintaining underwriting discipline.
“This benefits both Swiss Re, but in particular also our clients. Importantly, we deploy AI with clear human accountability, expert oversight, consistent standards, ensuring the reliability to our clients, regulators, and also shareholders,” said Berger.
To sum up, Berger described AI as “a core pillar” of Swiss Re’s Group strategy, as the technology amplifies “the expertise of our people and building the capabilities that will enable us to better capture growing demand for insurance and reinsurance, and also risk expertise, to help our clients navigate an increasingly complex risk landscape, and create long-term value for our shareholders.”
Swiss Re made AI tools like Copilot and ChatGPT available to all of its workers in 2024 as a means to improve AI fluency. Currently, more than 80% of the firm’s employees report confidence in using these tools, said Berger, while around 14,000 of the company’s 15,000 colleagues now work on a globally integrated data and technology platform that brings together structured and unstructured data.
“This provides the foundation for deploying AI consistently and at scale across the whole group, across all business units and group functions,” said Berger. “Going forward, success will increasingly be measured by the value our people create with this platform.”
The post Swiss Re CEO says AI is core to Group strategy as re/insurance demand increases appeared first on ReinsuranceNe.ws.
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