INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Markel Partners With hyperexponential To Build AI-Native Underwriting Environment
Markel International, a division of Markel Insurance, is pleased to announce its partnership with hyperexponential to modernize rating, underwriting workflows and integration architecture across its Canadian business. Read more.

Insurance Is Now Agentic AI-Ready With MCP Architecture From ACORD Solutions Group
ACORD Solutions Group is pleased to announce the introduction of MCP-enabled architecture across its integrated suite of digital insurance solutions, making them fully AI agent-ready. Through these standards-compliant MCP layers, agentic AI can now analyze and orchestrate insurance business transactions within a compliant, auditable environment of standardized data. Read more.

AI-Powered Cyber Attacks Hit 1 In 3 Canadian Businesses: QBE Research
One in three Canadian businesses experienced cyber incidents in the past 12 months which they believe leveraged Artificial Intelligence, with phishing among the most frequent methods, according to global research from business insurer QBE. Read more.

Hub SmartCoverage Becomes VIU by HUB In Canada
Hub International Limited is pleased to announce that HUB SmartCoverage, its Canadian digital consumer insurance platform, is now VIU by HUB Canada. The refreshed brand modernizes a platform that has served Canadian consumers and embedded partners for more than two decades. Read more.

LexisNexis Launches A.I. Location Intelligence In U.S.
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions is pleased to announce the launch of LexisNexis® Location Intelligence for Home, an AI-driven predictive model that is redefining how U.S. home insurers assess property risk. Using advanced neural network modeling, LexisNexis® Location Intelligence for Home gives U.S. home insurance carriers a decisive advantage in assessing property risk with more accuracy and efficiency at new business and renewal. Read more.

Geopolitical Instability, Digital Infrastructure Reshaping Global Insurance Markets: Willis
Willis, a WTW business, has released its latest Insurance Marketplace Realities report, revealing a global insurance market entering a more complex phase shaped by geopolitical volatility and the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure. Read more.

Regulatory Standards For P&C MGAs: CAMGA Paper
The Canadian Association of Managing General Agents has published a new white paper on recommended provincial regulatory standards for Property & Casualty MGAs, authored by respected insurance industry expert Patrick Ballantyne. Read more.

Wildfire Readiness Gap, Protection Tips: Intact
A recent national survey found that nearly two-thirds of Canadians remain not very or not at all concerned about wildfires, despite more than half of Canadian communities being located in the wildland-urban interface, where human settlements meet or intermingle with wildfire-prone forests and grasslands. As risk continues to rise, Intact Insurance is sharing actions homeowners can take to improve home protection this wildfire season. Read more.

Aon Launches Climate Risk Monitor To Quantify Extreme Heat Impacts, Demand For Cooling
Aon, a leading global professional services firm, has announced an update to Climate Risk Monitor (CRM), its innovative platform designed to help clients understand, quantify and act on evolving physical climate risk. Read more.

Construction Season Brings Complex Risk Considerations Across Canada: CHES
Canada’s construction sector is entering its busiest period of the year – “crane season” – as the summer months typically see a surge in development activity across residential, commercial and infrastructure projects, particularly in urban centres. Read more.

KPMG, ServiceNow Expand Global Partnership
KPMG is pleased to announce the expansion of its global alliance relationship with ServiceNow, establishing a multi-year commitment and USD 40 million in services over the next three years to help clients accelerate AI-powered transformation across the enterprise, reinforcing KPMG's position as a leading ServiceNow partner. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Walnut
Walnut is an embedded insurance platform that makes insurance purchasing experiences digital-first, simple, and convenient – creating greater accessibility across life, P&C, and embedded product lines. Walnut currently offers more than 20 types of insurance products, provided by more than 15 different carriers Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Intermediate Underwriter (Commercial Auto)
SGI
Calgary or Edmonton, AB

Senior Commercial P&C Underwriter
Gore Mutual Insurance
Cambridge, ON

From Doug Conversational Quoting Some announcements in May about insurance practitioners implementing quoting inside ChatGPT caught my attention. Why is this meaningful? Until recently, quoting has used traditional, rigid forms, although techniques such as smart forms made them less daunting. Conversational quoting, at least as a starter, likely fronts traditional quoting engines, connected by APIs, behind the scenes. In this approach, conversational AI-based quoting can improve the user interface in several ways: • The conversation can be multilingual. • The conversation can be unstructured as the data necessary to generate a quote is gathered. • Data can be readily extracted from documents provided by the customer. • The tool can answer questions, e.g. about terminology, on the fly. • Comparisons can be easily handled to explain the impact of different options, such as different deductibles. • Presumably, if multiple quotes from one or more providers are generated, the differences can be summarized and compared. There would appear to be real value to be realized from these tools. With any new tool, insurance innovators quickly determine if there is a competitive edge to be gained, hence the announcements. It will be most interesting to watch how this piece of the insurance process and the bigger process evolve over the next couple of years. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca