Artificial intelligence is being embedded across insurance and business operations faster than governance frameworks can keep pace, creating an accountability gap that is reshaping how risk is created, distributed and amplified, according to a new research from Willis.
The findings, published in Willis' latest Risk and Resilience review, show more than 700 million people now use leading AI systems every week, with the technology woven into operational infrastructure, customer interactions and executive decision-making. The report argued that the central challenge is no longer whether to adopt AI, but whether organizations can do so responsibly - and whether the insurance market has the tools to respond.
Spike Lipkin, chief AI officer at Willis, said the speed of adoption is creating a structural vulnerability.
"AI is already reshaping the risk landscape in real time, but many organizations are moving forward without fully understanding the systems they rely on," Lipkin said. "That creates a dangerous gap between innovation and oversight. Business leaders need to recognize that this is no longer just a technology issue, but a governance, liability and trust challenge."
The report's most consequential finding is the divergence it identified in how the market is responding to AI risk.
Some insurers and brokers continue to rely on traditional policy wording and so-called "silent AI" assumptions - language that neither explicitly includes nor excludes AI-related losses - while others are introducing affirmative AI cover and tightening underwriting requirements tied to governance and control frameworks.
Gallagher's 2026 research found that one in five insurance professionals surveyed reported that their insureds had already experienced losses linked to AI risk, yet most policy wordings were never designed with AI liability in mind. The ambiguity spans cyber liability, professional indemnity, errors and omissions, employment practices liability, product liability and D&O, creating potential for coverage disputes across multiple lines simultaneously.
Between January 2025 and January 2026, the professional liability market experienced a structural break from silent AI coverage to explicit affirmative warranties or absolute exclusions, with firms entering 2026 without documented AI governance frameworks now facing coverage denials at renewal, the report said.
Meanwhile, product innovation is beginning to address the gap.
In April 2025, Armilla Insurance Services launched an AI liability policy underwritten at Lloyd's - among the first to offer clear, affirmative coverage for AI-related risks including hallucinations and model performance deterioration.
Google separately announced a partnership with Beazley, Chubb and Munich Re to offer affirmative AI coverage embedded within Google Cloud services. A new ISO form effective January 2026 allows carriers to exclude bodily injury, property damage and advertising injury arising from generative AI from standard commercial general liability policies, a change reshaping renewal conversations across the market.
Where 2025 discussions centered on exploring and testing AI, 2026 perspectives are focused on deploying, scaling and integrating, a shift that makes the governance questions the Willis report raises more urgent, not less.
