AI doesn’t just streamline operations; it exposes its vulnerabilities. And for Kate Della Mora (pictured), that tension is exactly where the insurance industry’s next reckoning lies.
“We’re using the same AI to solve the problem that’s creating the risk,” said Della Mora, CEO of CFC Underwriting Canada and a featured speaker at the upcoming Women in Insurance Canada summit. In her view, artificial intelligence isn’t a shiny new tool - it’s a mirror, forcing insurers to confront the very systems they’ve historically relied on.
This paradox is already reshaping underwriting conversations in data-heavy lines like healthcare and cyber, where AI can both optimize and undermine. According to Capgemini, 62% of insurance executives say AI is enhancing underwriting and reducing fraud, but only 43% of underwriters actually trust the outputs. That disconnect points to a deeper problem: technological adoption is outpacing organizational confidence.
With more than two decades in specialty lines and a track record of guiding CFC’s tech strategy, Della Mora is calling for AI governance that matches the complexity of the tool itself. From tailored regulation to internal accountability, she believes the insurers who win the next decade won’t be the fastest adopters - \but the most deliberate.
Despite the rapid uptake of AI, Della Mora warned that regulation is struggling to keep up.
“Often regulation is more reactive versus proactive,” she said. “It’s really important for the industry and individual companies to get ahead of the game… and create policies and procedures proactively.”
For Della Mora, the foundation of that effort must be transparency, accountability, and compliance. That includes clearly explaining how AI models operate - not just for regulators, but for clients who trust insurers with sensitive data.
“We want to continue to enhance the trust within the insurance industry,” she said.
That trust becomes even more critical in sectors like healthcare, where AI processes high-stakes, confidential information. Della Mora challenged the industry to think carefully about whether algorithms are equipped to handle such responsibility.
“These claims often contain highly confidential information,” she said. “Should we be entrusting such sensitive information to machine learning systems, and are we fully aware of the implications of doing so?”
Still, she emphasized that the underlying risk isn’t the presence of data - it’s how that data is handled.
“The data is there anyway. It’s just a matter of how we’re actually manipulating the data,” she said. “When somebody’s placing the risk, they have to have trust in that company… that they have superior protection in place with respect to that data.”
As global regulators begin to respond, Della Mora points to Australia’s exploration of insurance-specific AI regulation as a potential blueprint for Canada. She argues that sector-agnostic frameworks simply won’t cut it.
“The processes and the way that different industries and different companies are using AI is so different. Regulatory models may have to be tailored to suit specific industries based on how AI is utilized and the associated risks,” she said.
That specificity is critical to balancing innovation with accountability. “Fostering transparency without killing AI and advancement,” is how she framed the goal.
But as some carriers leap ahead with AI, others risk falling behind. Della Mora sees a widening tech gap between early adopters and firms still clinging to outdated systems and poor-quality data.
“The insurance industry is known to lag behind in terms of technology - at least 10 years,” she said. “The utilization of AI is only as good as the data that we have.”
To bridge that divide, she encouraged carriers to adopt plug-and-play AI tools, even if imperfect, as a first step. “You don’t necessarily need to build from the ground up,” she said. “They’re maybe not perfect but it can kind of help get you to where you need to be.”
Technology, however, must be matched by strategy. For Della Mora, the winning model puts client-facing roles in the hands of people and tech in the back office to drive smarter decisions.
“Staffing, talent, and culture,” she said, will determine which insurers stay relevant.
And rather than seeing AI purely as a tool for automation, she sees its greatest value in custom-built solutions, whether underwriting niche risks or detecting fraud in real time. “What’s more important is actually creating a very customized solution,” she said.
To Della Mora, the greater risk isn’t runaway technology - it’s regulatory paralysis. In a space defined by trust, she argueds, insurers need to engage with regulators early and often. “If you can collaborate [with regulators] to make sure that everybody’s on the same page, you’re not going to fall behind,” she said.
Ultimately, the insurers that will lead the next era aren’t the ones moving the fastest - they’re the ones aligning speed with responsibility. The future belongs to firms that can build trust into every algorithm.
The Women in Insurance Canada event is where these questions come to the forefront. It’s built for women who are ready to lead differently - those who want to turn complexity into clarity, and disruption into opportunity.
