Swiss Re executives have outlined how the London Insurance Market is positioned against three forces reshaping the global risk environment – artificial intelligence adoption, cyber exposures and natural catastrophe losses – as industry and government leaders prepare for London Risk Week and the Global Risk Summit.
Investment in AI is accelerating, with adoption spreading across industries and reshaping economic growth, financial markets and risk pools. Recent Swiss Re Institute analysis points to AI both transforming insurers' own operations and introducing new exposures.
The capital flowing into the technology is substantial. Forrester's Global Tech Market Forecast projects insurance industry technology spending to rise by US$173 billion in 2026, with AI a key driver.
Mordor Intelligence pegs the AI-in-insurance market at US$26.3 billion in 2026, growing to US$114.52 billion by 2031, a compound annual rate of 34.2%. Capgemini's World Property & Casualty Insurance Report 2026 finds 60% of insurers remain in the exploration or proof-of-concept stage, while a small cohort of "intelligence trailblazers" is achieving up to 21% higher revenue growth.
Group chief digital and technology officer Pravina Ladva (pictured above, left) said AI is moving from experimentation to execution and becoming "a powerful enabler of the high-value knowledge work that defines the London Market."
She stressed adoption must rest on data quality, governance and a clear view of where AI improves results, "while keeping humans firmly in the loop."
On cyber, Swiss Re research highlights underinsurance levels of 10-20% among SMEs and 5-10% among micro-SMEs, pointing to a protection gap that insurance solutions can help close.
Global insured losses from natural catastrophes reached US$107 billion in 2025, with secondary perils such as wildfires, severe convective storms and floods accounting for a record 92%. Swiss Re modeling shows insured losses could hit US$320 billion in 2026 under a peak-loss scenario.
Per Swiss Re's sigma 1/2026 report, that peak-loss scenario is defined as losses exceeding the long-term trend by at least one standard deviation, with a roughly 10% annual probability. The baseline expectation for 2026 is around US$148 billion, in line with the long-term average.
The report describes wildfire as the fastest-growing risk, with insured losses rising an estimated 12% per year, while the Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles in January 2025 produced combined insured losses of US$40 billion – the largest global insured wildfire loss on record.
The remarks land against Swiss Re's broader "Shifting Sands" outlook, in which group chief economist Jérôme Haegeli flagged a regime shift defined by persistent inflation, fragile growth and escalating climate threats, with global GDP growth projected to slow to around 2.5% through 2027.
Haegeli described AI valuations as "bubbly" but said they "doesn't look extraordinary" compared with the dot-com era.
Jason Richards (pictured above, middle), CEO UK and Ireland, P&C Reinsurance, pointed to the UK's US$0.8 billion in natural catastrophe losses in 2025, largely driven by winter storms and Storm Éowyn. He said adaptation is working, noting that without current flood defenses, annual household flood losses would be close to three times higher.
Nina Arquint (pictured above, right), CEO UK and Ireland, Corporate Solutions, said clients are seeking differentiated offerings amid extreme weather, AI-related exposures and supply chain disruption, pointing to alternative risk transfer tools such as captives and parametrics as an increasingly important part of the toolkit.
