At The Hartford, digital tools and data-driven insights are redefining the role of the insurer. Rather than focusing solely on risk transfer, the company is advancing a model centered on prevention, using technology to intervene before losses occur. This shift reflects broader changes across commercial insurance, where clients increasingly expect measurable operational value beyond claims payments.
Dan Campany (pictured), who leads risk services at The Hartford, positioned pre-claim mitigation as central to the insurer’s identity. “The risk-transfer insurance policy is intended to be the financial backstop for things that are unpredictable or unpreventable,” he said. “The pre-claim risk mitigation is our opportunity to help customers stop those things from happening in the first place.”
He framed the issue as both economic and human. Claims events often involve injuries, operational disruption, and cascading business impacts that extend well beyond financial loss. “There are downstream implications for the business that go beyond the simple financial transaction,” he said.
The acceleration of this model has been driven by advances in connected devices and data availability. According to Campany, the proliferation of IoT and telematics has enabled insurers to access real-time exposure data directly from insured assets.
“That allows us to understand risk in the moment,” he said. In commercial auto, for example, telematics and in-cab cameras can detect drowsiness or distracted driving and trigger immediate alerts. In property, water sensors can identify leaks early, reducing severity depending on how quickly action is taken.
“Whether you find and mitigate the leak in a minute, an hour, a day, or a couple of days matters a lot,” he said. These capabilities allow insurers to “move further up the timeline” and intervene before minor issues escalate into major losses.
This shift also reframes the insurer-client relationships. Rather than periodic touchpoints tied to underwriting or claims, insurers can maintain continuous engagement through data streams that inform both parties in real time.
While IoT expands visibility, AI is playing a complementary role in making sense of increasingly granular data. Campany described a two-part dynamic shaping underwriting. . “Data is giving us granularity and objective information,” he said.
AI enables insurers to process that detail at scale. “AI gives us the ability to find patterns in that granular data, analyze that data, and then focus the human beings on the things that are the outliers,” he said. This allows underwriters to concentrate on judgment-intensive decisions rather than routine assessments.
The result is a balance between automation and expertise, with improved accuracy that does not compromise consistency for distribution partners. It also strengthens feedback loops, as insights from risk mitigation efforts can inform underwriting over time.
In workers’ compensation and workplace safety, The Hartford is deploying a combination of wearable technology and computer vision to capture risk at multiple levels. Wearables provide continuous, individualized data on motion, including lifting, bending, and twisting.
“What is unique about wearables is that the data is for each individual worker, and it is real time all the time,” Campany said. This allows insurers to identify patterns that would otherwise remain invisible, such as spikes in unsafe behavior tied to specific times or operational pressures. “You may see that on Tuesdays at 4 o’clock there is a spike in unsafe behaviors,” he said, pointing to scenarios such as unloading shipments or end-of-week fatigue. These insights enable targeted interventions that align with actual workflow conditions.
Complementing wearables are computer vision tools with two distinct applications. One diagnostic approach analyzes short video clips of workers performing specific tasks, generating visual overlays and scores that highlight physical strain. “It creates a numerical score and color coding—red, yellow, green,” he said.
This visual format supports decision-making across management levels, from safety managers to executives, and allows risk engineers to recommend ergonomic improvements. Follow-up analysis can then measure whether interventions have reduced exposure.
A second application uses fixed cameras to monitor entire worksites in real time. “We can take those same cameras, put computer vision software on them, and have AI watch the video in real time,” Campany said. These systems detect behaviors such as speeding forklifts, missing protective equipment, or unsafe work zones.
Unlike wearables, which focus on individual ergonomics, this approach provides a broader view of environmental and behavioral risks across the job floor. “This is our ability to watch 24/7/365,” he said.
These technologies ultimately feed into a continuous improvement cycle. Risk engineers analyze outputs, identify trends, and work with clients to implement mitigation strategies. Over time, safer operations can influence underwriting outcomes, reinforcing the connection between prevention and pricing.
“Ultimately, the safer a client becomes, the better it is for the risk-transfer relationship,” Campany said. This creates alignment between insurer and insured, with both parties benefiting from reduced loss frequency and severity.
Importantly, Campany emphasized that the impact extends beyond safety metrics. “Almost always, when we do an ergonomic improvement or when we are looking at telematics data… we see improvements in productivity, efficiency, and morale,” he said.
