AXA deputy CEO on the altering function of insurance coverage in combating vulnerability

On the launch of the eleventh annual AXA Future Dangers Report, leaders from the insurance coverage large supplied an outline of the advanced danger atmosphere impacting societies, communities, organisations and people right this moment. Encompassing the responses of over 23,000 respondents, the report painted an image of a world polycrisis the place maturing and rising dangers are intersecting.

For the third yr working, local weather change, geopolitical instability and cybersecurity had been cited as the highest dangers, with AI and massive knowledge considerations coming in fourth for the second yr in a row. In the meantime, pretend information was recognized not simply as a brand new rising danger however as one inherently interconnected with the opposite dangers that make up the register. 

Understanding the danger of accelerating vulnerability

Throughout a media briefing forward of its launch, Frédéric de Courtois (pictured), deputy CEO of AXA, underscored the relevance of the report not simply when it comes to opening communication channels and elevating consciousness of danger, but additionally in how AXA manages its insurance coverage enterprise. He famous {that a} significantly putting discovering of the analysis is that individuals really feel extra susceptible to each type of danger than they did final yr.

The report discovered that a big majority of each the consultants (92%) and most of the people (90%) surveyed agreed that there was an rising variety of crises. An identical quantity additionally agreed these crises are having a extra vital impression on individuals’s lives. “We’re in a world of polycrisis,” de Courtois stated. “Which means an increase within the variety of crises but additionally the actual fact these crises are correlated… And that is broadly recognised by the overall inhabitants and by consultants, and it causes them worries, therefore this sense of vulnerability.”

Figuring out how AXA is trying to mitigate this polycrisis danger atmosphere, he highlighted the insurer’s conviction that, “the long run can’t be a danger”.

“In fact, we’ve got a really lifelike view of present occasions, however we’re not fatalistic,” he stated. “We wish to be proactive. We had been glad by the truth that 91% of respondents underscored the optimistic function of insurers sooner or later. Now we have to meet this expectation. [To do that], we have to have the best mind-set, we must be agile to additional shield our policyholders, and we have to discover options – significantly technology-based options.”

Tackling disinformation – a shared accountability

The second approach wherein the enterprise is trying to battle this rising vulnerability is by tackling disinformation. Disinformation is the enemy of prevention, de Courtois stated, and with dangers changing into more and more interconnected and complicated, steps should be taken to mitigate them. Disinformation has had a transparent impression on mitigation efforts, and is inflicting societal fragmentation which, in flip, is stopping populations from embracing the best preventative measures.

“It is a explanation for concern for us, significantly because it comes with one thing like… Hurricane Helene which hit North Carolina,” he stated. “There we noticed the measures to rescue communities and to restore their infrastructures after the catastrophe had been broadly affected, generally prevented by disinformation. When individuals now not know what the reality is or the place to look, it does have an effect on these restoration measures. So for us, this disinformation is a matter when it comes to prevention, but additionally when it comes to post-disaster administration.”

Combating disinformation would require a number of stakeholders to work collectively, de Courtois stated. The place AXA sees a possibility to behave upon the subject is by collaborating with consultants, opinion leaders and the inhabitants as an entire, in addition to participating in public-private partnerships.

Placing insurance coverage on the coronary heart of problem-solving

The third message is to grasp that the insurer is on the crossroads of any transformation, be that demographic, geopolitical, technological or in any other case.

“It’s a responsibility for us to face such dangers and discover options. It’s a responsibility,” de Courtois stated. “However as, with any huge company, we’re confronted with a robust dilemma – how can we meet our short-term and our long-term perspective? That is the everlasting query in any enterprise.”

It’s a balancing act to help the populations and communities dealing with these dangers whereas sustaining operational consistency. A stabilising answer is to proceed investing in human capital and new abilities, together with however not restricted to technological abilities. A second answer is investing in the best applied sciences and the third is to encourage insurers to take extra dangers.

Understanding the altering function of the insurer

Traditionally, de Courtois famous that the function of the insurer was to take a look at the previous, to dig into the historic knowledge of occasions, and to make selections based mostly on this. That method nonetheless issues, however right this moment, change is occurring so quick and continuously, that insurance coverage must look to the long run and attempt to plan the way it will assist to guard the world and populations.

“If we wish to shield the world in opposition to local weather change, we have to embrace applied sciences that may mitigate local weather change,” he stated. “However we do not have historic knowledge about them, so we have to have a look at the long run and attempt to foresee what is going to occur, with meteorologists, local weather scientists, sociologists, consultants in every kind of fields.

“That is why these new abilities will matter a lot. These completely different abilities additionally have to work collectively…  Evaluation remains to be crucial, as prior to now, however we have to have a potential imaginative and prescient… [All of this is] fascinating and worrying on the similar time.”