Each year, ITC reflects where the insurance industry stands — and where it’s headed. In 2025, the conversation around underwriting matured visibly, especially when it came to AI.
The focus on automation gave way to a more grounded discussion about decision quality, architecture, and context.
Below are the four trends that, in my view, defined this year’s event.
1️. From Automation to Interpretation
The industry seems to have crossed an invisible line. After years of chasing straight-through processing and robotic efficiency, the spotlight turned to judgment, transparency, and interpretability.
AI is no longer just the promise of a “faster underwriter” — it’s becoming the co-pilot of human judgment.
At ITC, some GenAI use cases focused on:
- Summarizing submission documents and loss runs;
- Comparing exposures across portfolios;
- Contextualizing signals to help underwriters decide, not just process.
As one speaker put it: “We’ve automated everything we could — now we need to understand what we’re doing.”
This marks a clear shift from speed to conscious decision-making. Risk is no longer seen as a probability to calculate; it’s a behavior to interpret.
2️. Built-In, Not Bolted-On
One of the key architectural messages from ITC was that true modernization happens beneath the surface.
Many insurers realized that adding new AI tools on top of legacy cores may solve short-term issues but often multiplies complexity.
The focus now is on built-in intelligence — embedding data and AI directly into the underwriting core.
What this looks like in practice:
- Unified data fabric / lakehouse, where data circulates in real time instead of through batch integrations;
- Microservices cores, exposing pricing, rating, and ingestion through APIs;
- Event-driven architectures, capable of reacting automatically to environmental, behavioral, or operational signals;
- Underwriting Workbenches as the new command center — the cognitive hub bridging process efficiency and decision support.
3️. Data Context and Continuous Risk Perception
Another strong theme across ITC was the end of static data.
Insurers are moving from historical analysis to contextual interpretation, integrating:
- Climatic and geospatial signals;
- Behavioral and IoT inputs;
- External intelligence such as ESG and reputational indicators.
This shift also echoes how both experts and the public are perceiving risk today.
The AXA Future Risks Report 2025 — published in October 2025 as the 12th annual edition, with insights from over 20,000 participants (including 3,500 experts from 50+ countries and 17,000 members of the general public) — asked respondents to identify the top five emerging risks for the world over the next decade. Their answers reveal a strong convergence between experts and society — and reflect the same four forces I describe in Liquid Risk (climatic, technological, social, and geopolitical):
Experts – Top 5 Emerging Risks
- Climate change
- Geopolitical instability
- Cybersecurity
- Artificial intelligence and big data
- Social tensions and movements
Public – Top 5 Emerging Risks
- Climate change
- New security threats and terrorism
- Cybersecurity
- Social tensions and movements
- Pandemics and infectious disease
The takeaway is clear: climate volatility, geopolitical fragmentation, technological disruption, and social instability dominate the risk landscape — confirming that volatility is now structural, complexity systemic, and protection must adapt in real time.
4️. Toward 2030: Underwriting as a Living System
Looking ahead, underwriting is evolving into an intelligent network that senses and responds continuously. The future leaders will:
- Embed AI and event-driven architectures into their cores;
- Build adaptive, modular, and continuous products;
- Treat complexity as intelligence, not friction.
As I often summarize it: “Complexity isn’t the enemy — obsolescence is.”
Looking Ahead
ITC Vegas 2025 confirmed that underwriting modernization is no longer about faster automation — it’s about deeper understanding.
The next step is execution: turning interpretive intelligence into operational capability.
In the coming weeks, I’ll publish another blog focusing on the Celent Kick-Off Summit at ITC, where I had the privilege of moderating a panel with Delos Insurance, LWCC, and Federato — exploring how insurers are modernizing underwriting from the inside out.
Finally, I’ll also be releasing an upcoming Celent report that dives deeper into what the future of underwriting looks like — a framework I call Liquid Underwriting. If ITC Vegas showed where the market is heading, these next insights will show how to get there.
