The Next Era of Commercial Insurance: Faster, Smarter, and Embedded

The commercial insurance industry has spent decades clinging to incremental change, but the future demands something radically different. It’s not just about modernizing legacy systems—it’s about rethinking the very core of how products are designed, priced, and delivered in a rapidly evolving world of risk.

This roundtable will discuss the findings of a brand new HFS report that explores the dynamic changes underway in commercial insurance, and where insurers are placing their bets to compete more effectively in the future. The report is based on interviews with 350 commercial insurance leaders across North America and Europe (including the UK) Specifically during the roundtable, we’ll discuss how insurers are adapting and modernizing their operating models and product portfolios and the extent to which they are:

• Moving beyond policies to ecosystems – Where insurers consider themselves part of broader customer journeys, seamlessly embedding products into clients’ businesses.
• Embracing continuous, real-time underwriting – Where the days of static, annual pricing are over. Continuous risk assessment will be essential for staying competitive.
• Investing in smart data and AI-driven insights– where advanced analytics will power everything from underwriting to claims, enabling better, faster, and more personalized products.
• Redefining the role of insurance – where the future is about preventing loss, not just covering it. Insurers are aiming to be proactive risk partners, helping clients mitigate risk.
• Prioritizing agility over tradition – where commercial insurers build faster, more flexible product development processes, work collaboratively across underwriting, technology, and data teams, and fail fast to iterate faster.