Pricing for the Future: Does Underwriting Need a Rethink?

Let’s start with a simple truth: the way we price and underwrite risk isn’t keeping up with the world we’re living in.

In our recent Sapiens Insight Session with Swiss Re, I sat down with Paloma Quiroga Arias, Head of Risk Consulting & Analytics at Swiss Re, to talk about what’s really changing (and what needs to change) in underwriting.

Because here’s what we’re up against:

In 2024 alone, natural catastrophes triggered over $135 billion in insured losses, the fifth year in a row over the $100bn mark. That includes $50 billion from hurricanes, another $51 billion from severe thunderstorms, and massive floods across Europe and the Middle East. And that’s just nature’s share. Add in cyber threats, geopolitical unrest, inflation – the whole mix – and you’re looking at systemic volatility.

This isn’t a blip. It’s a new normal.

So where does that leave the underwriter? Well, quite often stuck trying to make sharp calls with data that’s fragmented, systems that don’t talk to each other, and pressures coming from every direction.

That’s why we focused this session on what needs to happen next:

• How we embed risk intelligence right at the point of decision, not buried in dashboards
• The ways AI and predictive analytics are giving us earlier signals and sharper forecasts
• Why the underwriter experience matters – not just the UX, but how it feels to work inside a modern underwriting platform
• And maybe most importantly, how we start managing exceptions, not just volume

This isn’t about automating people out of the loop. It’s about giving underwriters the kind of clarity and confidence they need to navigate a very different kind of risk landscape. For example, pulling in unstructured data in variable formats, cleansing and enriching it before using AI-driven tools to create single, clear customer views. That way, workflows can happen automatically behind the scenes, letting underwriters focus on making smarter decisions without getting bogged down chasing scattered information.

Paloma brought deep insight from a Swiss Re perspective which includes how they’re modelling emerging risks and helping insurers to prepare for not just the next event, but the next pattern. Because patterns are changing too.

If you missed the live session, I really encourage you to catch the recording. It’s 30 minutes that’ll get you thinking differently about how we price, how we prepare, and what the future of underwriting could, and should, look like.

Watch the full webinar recording here.