important new business insurance products
Insurance may not be the big box office, but in the real business world, managing future risks is not something you can overlook. Let's take a look at some of the areas in which business insurance is likely to change to provide adequate coverage over the next decade, and assess what it will mean for your business.
1. Driverless car liability insurance
In 2016, as part of the New Horizons report, Willis Towers Watson asked 200 insurers whether they believed autonomous technologies would have a significant impact on the industry. Of the 72% who said yes, 79% felt the effect would be felt within the next one to seven years.
Cars have become safer over the past 50 years and self-driving cars must improve safety even further, by removing humans from the equation. The US Department of Transportation estimates that 95% of auto accidents are the result of human error. Therefore, we should see the lower cost of conventional auto insurance. But as with all new technologies, there are many unanswered questions. Software bugs, programming flaws, hardware malfunctions, and cyber terrorism are all threats that can sabotage the ideal world of self-driving vehicles. so what? Who will be responsible? the user? the manufacturing company? Programmer? Network provider? the authorities?
There is a trend towards manufacturers that assume greater ownership of the entire package and thus take full responsibility for insurance. Companies like Tesla and Google have models under which they maintain ownership by providing cars for ride-sharing services. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, Tesla is slated to supply 200 cars for an independent taxi service. But any company that owns a fleet of self-driving cars is likely to be at least partially responsible for their safe operation. Evolution to full automation will be incremental. Expect the transition to full automation to be carefully monitored by insurance companies with information technologies. By 2020, nearly 50% of cars in the United States are expected to use information technologies to monitor driving behavior.
What you can expect: Decrease in premiums for conventional auto insurance as more driverless technologies are introduced and more pay-as-you-go policies are introduced to the market. Product liability insurance companies that supply cars or provide auto parts are likely to rise.
2. Cybersecurity insurance
By exploring driverless car liability, I raised two issues that will affect most businesses. One of them is the need for insurance against piracy, cyber theft, and data misuse. While cybersecurity insurance does exist, many companies have yet to realize its importance.
With the new legislation, led by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (which comes into force on May 25), demanding greater responsibility for collecting and storing personal data and imposing heavy fines for non-compliance, companies will need to cover themselves against potentially disruptive costs. data.
What you can expect: The demand for cybersecurity insurance will rise over the next few years, especially with small businesses and startups. Companies must advance in the game and begin to assess their cybersecurity risks, data collection policies, and insurance coverage.
3. Artificial Intelligence / Robotics Liability Insurance
Autonomous vehicles also raise the issue of liability when using artificial intelligence (AI) and robots. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a machine that relies on sensors and network connections. To complicate matters further, AI is a new type of risk for the insurance industry that is poorly understood. As such, each insurance policy is likely to be built, at least within a specific business area, on a case-by-case basis, according to criteria such as:
• Is the role of the robot industrial, service, or medical?
• Will the robot replace or complement humans?
• Is the robot restricted to one place (for example, a vacuum cleaner) or multiple locations (for example, a delivery drone)?
• Can a person choose to override the robot’s behavior?
• Does the robot use artificial intelligence, so it has the potential to develop individual intellect?
A very complex example is a prosthesis that is partly human-controlled and partly human-controlled. Where is the responsibility here? Even if your company does not rely heavily on robotics or artificial intelligence, be aware that it can affect other insurance policies as well. Health insurance is a prime example. Robots are becoming popular in surgery all over the world, including in the Middle East, and their use is usually covered by health insurance. For example, the manufacturers of the Da Vinci Surgical Robot say it is "classified as minimally invasive robotic surgery, so any insurance that covers minimally invasive surgery generally covers da Vinci surgery." But as the machines get more sophisticated, this will need to change. In theory, this complexity should lower premiums due to greater precision, but in the early days we may see an increase as it is a step towards unknown risks.
What you can expect: More and more products covering artificial intelligence/robotics, or adaptation to current liability insurance, as companies become more and more dependent on these technologies. Health insurance companies will need to provide clearer guidance on the use of surgical robots and introduce policies that include or exclude their use. Business owners should consider approaching service providers or their intermediaries to better understand what this could mean for their policies.
4. Nanotechnology liability insurance
Nanoparticles are microscopic particles (100 nanometers or less - thinner than a human hair) that can enter the cells of an organism. Nanotechnology is expected to bring advances in medicine - drug delivery, pathogen detection, surveillance, and tissue engineering, for example - as well as construction, clothing, makeup, and even the food we eat. Research conducted by the University of Limerick in 2014 revealed that nanotechnology is a real concern for the insurance industry and scientific experts alike. In a survey sent to 31 insurance companies and 39 nanotechnology experts, they found that 60% of exports and 32% of insurance companies believe that nanomaterials pose high risks to workers.
If, as with other harmful substances such as asbestos, the nanomaterials are shown to pose long-term health risks, the liability will likely lie with the product creator. But what about businesses that dictate the use of nanomaterials - say a windbreaker - as part of a worker's daily life? In this case, companies are well-advised to adapt their employer's liability insurance to cover potential claims for many years afterward.
What you can expect: The insurance industry is struggling to determine the level of risk that nanotechnology presents, due to all the unknowns. Employers should monitor their absorption of these materials and adjust their liability insurance as appropriate.
5. Wellness
Although it is unlikely that this is a standalone product, but rather a contestant for personal or corporate insurance, wellness is still something that may emerge in the future of insurance and business liability. If companies can be fined for failing to protect personal data, it is not unreasonable to suggest that governments could start imposing similar penalties for failure to protect personal health. Perhaps employees can start using their current or former employers for lack of provision / insufficient health risk warning due to long periods of inactivity. In the future, could the employer be responsible for damages caused by poor health as a result of stress, inactivity, prolonged standing, and sitting for a long time? These are all possibilities.
Health and fitness are a hot topic, as governments are under pressure to reduce the national healthcare burden. Wellness at work programs is a major driver of improving the general health of the population, as they place the responsibility on companies to promote good health among their employees. Since many companies already have pollution liability insurance, given the potential for it to cause environmental harm, it is not difficult to imagine that insurance is required for companies that cause societal harm as well, by inactive or stressed members of society who become more common and offer no effect. Positive contribution to society.
What you can expect: Governments are slapping heavy fines on companies whose employees adopt unhealthy lifestyles. Probably a much better answer than "health liability insurance" would be to adopt well-executed health programs, but, as with data protection insurance, it is wise to have them covered for things out of your control.
Continue to evaluate your own risks and responsibilities
While science fiction writers have overlooked the dramatic effect of an insurance valuation, a failure in the real world to assess future risks and responsibilities may lead to dramas that you cannot take. The world is forever changing and staying ahead of the dangers it brings is a surefire way to help your business reach the stars.
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