Blog: What you told me you want from risk management

Risk management needs to scale, hit harder and modernise fast. Johnny Thomson, head of strategic planning at RiskSTOP Group, reveals the industry’s top demands – and how data and AI are already reshaping what insurers, brokers and clients expect.

I’ve had many interactions around risk management this year. In fact, I recently asked my AI sidekick – we’ve all got one these days – to help me interrogate my notes, anonymously and securely, of course.

The result? A clear record of discussions at around seven events and conferences, 23 webinars, 41 face-to-face meetings and 126 Teams calls, all with insurers, brokers and their clients. And when we looked at it, three clear risk management needs emerged over and again:

1. Make it scalable – accessible to more, easier to understand and engage with.
2. Have greater impact – not just on loss performance, but on client sentiment, confidence and experience.
3. Do it differently – old models won’t meet expectations, a ‘fit-for-the-future’ approach is needed.

These aren’t abstract ideas. They reflect the real opportunities and challenges faced by the insurance industry and the people, businesses and infrastructure we serve.

The ‘future’ we talked about is becoming the present

In 2019, PwC outlined a journey from traditional, human-centric risk management to more augmented and eventually autonomous models. At the time, the Future of Risk report felt like a roadmap for the future. Today, the early signs of that progression are already showing up in day-to-day practice.

AI won’t be running risk management on its own any time soon, but it is becoming a smart assistant for the heavy lifting...

We’re surrounded by richer, faster, more varied risk data than ever before: sensor outputs, developing claims patterns, geospatial intelligence, building information and operational data.

The real significance isn’t the data itself – it’s what the data enables: risk management that reaches more people, delivers more consistent insight and enables protection and resilience.

AI is moving toward practical usefulness

Gartner’s Hype Cycle reminds us that new technologies must travel through both hype and scepticism before becoming genuinely helpful. AI is moving towards that ‘helpful’ phase, although what Gartner labels ‘the trough of disillusionment’ is currently very real. 

AI won’t be running risk management on its own any time soon, but it is becoming a smart assistant for the heavy lifting – organising information, comparing sites, spotting patterns and flagging areas that may need attention.

As its capabilities mature, AI will increasingly help consultants identify where loss frequency and severity concentrate. That means interventions can be focused precisely where they will have the greatest effect – improving performance and strengthening client sentiment.

People want improvements that actually matter

Across all the conversations I reviewed, one message came through consistently: organisations want clarity, not noise. They want to focus on the issues that genuinely shape outcomes – both financial and cultural.

They want to know:

• which risks truly matter
• which locations need attention first, and
• which actions will make a meaningful, measurable difference.

These expectations naturally push us toward a more risk-based and strategic approach – prioritising aggregated loss drivers, focusing on the areas that matter most and making improvements easier to replicate across sites and departments.

The risk management consultant’s role is changing 

New tools – digital platforms, automated workflows, early-stage AI capabilities – don’t diminish the importance of consultants, they amplify it.

An augmented approach, where human, data and tech work together, frees up consultants to focus more on interpretation, judgement and guidance. Less on collecting data, more on shaping outcomes. Less on process, more on impact.

At RiskSTOP, we see this evolution as an opportunity:

• to make risk management accessible to more people,
• to deliver greater and more visible impact, and
• to embrace new approaches that match the demands of the future, not the assumptions of the past.

While the next five years will accelerate this, the early steps are already here and they point towards risk management that is more scalable, more targeted and far better aligned with what insurers, brokers and their clients want today.

It’s what you’ve told me… and my AI sidekick. Let me know if you’d like to talk more.

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