As natural catastrophe losses rise and exposures become more complex, insurers are relying more on data, analytics and engineering to understand their portfolios.
For Dr Melanie Fischer, natural hazards and GIS/data analyst at HDI Global, recent advances in datasets and technology are changing how natural catastrophe risk is assessed, while long-standing protection gaps remain in many markets.
“In the past year, with all the advances in technology, we have seen a lot of new global data sets becoming available that help insurers better assess natural hazards,” Fischer said in conversation with Insurance Business. “In remote sensing, for example, there are many new data sets which now allow us to more accurately model natural hazards with higher resolutions globally.”
Within this context, Fischer points to HDI Global’s use of its in-house platform HDI ARGOS 4.0 as one example of how insurers are trying to organise and interpret large volumes of risk information.
“We just launched HDI ARGOS 4.0 as HDI Global’s Nat cat assessment tool. With this tool, we provide our clients opportunities to assess their natural catastrophe exposure on a global scale very easily.”
Fischer said one of the areas of focus in the tool is handling location data, which is often incomplete or inconsistently formatted across portfolios. The AI-supported importer is designed to reduce manual work at this stage, rather than to drive underwriting decisions by itself.
“The innovative AI-supported importer allows our clients to import unstructured location data more efficiently,” she said. “This saves a lot of time which would otherwise be spend on tedious data preparation.”
Looking ahead, Fischer said HDI Global plans to integrate climate-scenario-informed information into the same environment. The aim is to allow users to compare current exposures with potential future conditions, using scenarios that reflect possible shifts in hazard frequency and severity.
“Climate change has the potential to increase losses from weather-related perils in the upcoming years, and we will include climate-scenario-informed data in HDI ARGOS 4.0 with an upcoming update next year,” she said. “Integrating climate-scenario data will provide our clients with a forward-looking perspective on their global Nat cat exposure.”
Fischer acknowledged ongoing concerns in the market about how AI is used in risk modelling. She said these concerns relate to transparency, explainability and governance, and that HDI Global’s stated position is to keep human oversight central to its use of AI.
“With data protection and security, it is very important to build trust,” she said. “At HDI Global, the human in the loop remains central to quality and trust. AI supports our experts in data-driven tasks, and we see it as an enabler.”
She linked this to client expectations around data protection and security, noting that AI is positioned as a supporting technology rather than as a replacement for technical staff and underwriters.
“In the case of HDI ARGOS 4.0, AI is there to help make things more efficient. It is not something we can solely rely on, and it is not something that removes the human from the loop. We look at it from two perspectives: one is how we can enhance client experience and add real value, and the second is how we can enhance what we are doing internally as well,” she said.
Alongside analytics, Fischer emphasised that large protection gaps remain, particularly in some catastrophe‑exposed economies in Asia and Africa. She said limited insurance penetration in these markets means many losses are absorbed directly by households, businesses and governments.
“Especially in Asia and Africa, we see the largest protection gaps as Nat cat insurance cover in some countries is well below 10%,” she said. “Insurance companies are important partners when it comes to closing these gaps. In risk prevention, insurers provide financial stability for their clients. They also have a lot of expert knowledge that they can provide.”
For HDI Global, this expert input is delivered partly through a risk engineering team that works with clients on site‑specific risk mitigation. Fischer framed this as one practical way in which insurers can contribute to reducing the overall impact of natural catastrophes, irrespective of how quickly insurance take‑up grows.
“We have a large team of risk engineers, who help our clients address the specific risks they face as their partner in transformation,” she said. “They really drill down on potential mitigation measures and provide a lot of insights into what clients can do to better protect their assets. This helps to close the protection gap on a very specific, site-level basis.”
Meanwhile, in Asia‑Pacific, HDI Risk Consulting applies this combination of engineering and analytics across sectors including renewable energy and marine.
Philipp Glanz, managing director HDI Risk Consulting, HDI Global Australia, said the unit aims to combine regional insight with broader standards to move clients from understanding their risks to implementing resilience measures. He described this as co‑designing strategies and frameworks to address an evolving risk landscape, including climate and transition‑related exposures.
“Our capabilities include for example HDI ARGOS 4.0 - delivering precision Nat cat intelligence and geocoding at scale for 100k+ sites - alongside HDI GREEN 4.0, which ensures full portfolio transparency, centralised recommendations, and progress tracking,” Glanz said.
He also pointed to marine ship assessments as part of the offering, aimed at “rigorous, evidence-based evaluations” of safety, compliance and operational performance.
