A survey by Gallagher has found one in five insurance industry professionals say a client experienced loss or claims due to AI-related risks in the past year, yet most policies do not explicitly address such threats. 

Many say wordings are seemingly written for “a pre-AI world”. 

“There are concerns that policy wordings are too vague for what would be covered in an AI-related loss, potentially leaving insurance carriers open to claims disputes and litigation,” the research report said.  

Just over half of AI-related claims were fully covered by insurance, the survey found. Cyber liability, product liability and employers/employment practices liability are the classes of business most likely to be impacted by AI-related claims.  

The broker also polled 1250 business leaders from 11 industries for the study.

Gallagher practice leader Paige Cheasley says insurers are considering including clearer language around AI risks across a range of policies, but wordings could prove challenging given AI is constantly evolving. 

The broker says a market-wide pivot to new policy language that incorporates AI-related risks is unlikely to happen unless there is a significant surge in claims or increased litigation involving such losses. 

"Exclusionary language around AI risks may be coming in classes like errors and omissions and general liability, but we haven't seen anything specific yet,” Ms Cheasley said.  

“Carriers are likely to be hesitant to be the first one out of the gate to exclude and would rather wait to see what claims come in.” 

The survey found an expectation that there will be new policies for AI-related risks, specialised endorsements and AI-specific wordings. 

It also found AI adoption continues to accelerate, with 63% of organisations this year having AI operational in their business, up from 45% last year. 

See the report here.