Full Capacity: Underwriting, unbundled by AI

April 25 2026 by

Welcome to Full Capacity, a weekly briefing on all the most important developments of the past week with a personal take on the news from our editor-in-chief, Mithun Varkey, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.   

IAN exclusive. Willis’ Carlos Grijalva will join Gallagher Re to lead its Asia Pacific cyber business. Grijalva, who has been head of Asia cyber sales for Willis since November, is due to join the reinsurance broker in Hong Kong in May. 

Leadership (Re)jig. This week we saw senior leadership changes across several reinsurers.

Partner Re handed Sasa Hu the role of CEO for P&C in APAC, with incumbent James Beedle set to retire. 

Swiss Re appointed Anna Ziswiler as head of P&C reinsurance for Southeast Asia, India, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea.

She will take over most of the responsibilities handled by Victor Kuk, who started at Peak Re in Hong Kong as CEO on Monday. 

Nat cat brief. New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington and the Wairarapa regions faced heavy rain, flash flooding, and tornadoes. IAG New Zealand said that they have seen over 800 claims from the events.  

New Zealand has been hit by a record 46 storms in the past 12 months, which have resulted in 33,174 claims – an astounding 256% increase in storm-related claims.  

Meanwhile, in Japan, authorities warned residents in the north east of the country to prepare for an even larger earthquake after a 7.7-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Iwate on Monday, triggering tsunamis and leading to minor injuries and property damage, including 26 non-residential buildings, schools and restaurants. 

Stronger alliance. Allianz and India’s Jio Financial Services (JFSL) have entered into a binding agreement to form a 50:50 primary insurance joint venture, covering general insurance and health insurance in India. The binding agreement formalises a partnership first announced in July, when Allianz and JFSL officially unveiled the establishment of their reinsurance joint venture, which began operation in March. 

New frameworks. Hong Kong is developing frameworks to support sidecars and other alternative insurance structures, Insurance Authority CEO Clement Cheung Wan-ching told InsuranceAsia News on the sidelines of the regulator’s ILS conference. Cheung also highlighted plans to deepen collaboration with Bermuda, especially around ILS. 

Agentic underwriting 

Earlier this week, CFC announced the launch of Lane Assist, “a world‑first pilot of agentic underwriting in specialty insurance that takes a submission from email through to quote recommendation in seconds”. 

It may look like a modest pilot, but the specialty insurer is testing what could become a defining shift in how underwriting is actually done. 

Agentic AI challenges that assumption of underwriting being an indivisible craft – part science, part judgement, part relationship management.  

By taking a submission from inbox to quote recommendation in seconds, Lane Assist effectively automates one of the most time-consuming – and least differentiated – parts of the job. And once that boundary is crossed, not sure where that will stop. 

CFC said that “this is not a lab experiment – it’s working with real submissions, in live workflows. By starting small, we can validate outcomes, learn quickly and ensure the technology fully supports our underwriters rather than overriding their judgement”. 

The immediate narrative is reassuring. This is augmentation, not replacement.  

Underwriters remain firmly in control, reviewing and approving every quote. The technology handles only low-complexity risks.  

Nothing fundamental changes. Except it does. Because once “low-complexity” underwriting becomes commoditised, the economics of underwriting start to shift.  

Carriers that fail to automate will not just be slower, they will be uncompetitive in high-volume segments. 

Once near-instant turnaround becomes normal in one segment, the pressure on carriers to standardise and accelerate will only intensify. 

Once agentic underwriting proves it can deliver speed without sacrificing quality, it will not remain confined to “low-complexity” risks for long. The definition of what can be automated will expand, quietly but persistently. 

CFC said that as part of the pilot, it is also exploring how an augmented underwriting model could reshape day‑to‑day practice, including how time saved on routine submissions can be reinvested in broker relationships and complex risk assessment. 

They are not alone, there are multiple carriers working on large language models, so in the coming days, we will likely see more ambitious and bolder AI rollouts, and that is apart from algorithmically powered digital follow platforms like Ki. 

For brokers, the change will be welcome. Faster quotes on straightforward risks reduce friction and improve client service.  

For underwriters, they will not be replaced, certainly not wholesale, but the structure of underwriting teams and career paths will likely not look anything like they do today. 

People moves

Willis appointed Scott Kirkwood as Pacific head of natural resources 

bolttech named Kohei Watanabe Japan GM, succeeding Akiko Anzai, who moves into head of business development role. 

Aon has promoted Michael Twyman to general manager of its specialty business in New Zealand. 

Do check out our weekly people move round-up to stay up to speed on the most important appointments in the region.    

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