In our latest interview with Insure TV, Chris Andrews, Director of Aviva Risk Management Solutions (ARMS), discusses customers embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) within their businesses, our vast loss prevention standards library and the introduction of a new global vision for ARMS.
Transcript for video Why Aviva's Risk Team is doubling down on AI and digital transformation
Mark: Chris Andrews is Director of Aviva Risk Management Solutions. He joins me now. Chris, can you start with telling us a little bit about your role?
Chris: Yeah, hi, Mark. Yeah, so I head up the Aviva Risk Management Solutions team or the ARMS team for short. I've been with Aviva since 2014, originally brought in to head up the Global Corporate Specialty Portfolio or the risk engineering of the Global Corporate Specialty Portfolio. And then towards the end of 2015, I also took responsibility over what was the SME portfolio, which is now the UK commercial portfolio.
Mark: And ARMS itself, what sort of resources have you got? What kind of experiences is there in that team?
Chris: So we have over 160 consultants aimed at the more traditional risk engineering, so property, liability and motor. But over the last few years, we've also built the capability out towards renewables, cyber and also in the financial lines space. The team has an average experience of over 20 years per consultant. It was more, but that's actually reduced as we invest heavily in the risk consultants of the future and succession programs.
Mark: And going to get a bit more into that also, what are some of the client's main concerns and demands in some of those areas?
Chris: So, at the moment, there's a lot of requests coming in for support to help customers with their green ambitions, their sustainability ambitions and the transition. So, everything from green buildings to renewable energy, so solar, wind, battery energy storage systems. We're also seeing more and more customers introduce lithium-ion, so everything from electric vehicles or vehicles and charging, all the way through to automation. Exposure-wise, we're still working with our customers on things like the exposure to high weather events or high impact weather events. Equally, we're seeing an increase in the sophistication of cyber attacks. We're seeing the rise of AI and how customers are starting to adopt and embed those systems within their businesses. And in addition, we've still got the perennial risk of underinsurance and equally the supply chain, the impact of supply chain following in the, let's call it the global turbulence over the last few years.
Mark: And what are you doing to support clients on some of these issues that you've highlighted?
Chris: So, we have quite a toolkit for our customers. I think right at the sort of infrastructure of what we do, everything is based around our loss prevention standards. So, they're our standards, we have over 250 in our loss prevention standards library at the moment, and they articulate an exposure to a customer. And then the controls that would be required to help mitigate and manage those exposures. Now we provide them to our customers, but we also risk engineer to them and we also benchmark against them. Hanging off that, we also have our specialist partner network. That's a network of over 40 plus different partners who provide specialist risk management solutions. So, everything from escape of water shut off devices, to companies that can support from a cyber risk perspective, to a recent partner that we brought on who actually inspects, tests and maintains solar panels. In addition, we're just about to bring out a new platform called Aviva Risk Training Solutions or ARTS. And that again, uses the loss prevention standards as a framework for a mobile e-learning platform. So, customers can access the Aviva training and also apply it to their employees who can utilise those and use those as a platform.
Mark: We're seeing more and more providers in the markets generally thinking about how they can interact digitally with clients. So, have you got anything else specific in that space?
Chris: We have, so we released a new client portal, Aviva Risk Insight. So, it allows customers with more complex risk management programs to manage their risks online, access their reports, and update their risk improvement. We have data in there, so they can analyse their risks more deeply and equally we're just about to launch a new portal called Aviva Risk Improvement Tracker. So, it allows our customers on a location basis to update their risk improvements online.
Mark: And how are you using AI to help you?
Chris: AI is interesting. Fantastic tool, really speeding up the decision-making process for us. So we're looking to utilise it to analyse both loss adjuster reports but also risk engineering reports, so we can provide more data and risk insight into underwriters. Equally, later this year, we'll be launching a new system, a new AI capability that allows us to assess manual handling or ergonomics risk assessments very quickly for our customers.
Mark: Risk seems ever more global and interconnected. So, what's next for the team?
Chris: So what's next for ARMs is we're bringing our global teams together. So, our teams from Canada, Ireland and the UK, giving us access to over 230 risk consultants, increasing the technical capability available. What that does is help us deliver a consistent global risk management proposition, delivering the same products, services, solutions and customer experience wherever the policy is underwritten internationally. And do you know what we're incredibly excited about it, because it will take us to the next level from a global risk engineering perspective.
Mark: We have to leave it there, Chris Andrews. Thank you.
Chris: Thank you.
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