Gallagher Re has launched a dedicated Digital Risk practice that brings cyber, AI liability, data centres and digital risk engineering under one roof. The move reflects a growing view that these exposures are now so intertwined that they cannot be underwritten or aggregated in isolation.
Ian Newman, who leads the new practice alongside his role as global head of cyber, told Monte Carlo Today that the convergence demands a fundamental rethink of how the market approaches risk. "You cannot really talk about AI without talking about data centres," he said. "Capacity matters, but this cannot just be about capacity; it has to be about understanding the risk."
The case for a combined digital risk view
Newman's argument rests on the changing nature of corporate value. "If you look at where value sits in the world today, many of the most valuable companies are built around intangible and digital assets, and the way we operate is much more digitally focused," he said. That shift means exposures that once sat neatly within individual insurance classes are now intersecting across them.
Gallagher Re's own research has mapped the overlap. Its Q1 2026 insurtech report warned that AI-related exposures can cut across general liability, D&O, E&O, employment practices and product liability simultaneously. This creates an accumulation problem that traditional modelling struggles to capture.
Newman said the industry cannot rely on conventional aggregation methods. "We need to consider aggregation across different classes simultaneously and across different companies that may depend on the same technology." He added that AI could remain embedded within existing products while also developing into a distinct class. "I foresee AI having a material impact on nearly every class while also potentially developing into an independent class of business in its own right."
Data centres cross traditional lines
Data centres illustrate why boundaries between classes are breaking down. Gallagher Re's Q2 insurtech report noted that the pace, expense and technical complexity of data centre development are putting growing pressure on underwriters. Cyber is one element of that exposure, but Newman argues it cannot be viewed through a single lens.
"When I talk about data centres within Digital Risk, I am not talking about them only through a cyber lens," he said. "I am talking about the data-centre exposure as a whole." That pulls property and other specialty risks into the equation. The broker's response is to create a central point of expertise while continuing to draw on teams across its existing divisions.
AI reshapes the cyber threat
AI is already changing the cyber risk equation. Newman said Gallagher Re is seeing signs of AI enhancing what threat actors can do, allowing familiar attacks such as phishing and ransomware to be carried out at greater scale and sophistication. "Our expectation is that this could increase frequency and potentially lead to greater clustering of losses," he said.
For professionals working at the intersection of cyber and AI, understanding how machine learning tools alter attack surfaces is becoming essential. Resources such as AI for Cybersecurity Analysts address this directly, offering structured pathways for analysts who need to assess threats amplified by AI.
Despite softer cyber pricing and abundant capacity, Newman remains positive on the class's longer-term trajectory. "I remain very bullish on cyber," he said. "Businesses are increasingly going to want to protect what matters most to them, and more and more of that value is digital rather than physical."
Why this matters for insurance professionals
Gallagher Re's decision to consolidate cyber, AI and data centre risk under one practice signals where the market is heading. Underwriters and claims teams will increasingly need to assess exposures that cut across multiple lines simultaneously. For brokers, the message is clear: clients with heavy digital dependencies are carrying risks that do not fit neatly into legacy product silos. The AI for Insurance training pathways offer practical grounding for professionals who need to get ahead of that convergence. Newman put the opportunity plainly: "The digital revolution - whether you are talking about AI, data centres or other technologies - represents one of the biggest growth engines we are going to see over the coming years and decades."
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