Sarah Williams, chief risk officer at Guardian Life, identified artificial intelligence as the "biggest unknown" facing insurers over the next few years, speaking ahead of the 2026 Insurance Risk & Capital Americas conference in New York on 16 September. Her assessment comes as AI for Insurance reshapes risk priorities across cyber, investments, biometric assumptions, and policyholder behavior, forcing firms to rethink how they model interconnected exposures.
"I see AI as the biggest unknown for insurers, with the potential to hit almost every dimension of the business," Williams said. She pointed to cybersecurity threats arriving "a lot faster than people think," alongside investment concentration risks driven by a small group of tech companies. Insurers need transparency into their portfolios to manage both single-name and sector exposures, she said.
How AI ripples through investment and biometric risk
From an investment perspective, AI is contributing to elevated valuations and market concentration. Williams stressed that firms must understand where their portfolios are exposed. On the biometric side, rapid advances in medical research, diagnostics, and treatment could improve longevity and reduce mortality rates, altering the assumptions that underpin life insurance and retirement products.
Policyholder behavior adds another layer of uncertainty. As AI-powered financial advisers and agents gain traction, consumers may shift how they save, insure, and allocate assets. That could affect product demand, persistency, and distribution models. Insurers are also navigating regulatory and societal uncertainty while policymakers determine how AI should be governed.
The blurring lines between operational risks
Williams described a fundamental shift in how insurers view the risk landscape. "Risks rarely stay in their own lane anymore," she said. Third-party risk, business continuity, and information security - once managed separately - now overlap. Guardian Life has responded by pulling together data from across the organization to spot trends and understand connections between risks.
This interconnectedness has pushed scenario analysis and stress testing to the center of the CRO's toolkit. Williams said the focus is less on predicting every outcome and more on ensuring the company remains resilient across a wide range of scenarios. "Business leaders want insights into what might happen next, not just a report on current exposures," she said.
Private equity and offshore reinsurance: benefits with conditions
On the growth of private equity involvement in insurance, Williams took a measured view. Access to private asset classes has helped insurers generate higher returns and offer more competitive retirement products, particularly annuities. The trade-off is greater complexity and illiquidity risk, which demands strong governance, transparency, and a clear understanding of embedded portfolio risks.
Offshore reinsurance has brought additional capital into the sector and provided efficient ways to manage liabilities. But Williams cautioned that oversight and capitalization must remain strong. "The industry is only as strong as its weakest participants," she said, emphasizing that high standards around capital, governance, and transparency are critical to maintaining confidence in the sector. She will join a panel on offshore reinsurance, third-party capital, and structural shifts at the September conference.
Why this matters for insurance professionals
Williams's outlook signals that risk management is becoming a forward-looking, strategic function rather than a compliance checkpoint. For CROs and risk teams, the mandate is expanding: bring together siloed data, run stress scenarios that capture how exposures interact, and deliver actionable insights to business leaders. The AI-driven acceleration she describes means insurers cannot afford to manage emerging risks in isolation - the speed of change demands integrated, transparent approaches across investments, underwriting, operations, and regulatory strategy.
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