The race is on: how speed and data power are redefining the future of reinsurance

Floods of unstructured data are forcing a rethink in reinsurance, and those who adapt fast will gain advantage, says Allphins’ COO.

Key points:
Data quality defines retro terms
API-first tools break silos
Adaptation speed sets winners apart

The reinsurance industry is drowning in data, but not always the kind it can use. From political violence to onshore energy and credit risks schedules, insurers and their retro partners are wrestling with unstructured, inconsistent datasets that risk distorting decision-making.

Antonin de Benoist, COO of Allphins, told Baden-Baden Today that the challenge was clear: “If the task of transforming raw data into intelligence is not performed correctly, there is no unifying view of aggregation, and you cannot trust your figure.”

De Benoist is well positioned to comment on the industry's data challenges, with his company now working with over 30 global reinsurance clients across all Property, Casualty and Specialty lines.

The ability to process, clean and standardise exposure data is becoming as critical as pricing skill or capital strength and de Benoist believes reinsurers must act quickly to avoid being left behind.

He pointed to the sheer scale of the problem: “In the past, you had very limited data, especially on the specialty lines, and now it’s more a matter of addressing how we ingest, transform, clean and standardise all of these enormous datasets. As you move up the value chain, that gets more and more scarce.”

Different lines have their own unique struggles, from property files containing tens of millions of risks to marine and energy policies with little clarity around attachment points. The tools many companies rely on sometimes only compound the problem.

“The wide use of spreadsheets means that most of the players get time-consuming workflows which are human-driven and prone to error,” de Benoist said.

As information moves through the reinsurance chain, much of its granularity is lost, leading to overestimations and poor responsiveness to live events. Retrocession providers are especially sensitive to the issue. “When they receive relatively bad data, it means more uncertainty,” he explained. “Better data lowers their perceived uncertainty, which typically results in more favourable terms.” Without greater standardisation, retro partners cannot reconcile their aggregates, leaving reinsurers at a disadvantage.

You need to think of AI as your copilot, not your pilot.

Artificial intelligence is often cited as a cure-all, but de Benoist strikes a measured note. AI, he says, does play a fundamental role across workflows: reading and digitising contract clauses, automatically ingesting data without underwriter intervention, enriching datasets and flagging anomalies.

“AI should allow those users to access more analysis in a very smooth and instantaneous, user-friendly fashion.” But he highlighted its role as a support tool rather than a replacement: “You need to think of AI as your copilot, not your pilot.”

The industry’s architecture must also evolve. De Benoist argued strongly for an API-first approach that connects specialist tools across underwriting, modelling, exposure management and back office. “The risk itself is not fragmented. The value chain doesn’t care about your organisation chart,” he noted. By integrating systems, reinsurers can extract the intelligence of multiple teams and drive profitability.

Some of the most powerful gains come from continuous learning. De Benoist described work with clients in onshore downstream energy, where Allphins developed a new methodology to map exposures around industrial complexes such as refineries. “For the first time, they were able to understand the true concentration of risk across their different cedants,” he recalled.

Similar techniques are being applied to renewables and aviation, and the implications are wider than efficiency. “Historically, the advent of probabilistic networks enabled the development of new products to be priced and exchanged in the 1990s.

“In the same way, AI will further transparency and efficiency, and will enable more refined analysis such as understanding your market share of a retro layer,” de Benoist predicted. That, in turn, will create the conditions for new product development.

Looking ahead to 2026, the competition between carriers to modernise their underwriting and analytics capabilities will become a race. “The real divide will be adaptation at speed,” he said. As ESG reporting and new aviation schedules take hold, reinsurers and retro are becoming more demanding in terms of data excessiveness and granularity.

“Cedants that are not adapting will struggle to buy coverage, even in this relatively soft market. It’s a game-changing process.”

Ultimately, de Benoist believes the reinsurers that seize this opportunity will win better retro terms, sharpen their decision-making and open the door to innovation.

“Technology will enable them to be more efficient and generate more analysis, provide more information to their retro, get better terms and eventually drive new innovation in terms of product,” he concluded.

Antonin de Benoist is chief operating officer of Allphins. He can be reached at: antonin.debenoist@allphins.com.

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