AI plays an ever-growing role in the insurance industry. At Fairside, our approach from day one has been that AI shouldn't just be something we talk about – the technology has to be used in practice and create real value for our clients.
That's why we started early on developing and using our own digital solutions and AI tools. The goal was to reduce administration, create better overview and use data more actively in our advisory work. At the same time, we built an insurance system for large companies, where claims, risks, assets, policies and documentation can be gathered in one place.
That work has evolved significantly. Now we're taking the next step and gathering the technology in an independent company: InsurHub.
InsurHub grows directly out of Fairside
The story of InsurHub begins at Fairside. The technology wasn't built from a theoretical idea of what the insurance industry might need. It was built from our own day-to-day reality as an insurance broker and the challenges we face together with our clients.
We started by building solutions for our own processes and for the companies we advise. Gradually, both the solutions and the ambitions grew, and as we saw growing interest from other players in the insurance industry, it became clear that the technology had potential far beyond Fairside.
That's why Henrik Bronée, Niels Ulrich and Kim Theilgaard have founded InsurHub as an independent technology company. Kim is stepping out of day-to-day operations at Fairside to focus fully on running and developing InsurHub, while Henrik and Niels continue their focus on Fairside and our clients.
InsurHub is born out of Fairside – but built for the entire industry.
The insurance system for large companies is a core part of InsurHub
A key part of InsurHub is the insurance system built for companies with many assets, claims, locations or complex insurance programmes.
In many large companies, information about insurance and risk is scattered. Claims are handled in one place, policies in another, assets might sit in a finance or asset management system, and inspections and controls live in spreadsheets, emails or local systems. That makes it hard to build a complete picture of the company's actual risk.
The insurance system gathers claims, risk, assets and policies in one place. That gives the company a shared data foundation for both day-to-day claims administration, risk management and the more strategic decisions around insurance.
Claims aren't just something to administer
Claims handling is often seen as an administrative process: a claim occurs, it's reported, documentation is gathered, the case is processed, and it's finally closed. But to us, claims data is worth far more than that.
When claims are recorded systematically and linked to the company's assets, locations and other risk data, they can reveal why the claims occur – and what the company can do to prevent the next ones.
That also applies to the smaller incidents and claims that fall below the deductible. They aren't always recorded systematically, but many small, recurring claims can together represent a significant cost while also revealing patterns that would otherwise be hard to spot.
With the insurance system, the company can build a complete claims picture and analyse things like:
- Which claim types occur most often?
- Where in the organisation, or at which locations, do they occur?
- Which assets are particularly exposed?
- Are there recurring causes behind the claims?
- What do the claims cost in total over time?
- Where would preventive efforts have the greatest effect?
AI makes claims data more valuable
This is where AI becomes especially interesting. Large companies can have years of claims history, thousands of documents and large volumes of information spread across different systems.
AI can help structure and analyse this information and identify patterns that would otherwise be difficult to spot – for example, recurring claim types at certain locations, assets with unusually high claim frequency, or trends in the causes of claims over time. In this way, AI can help turn the company's historical data into an active basis for decisions.
This is a good example of Fairside's approach to AI: the technology shouldn't replace professional insurance judgement. It should give us and our clients a better foundation for making it.
From the individual asset to the company's total risk
A large company rarely has a single, unified risk. It has buildings, machinery, vehicles, employees and locations – often spread across several entities and countries.
The insurance system's asset management makes it possible to link claims, policies and risks to individual assets. That means, for example, that the company can see:
- the claims history of a specific building
- the claims frequency for a group of vehicles
- the risk cost of specific machinery
- which locations have the most incidents
- where preventive investments would have the greatest effect
Risk management should be part of day-to-day operations
Good risk management isn't just an annual review – it has to be an ongoing process. That's why the platform includes tools for risk registers, inspections, controls and follow-up, among other things.
Inspections can, for example, be carried out directly on-site at the company's locations, after which the information becomes part of the shared data foundation. That way, observations from a factory, a warehouse, a construction site or a vehicle fleet can be linked with the company's claims and other risk data.
That makes it possible to move from "what happened?" to "why does it happen – and what can we do to prevent it happening again?"
The full picture: Total Cost of Risk
When we at Fairside advise large companies, we don't just look at the insurance premium – we look at the company's Total Cost of Risk. The premium is only one part of the real cost of risk. Beyond that comes, among other things:
- Deductibles
- Claims below the deductible
- Lost production time
- Internal costs of claims administration
- Preventive investments
- Uninsured losses
Should the risk be insured – or should the company carry it itself?
More data also makes it possible to work more rigorously with the company's deductible. It isn't necessarily financially optimal to transfer every risk to an insurance company.
With a strong data foundation, we can analyse the company's actual claims history and calculate the consequences of different deductible levels. Among other things, that can be used to:
- calculate break-even at different deductible levels
- analyse which risks the company can benefit from carrying itself
- assess which risks should be transferred to the insurance market
- identify areas where prevention might be a better investment than additional insurance coverage
Better data can strengthen your position in the insurance market
The insurance system therefore isn't just about saving on administration. For a large company, a well-documented risk picture can also have strategic value.
When Fairside enters the insurance market on behalf of a client, it's an advantage to be able to document the company's claims development, risk profile and preventive efforts. If the company can demonstrate that claims are recorded systematically, causes are analysed and risks are actively reduced, we have a stronger foundation for the dialogue with insurers.
Claims data thereby moves from being history to becoming a strategic asset. That's a core part of the thinking behind both Fairside's risk management and InsurHub's insurance system.
Fairside advises – InsurHub develops the technology
With the founding of InsurHub, we're making a clear division of labour. Fairside continues as an independent insurance broker focused on insurance advisory, risk management and our clients. InsurHub gets full focus on AI, technology and the continued development of the insurance system and other solutions.
For our clients, that means the partnership with Fairside continues, while the technology gets its own dedicated development team. It lets us keep staying ahead on the use of AI and technology in insurance work – without technology becoming a goal in itself.
Fairside will keep staying ahead on AI
InsurHub is, in many ways, a result of how we want to run Fairside. We believe in personal, experienced insurance advisory. But we also believe the advisory gets better when we combine it with technology, AI and a strong data foundation.
AI should free up time. Data should create insight. And insight should lead to better decisions about risk and insurance.
InsurHub grows out of the approach we've built at Fairside. Now the technology gets its own company and full focus on further development – while we at Fairside keep using it to create value for our clients.
Want to see the insurance system in practice?
If your company has many claims, assets, locations or a complex insurance programme, we're happy to show you how the insurance system can bring your claims, risk and policies together in one place.
We start from your own organisation and show how data can be used to streamline claims administration, identify risk patterns, strengthen claims prevention and create a better foundation for your insurance decisions.
Contact Fairside at info@fairside.dk or call +45 77 35 10 10 for a no-obligation review.
