FERMA president urges risk professionals to challenge insurance cycle status quo and address AI paradox

Philippe Cotell, president at FERMA, has issued two insurance-centric calls to action to the 3,000 risk professional delegates attending this year’s FERMA Forum conference in Rotterdam (5 October 2026), asking them to “challenge the status quo” of annual insurance cycles and seek to address the “artificial intelligence (AI) paradox”.

Regarding insurance cycles, Cotell described “a mismatch at the heart of the relationship” between organisations and their insurers that is holding businesses back.

He pinpointed that insurance purchasing and renewals are currently conducted in annual cycles, yet corporate operational planning typically occurs in three to five-year time frames. Cotell therefore feels that options for multiyear insurance propositions must be explored to provide greater certainty and confidence for both organisations and insurers.

He added that the “status quo” around today’s insurance cycles also exposes a “fragility” where insurers are supportive of corporates when business is booming, yet it is all to easy for them to revert when challenges arise.

“Too often, the fragility of the current partnership model is exposed – contracts that allow either party to retract the moment conditions change,” Cotell said. “A partnership that only lasts when everything is going well is not a partnership – it is merely a transaction.

“We need true, long-term mutual commitment that provides visibility and stability to both parties, through both the good times and the bad ones.

“This is in our common interest – a genuine, durable partnership where volatility can be absorbed, shared or managed over time and where true alignment of purpose is achieved. That is the foundation of economic resilience.”

AI cover clarity

Cotell’s second call to action is around what he described as the “AI paradox” – despite the fact that AI is increasingly embedded in businesses of all sizes, sectors and functions, he flagged that cover for this technology is still mainly silent, with clearly signposted AI coverage currently “non-existent” in insurance contracts.

For Cotell, this “lack of clarity” is “unsustainable for corporates” and, more broadly, creates “uncertainty about the role of the insurance industry in the digital journey”.

With this in mind, he is keen for FERMA to spearhead and instigate a multistakeholder conversation aiming “to clarify how we can collectively address AI risk in the immediate and longer-term future”.

He continued: “We are committed to travelling the road to digital transformation – yet at every step, the sword of Damocles posed by AI hovers above us.

“In recent weeks, there has been public debate on how quickly advanced AI should develop and what safeguards are needed to manage it. These are fundamentally questions of governance, accountability and risk – issues that every major organisation must now confront.

“This lack of clarity around AI in insurance contracts is unsustainable for corporates and it creates clear uncertainty about the role of the insurance industry in the digital journey. Insurance has a critical role to play in supporting this transition and we need to secure the foundations of that role now.”

Cotell hoped that FERMA Forum 2026 delegates would take these calls to action seriously and work to initiate conversations across the conference.

He concluded: “Over the next two days, I would urge you all to challenge what you hear, meet people you don’t already know, test ideas you don’t necessarily agree with and be open to leaving your comfort zone. In other words, take some risks.

“I now realise that asking 3,000 risk professionals to take risks is an ambitious way to start a risk management conference. But let’s try.”