Chris Hewison of PwC Hong Kong highlights AI's expanding role in the future of insurance

He underscored that the future of insurance lies in helping people anticipate and manage risks, with innovation focused on resilience and responsible AI.

The insurance industry is entering a new phase of transformation, with rising climate risks, ageing populations, rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), and changing customer expectations pushing insurers to rethink the value they deliver.

Chris Hewison, Partner, Insurance Sector at PwC Hong Kong, shared his perspective on the matter and emphasised that innovation is no longer about improving existing processes. It is about fundamentally reshaping how insurers help people and businesses prepare for an uncertain future.

With more than 23 years of experience advising life and non-life insurers across the United Kingdom and Asia, Hewison has worked with some of the region’s largest insurance groups on audit, regulatory, transaction, and consulting engagements. His experience spans Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia and includes supporting insurers through IPOs, advising on regulatory matters, and working with the Hong Kong Government on the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS).

Hewison takes on the role of judge for the Asian Innovation Excellence Awards 2026, discussing the transformation of the insurance industry driven by innovation and trust as a competitive advantage.

Having worked with insurers across different countries, what differences have you observed in how insurers approach innovation?

The starkest divide is between innovating the business model and merely digitising the existing one. Mature Western markets often optimise legacy operations, whereas the most dynamic Asian insurers are reconfiguring around human needs — how we care, fund and protect. Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area players lead on cross-border product design and embedded distribution, helped by the Insurance Authority’s Insurtech Sandbox and Open API Framework 1. Emerging Asia leapfrogs via digital-first models, reflecting that 95% of Asian consumers are digitally inclined. The winners treat innovation as continual reinvention rather than a one-off project.

As insurers face increasingly complex risks, how should innovation evolve to help organisations respond more effectively?

Innovation must shift the industry from passive risk compensation to active risk prevention and resilience. With Asia absorbing over 40% of the world’s natural disasters and insured catastrophe losses reaching US$107b globally in 2025, insurers are becoming “architects of resilience.” That means AI-driven catastrophe modelling, parametric products, and insurance-linked securities — Hong Kong has now issued around US$800m of ILS across seven catastrophe-bond transactions since 2021, including Peak Re’s second issuance in April 2025 covering earthquake and typhoon perils across China, Japan and India. Equally, innovation should close protection gaps: Swiss Re estimates Asia’s health protection gap reached US$258b in 2024 (up 21% since 2017), with the combined health and mortality gap at roughly US$390b. The goal is prediction and prevention, not just faster claims.

What leadership qualities are most critical when guiding organisations through periods of significant transformation?

Three qualities stand out. First, embracing uncertainty — making confident choices about where to compete despite divergent scenarios. Second, taking a big-picture, systems view, recognising how AI, climate and demographics reinforce one another. Third, thinking exponentially, since both technology and climate risk compound non-linearly. Underpinning all of these is trust: PwC research shows 90% of executives believe customers trust them, yet only 30% of consumers agree. Great transformation leaders close that “say–do gap,” encourage dissent, and make disciplined, de-biased decisions — the traits most strongly correlated with superior profitability.

Looking ahead, which emerging developments do you believe will have the greatest
impact on the future of insurance across Asia?

Four forces. Agentic and generative AI are moving from pilots to core underwriting, pricing and claims — in PwC’s late-2025 survey, 54% of insurance executives named generative and agentic AI as the technologies most likely to reshape the industry over the next three years, and 92% agreed insurers must become “technology companies that happen to offer financial products.”

Demographic ageing, with the region’s over-65 share heading toward 20% by 2050, is reshaping health, longevity and retirement products. Climate and catastrophe risk are driving parametric and resilience solutions. And cross-border integration, with the Greater Bay Area’s 87 million residents and mainland demand already contributing around 30% of Hong Kong’s new business premium. Asia-Pacific will remain the engine of global insurance growth.

How can insurance leaders future-proof their organisations amidst economic uncertainty and rapid technological change?

By building for a “winner-takes-most” world, where the top 20% of firms capture over 80% of profitable growth. Practically: modernise data and eliminate technical debt so AI can be responsibly embedded; compete deliberately on technology, trust and access to scarce talent and capital; and cultivate ecosystems — leading firms already draw more than 60% of revenue from partnerships. In Hong Kong, that means turning regulatory change, such as the full HKRBC framework in 2026, into a catalyst for capital optimisation and product transparency rather than a compliance burden. Test-and-learn, minimum viable product approaches let leaders adapt quickly without betting the firm.

As a returning judge for the Asian Innovation Excellence Awards 2026, what types of new innovations are you most looking forward to seeing from this year’s nominees?

I’m most excited by innovations that meaningfully close protection gaps and build resilience. That includes embedded and micro-insurance reaching the underserved; parametric and climate-adaptive products for a catastrophe-prone region; and genuinely responsible AI in underwriting and claims — governed transparently, since 44% of insurers cite governance as a barrier to adoption. I’ll also be looking for cross-border GBA propositions and silver-economy solutions that serve ageing populations well. Above all, I want to see innovations that pair commercial ambition with genuine customer trust — the true differentiator in the decade ahead.