“AXA Digital Commercial Platform: prevention is key to keeping the world insurable”

5 questions to Pierre du Rostu, CEO of AXA Digital Commercial Platform.

How did AXA Digital Commercial Platform come about? How does it fit in with AXA’s innovation strategy?

Necessity is the mother of invention, and that was the case with the AXA Digital Commercial Platform. Today’s world is full of increasingly interconnected risks: wildfires, cyber-attacks, floods, political unrest. The fact that they do not exist in isolation make them more and more complex to manage.

While there seems to be a growing trend for insurers to stop covering certain risks or certain regions, at AXA, we have gone in the opposite direction. We believe risks are insurable and will continue to be if we progressively shift to a comprehensive approach where we not only provide insurance coverage but combine it with prevention at scale. Prevention is key to keeping the world insurable and it works. We have proven that effective prevention programs – ie when they are tailored to the customer's profile and situation - can reduce claims by 30% on a motor policy, for example. That makes prevention a very good investment.

Insurance companies are traditionally seen as picking up the pieces after disaster strikes. This is a huge value, but this is not enough anymore. At AXA DCP, we go beyond the insurance proposition to help our policyholders anticipate risks and continue to thrive in this new complex landscape. The first challenge we face is identifying and predicting risks to avoid or minimize them. The second challenge is being as dynamic as the risks we are trying to prevent.

This is how the AXA Digital Commercial Platform was born. It aligns closely with AXA’s broader strategy from payer to partner and innovating to better serve our customers. By combining the best technology with world-class expertise, the platform enables businesses to understand their exposure and protect themselves.

How has this platform been developed? What technology is it based on?

We co-built the Digital Commercial Platform with Amazon Web Services, which means it can handle massive amounts of information and work with unmatched speed, reliability, and security. The AXA Digital Commercial Platform brings together this state-of-the-art technology with AXA’s expertise and experience in risk management.

The development process has involved forming close partnerships. We have teamed up with the world’s leading companies who provide us with real-time geospatial data and firms highly respected in cybersecurity. Wanting to develop the best platform means identifying and working with the best people.

The AXA Digital Commercial Platform is today’s one-stop shop for insurance solutions to the myriad of crises companies may face. This single, user-friendly platform makes it easy to understand their exposure and how to protect themselves. This service is a first.

Could you give us a few examples of the services companies get through this platform? In concrete terms, how does it help them?

Companies’ business continuity means being equipped to tackle cyber-attacks, political threats, and many other risks thanks to:

• Cyber Intelligence: human error causes about 95% of cyber breaches. We have integrated training programs to educate teams and create a human firewall in addition to risk monitoring and the best technologies.
• Property intelligence: combining detailed historical data and visual tools like real-time mapping, , companies can track far ranging risk factors from natural disasters to the effects of climate change and geopolitical threats and then be ready to act on  any potential vulnerabilities.
• Marine intelligence: our system uses real-time positional data and layered risk analyses to provide a vivid picture of the security of your fleet. It identifies your vulnerability or proximity to natural hazards, war zones, and sanctioned areas, giving you the insight needed to navigate challenges and protect your assets effectively.

Two years after the start, what is your initial assessment of DCP?

The AXA Digital Commercial Platform has already shown it works. Businesses are relying on it to keep their operations running smoothly, and emergency services, like fire crews using it to fight wildfires more effectively.

This is a good start. Organizations using the AXA Digital Commercial Platform are better prepared for disasters and less likely to experience costly damage. They now have a single platform to manage all their risks, so their risk management has become simpler and more effective. But we have big ambitions and will keep in improving DCP in this always changing risk environment.

What are your ambitions for the platform and what are the next steps?

We want to bring the platform to more businesses, to cover more threats, to keep refining our existing tools, and to keep adding expertise through more partnerships. Our core concern is making the platform even more user-friendly for any business just like the best tech companies or App providers.

Another goal is supporting our clients’ green commitments. By tracking emissions and biodiversity impact, the platform already helps businesses to meet their ESG goals. But we want to do more. We are very conscious of the way that climate change is intensifying risks. We want to use the AXA Digital Commercial Platform to push for a greener, cleaner world.

In the longer term, we want to make the AXA Digital Commercial Platform the uncontested gold standard for risk management, and we know we can!