RiskForwardAI. An advisory lens for leaders navigating AI and emerging risk.
Leaders face real pressure to adopt AI amid conflicting narratives and fear of falling behind—yet clarity on what it means for their business remains elusive.
Six areas of focus that guide clearer thinking about AI and emerging technology.
Insurance: the transfer of risk of potential financial loss from a business to a group in exchange for premium.
It's the mechanism that allows businesses to keep moving forward and stay whole in the face of a loss. But when technology advances faster than underwriting models, policy language, and regulatory frameworks, gaps emerge. Those gaps matter—they restrict coverage, misalign premiums, and ultimately constrain innovation for businesses that can't afford uncertainty.
The same technology reshaping industries also offers insurance unprecedented opportunity: better data, better risk modeling, better alignment between exposure and price. When insurance evolves alongside technology, coverage becomes broader, premiums become more accurate, and businesses can scale with confidence.
Innovation can only scale when the systems protecting it evolve alongside.
A look at the emerging liability landscape as autonomous AI agents begin making decisions across every major industry—and why traditional insurance infrastructure isn't keeping pace.
Read Full ArticleVice President at HUB International
Nick Downing is a Commercial Risk Advisor at HUB International with nine years of experience in the insurance industry, advising clients on complex property and liability exposures and structuring alternative risk financing strategies. He works closely with carrier partners to drive favorable underwriting outcomes and disciplined claims management.
Nick operates as a strategic integrator, aligning firm leadership, industry specialists, and product teams across HUB's full-service platform—including Commercial Risk, Employee Benefits, and Retirement—to deliver coordinated solutions and a consistently high-touch client experience. His approach is centered on simplifying complex decisions by sourcing the right people, products, and strategies so clients can stay focused on running their businesses while managing risk effectively in an evolving market.
In parallel, Nick works with business leaders, founders, and operators to help them think more clearly about AI, emerging technology, and the risks and opportunities that accompany change. Through RiskForwardAI, he develops and applies forward-thinking perspectives on how organizations can approach innovation with clarity rather than anxiety, and confidence rather than fear—strengthening leadership decision-making as technology continues to reshape the business landscape.