Joint effort merges Swiss Re catastrophe risk knowledge with SAS AI and actuarial modeling to improve underwriting, pricing and portfolio strength

SAS, a global leader in data and AI, and leading global reinsurance provider Swiss Re have formed a partnership to help insurers build greater resilience through AI-driven risk intelligence and advanced actuarial decisioning.

As part of the SAS Strategic Technology Partner Program, Swiss Re will integrate its CatNet natural catastrophe risk intelligence with the SAS Insurance Life Cycle Accelerator. This allows insurers to embed predictive hazard insights straight into underwriting, pricing and portfolio management workflows.

"Insurers cannot depend only on past loss data to gauge risk," said Stu Bradley, Senior VP for Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions at SAS. "Pairing SAS AI and actuarial modeling with Swiss Re catastrophe intelligence lets insurers reach faster, clearer and more durable underwriting and pricing choices."

Secondary perils, primary risk

With climate-driven events rising in frequency and intensity, insurers face growing pressure from secondary perils such as floods, hailstorms and wildfires. Swiss Re Institute reports that 99.9 percent of insured catastrophe losses in the United States in 2025 came from secondary peril events, highlighting the need to manage these risks effectively.

The offering supplies insurers with:

Powerful data integration. Users can access high-resolution CatNet natural catastrophe data inside existing SAS workflows through secure APIs and geocoding. Hazard intelligence flows directly into actuarial and underwriting processes without manual data handling.
Automated and advanced decisioning. Real-time model scoring via machine learning folds in current hazard data and event alerts. Enriched decision intelligence is automated for pricing, rating and underwriting. Model scores combine with business rules, and champion-challenger strategies operate within guardrails for profit-loss ratio, fairness and compliance.
Portfolio risk steering. Insurers gain clearer views of concentration risk, evaluate portfolio effects and run what-if analyses across regions and perils.
Proven operational efficiencies. SAS and Swiss Re anticipate major productivity gains, including a 95 percent rise in decisioning efficiency and a 50 percent boost in the modeling process.
Bottom-line and volume growth. Underwriting teams can review 40 percent more risks with existing staff, supporting both revenue and profit growth.
Robust governance and auditability. Governed, explainable AI workflows promote regulatory and operational transparency. A unified, cloud-native method replaces scattered spreadsheet logic and delivers full lineage, visibility and audit control from exposure data to final rate deployment.

The combined capabilities aim to raise operational efficiency while reinforcing profitability and resilience amid rising catastrophe exposure.

"Secondary perils carry major financial weight," said Ali Shahkarami, Head Risk Data Solutions Insurance at Swiss Re. "Insurers need near-real-time insight into how risk shifts across portfolios and regions. Swiss Re and SAS together let carriers weave catastrophe intelligence into underwriting and actuarial choices so they can better anticipate risk, close protection gaps and build sustainable portfolios."

The partnership signals a wider industry move toward insurance operations that fuse AI, advanced analytics, catastrophe intelligence and human expertise for more agile decisions.

"The future of insurance belongs to firms that adopt the 'new collar' approach," said Franklin Manchester, Principal Global Insurance Advisor at SAS. "Insurance professionals working alongside AI agents to add agility to decisions will mark leaders and expose laggards once the changes settle."

More about secondary perils and sustainable pricing

To explore these issues in depth, join SAS and Swiss Re along with Definity for the free webinar Sustainable Property Pricing for Today and Tomorrow in an Evolving Natural Catastrophe Landscape. Experts will cover the rise of secondary perils driven by climate change, sustainable property pricing and risk selection, and building portfolio resilience for lasting growth.

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SOURCE SAS