Cyber insurers can no longer rely on AI self-disclosure - FinTech Global

KYND has introduced an AI detection capability that lets cyber insurers see which AI technologies sit within an organisation’s online estate before they commit to a risk.

Using just a single domain, underwriters can now uncover the AI tools running across a company’s external digital footprint without asking the business for any details. The result is an independent data source that sits alongside proposal forms and underwriting discussions, rather than replacing them.

The tool arrives as fast-moving AI uptake puts insurers in a difficult position. Underwriters face mounting pressure to grasp how firms deploy AI and what risks that deployment brings, yet their judgement often rests largely on what companies choose to reveal about their own usage.

Businesses may also struggle to track and control AI as quickly as they adopt it. IBM data cited in the announcement shows that one in five organisations suffered a breach last year linked to “shadow AI”, meaning AI used without formal sign-off or oversight.

Companies with extensive shadow AI faced breach costs averaging $670,000 more than those with little or none.

The capability flags AI applications and features exposed across a company’s infrastructure. These include chatbots and AI assistants, generative AI tools, AI embedded within marketing and commerce platforms, and the AI crawlers that the organisation’s systems allow.

KYND specialises in cyber risk intelligence for the insurance market. AI detection forms one strand of its broader technology discovery offering, which recognises a wide spectrum of tools: payment and cloud services, analytics, tracking pixels, session-recording software, identity and access management systems, and the platforms underpinning websites.

This helps insurers understand the technology dependencies behind each risk and spot possible clusters of exposure across their books.

The move follows KYND’s work on silent AI exposure in insurance portfolios. Its recent white paper, The Wild West of AI Risk, cautioned that companies are taking up AI faster than they report it.

That gap could let exposure slip through underwriting unnoticed and allow risk concentrations to build across portfolios. Where the paper identified the visibility problem, the new capability aims to start tackling it by pairing self-reported information with independently gathered technology data.

When used consistently across an entire book, the data could also help portfolio and reinsurance teams pinpoint where shared AI technologies and dependencies recur among multiple policyholders, supporting analysis of potential accumulation risk.

KYND co-founder Melanie Hayes said, “Proposal forms and underwriting conversations remain essential, but AI use is changing rapidly and businesses themselves may not always have complete oversight of the technologies being used across their organisation.

“Giving underwriters independently observed information means the conversation can start with greater visibility of what is detectable on the risk, helping underwriters ask more informed questions and build a clearer picture of the exposure.”

Hayes added, “As AI becomes more deeply embedded across businesses, insurers will increasingly need to understand where common technologies and dependencies are appearing across their books.

“The industry is still building its understanding of how AI-related losses will develop. Being able to identify those dependencies now gives insurers a stronger foundation to understand and manage exposure as it evolves.”

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