Within the insurance sector, legislation has been further expanded in recent years, particularly in relation to digitalisation, data use and new technologies. This is added to a sector in which rules and supervision were already firmly embedded. For lawyers and compliance professionals within insurers, this is the daily reality. Laws and regulations follow one another at a rapid pace, supervision is becoming more intensive and the margin for error is limited. In addition, regulation increasingly overlaps, runs in parallel or complements other rules, making the legal landscape more complex than ever.
What stands out is that a large part of this regulatory pressure flows directly from digitalisation. The use of data, algorithms and AI in particular has led to new legislation, stricter supervision and additional obligations. The European Union’s Digital Decade provides an important policy framework in this respect. Digitalisation is presented as a necessary engine for economic growth and innovation, but at the same time as a risk that must be actively regulated.
This dual movement places lawyers and compliance professionals within insurers in a particular position. Digitalisation is unavoidable, but it immediately gives rise to new legal obligations. At the same time, that very digitalisation can also form part of the solution for dealing with regulatory pressure.
In earlier blogs, we discussed how insurers use AI in their processes and the legal points of attention involved, such as profiling and automated decision-making. See, for example, AI in the insurance sector: three hot topics with major implications and Profiling in insurance practice: efficient, but not without risk. In this blog, we build on that foundation and look at how insurers can deal with increasing regulatory pressure by, on the one hand, broadening their legal approach and taking a cross-regulatory perspective and, on the other hand, by using digitalisation and AI to support legal and compliance processes.
Regulatory pressure as a fixed starting point
For insurers, regulatory pressure is not a temporary phenomenon, but a structural given. In addition to sector-specific supervision, they are faced with horizontal regulation in the areas of digitalisation, data, resilience and transparency. Think of DORA, the AI Act and the rules on privacy and data protection.
For legal and compliance teams, this means that compliance is not a clearly defined project, but a continuous process. Regulation is also rarely isolated. Obligations from different laws interact and must be applied jointly to concrete processes and systems.
At the same time, insurers are expected to digitalise. Digitalisation must contribute to innovation, competitiveness and societal value. This places insurers, and therefore legal and compliance departments, in a field of tension between compliance and renewal. The question is not whether digitalisation will take place, but how it can be done responsibly.
Our role
Within this landscape, we support insurers with legal and compliance issues at the intersection of digitalisation, IT and law. The growth of digital regulation, and in particular its increasing complexity and overlap, means that legal support is less and less about answering isolated questions.
In practice, compliance within the insurance sector requires a broader perspective. Of course, questions about specific legislation, supervision or concrete issues remain important. At the same time, we see that organisations increasingly need an approach that transcends individual laws. Digital regulation rarely affects only one domain.
We therefore support insurers not only with traditional legal services such as advice and knowledge sharing, but also with the development of legal roadmaps. These roadmaps help organisations align choices around compliance issues with the objectives and preconditions of the Digital Decade. Not by addressing each new law in isolation, but by providing insight into how different obligations come together and which steps are needed to anticipate them in a structural way.
The focus is on translating this into the daily practice of lawyers and compliance professionals. How do you organise governance so that it moves with digital developments? How do you ensure compliance without blocking innovation? And how do you ensure that legal quality is not only substantively strong, but also scalable and future-proof in an increasingly complex digital environment?
Our Digital Decade Roadmap often forms the logical starting point in this respect: a practical overview of the key digital obligations for insurers and the steps required to organise compliance and governance in a future-proof way.
Digitalisation of legal processes as a necessary tool
Within insurers, digitalisation is often deployed to reduce workload and keep processes manageable. In earlier blogs, we explained how technology and AI already play a role in primary processes such as underwriting, claims handling and fraud prevention. That same development is now visible within legal and compliance functions, where the complexity and volume of regulation make it increasingly difficult to organise work exclusively on a manual basis.
Digitalisation can help by making legal knowledge more accessible, supporting repeatable analyses and bringing consistency to advice and assessments. Technology therefore does not act as a replacement for legal expertise, but as a tool to make that expertise more usable in daily practice.
AI plays an increasingly prominent role in this. In practice, this involves applications that support lawyers and compliance professionals in their work. For example, to understand complex regulation more quickly, to draft or review documents or policy papers, and to map relevant legal frameworks.
Our AI proposition for insurers
From that perspective, we have developed our own AI solutions. Not as a standalone technological product, but as an extension of legal services. The use of AI is always aimed at supporting lawyers and compliance professionals in their daily work, without compromising legal quality, currency and auditability.
AI Pro Pack: structural support within legal and compliance processes
For organisations and insurers that want to deploy AI structurally within their legal and compliance practice, we offer the AI Pro Pack. This is a standardised solution that makes legal expertise scalable and practically deployable through AI.
The AI Pro Pack provides access to approximately 30 legal AI applications in areas including privacy and data, compliance, employment law, contracts, corporate law and intellectual property law. These applications are maintained by us and continuously updated. An up-to-date overview of all available applications can be found on our website.
For insurance practice, this means concrete support for recurring issues, such as performing and reviewing DPIAs, interpreting and handling data breaches, preparing internal compliance analyses, answering questions on a wide range of legislation and providing consistent support for policy and document-related matters.
The AI Pro Pack is fully configured and ready for immediate use, allowing organisations to deploy AI without having to invest themselves in development, maintenance or substantive assurance.
AI Custom: AI solutions tailored to organisation and governance
For organisations and insurers that require substantive customisation, we offer AI Custom. These solutions are intended for organisations for which standard applications do not fully fit, for example because internal policies or working methods deviate from the general legal framework.
AI Custom may consist of substantively adapting or expanding our existing AI applications, or of developing new applications that are specifically tailored to the organisation’s legal and compliance practice. The focus is on content, interpretation and applicability, not on technology for its own sake.
The deployment of AI Custom follows a fully guided process. Together, we determine which legal content is required, how it is safeguarded and how AI can be deployed responsibly within the legal and compliance function. From intake and proof of concept to implementation and legal review. In this way, AI becomes a controlled and sustainable part of the organisation, fitting within supervisory frameworks and internal responsibilities.
In conclusion
The insurance sector will continue to face high regulatory pressure and further digitalisation in the coming years. These developments are not separate, but reinforce each other. Digitalisation leads to new rules and supervision, while that same digitalisation can also help maintain control over increasing complexity.
This calls for a broader approach to compliance. Not focused solely on individual laws or incidents, but on the coherence between regulation, governance and daily activities. At the same time, this requires support that helps lawyers and compliance professionals keep their work workable and manageable.
For lawyers and compliance professionals, this is a key role. Not only in interpreting regulation, but also in guiding the responsible use of technology. With a cross-regulatory legal approach and appropriate digital support, such as the use of legally responsible AI solutions, it is possible to work towards both compliance and practicality in an increasingly complex digital environment.
Would you also like insight into which European digital laws and regulations apply to your organisation, and where the greatest obligations and risks lie? Request your Digital Decade Roadmap here.
