The 2025 CEO event gathered three leading insurance executives for a frank conversation on the forces reshaping the Belgian and Luxembourg insurance markets. Despite operating in different segments (P&C, health, life/wealth), their views converged around six fundamental themes. Below is a consolidated synthesis of the strongest messages voiced during the session.
1. Social role and sustainability – The industry must step up its societal contribution
All three CEOs insisted that the insurance sector must play a far more visible and proactive societal role. Climate change, demographic shifts, new mobility patterns, and the increasing frequency of extreme events require insurers to move well beyond traditional indemnification.
The key message: “Double down on prevention, adaptation, and sustainability.”
This means:
- accelerating investment in risk prevention,
- supporting households and businesses in climate and social adaptation,
- embedding ESG more deeply across governance and investment decisions,
- contributing actively to societal resilience.
The industry will increasingly be judged on its real contribution to society, not just on its financial performance.
2. Technology with trust - Using AI to shift from reactive to truly preventive insurance
Technology was described as the most powerful driver of industry transformation. AI, data, cloud, and IoT are enabling insurers to become predictive rather than reactive.
Strategic priority: “Harness AI to prevent risk, not just cover it.”
The CEOs highlighted concrete ambitions:
- Real-time data analytics to anticipate risks earlier.
- Faster and more accurate journeys for customers and claims.
- More agile, data-centric operating models.
- New product architectures enabled by automation and cloud.
But they also stressed that technology only creates value if it strengthens trust. Automation cannot become a black box and human oversight is essential.
The message is clear: “AI must remain transparent, explainable and governed responsibly.”
3. Emerging risks and cyber pressure on three fronts: climate, supply chain, and cyber
The industry faces a triple stress scenario:
- Intensifying climate risks and natural catastrophes.
- Fragile and increasingly complex supply chains.
- Rapidly escalating cyber threats.
The reinforced message from the panel is: “Broaden coverage and significantly strengthen resilience services.”
Customers expect more than indemnification, they expect:
- early warning capabilities,
- protection and mitigation services,
- business continuity support, and
- cyber resilience and advisory capabilities.
Insurers are accelerating investment to keep pace with risks evolving faster than ever.
4. SME segment – High potential and demand for more specialized support
The three executives emphasized the strategic importance of the SME segment. Expectations are rising quickly and SMEs no longer accept generic, one-size-fits-all, insurance solutions.
Key message: “SMEs need specialized, sector-specific solutions delivered with real expertise.”
This includes:
- tailored advice per industry (professional services, ICT, manufacturing, construction, etc.),
- benchmark insights,
- practical guidance on risk management, and
- flexible protection models aligned with business realities.
SMEs want insurers to be close, expert, and pragmatic.
5. Distribution in Belgium – A dual, hybrid model anchored in trust
The Belgian market maintains a distinct structure, which draws on digital for speed and simplicity and expert brokers for complex needs.
The CEOs reinforced this message clearly: “Digital delivers speed. The broker delivers trust.”
Their aligned view:
- Digital platforms and tools will streamline simple processes.
- Automation will continue to increase efficiency.
- Complex, emotional, or high-stakes decisions require human advisory.
- The broker channel remains central to customer relationships.
The future is not digital versus human, it is a mature hybrid model in which each reinforces the other.
6. Geopolitics and resilience – Helping clients navigate a more unstable world
A volatile geopolitical environment - marked by inflation, energy uncertainty, cyber escalation, and market fragmentation - has profoundly changed the risk landscape.
The collective conclusion: “Resilience is no longer a product, it is a strategic pillar.”
Insurers must therefore:
- refine extreme-risk modelling,
- adapt capital and reinsurance strategies,
- invest in infrastructure continuity,
- support SMEs and households through uncertainty, and
- strengthen protection against climate and cyber risks.
In this context, insurers become stability providers, not just risk carriers.
Conclusion – Three words for the future
The panel closed with three words that encapsulate the entire discussion: Prevention – Trust – Resilience.
They describe the insurance industry of tomorrow as being proactive, transparent, technology-enabled, and still deeply human in its mission.
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