New research reveals AI is the biggest challenge facing digital health and wellness firms: Beazley

• 92% of digital health and wellness companies in Canada are planning to use or increase their use of AI to diagnose or treat patients
• But 79% worry about trustworthiness; 79% about bias and 79% about theft of intellectual property

London, UK (Sept. 25, 2024) – Beazley, the leading specialist insurer, is pleased to announce it  has published its latest Digital Health & Wellness 2024 report. The survey of 600 industry executives in six countries across Europe, North America and Asia revealed that as digital health and wellness businesses around the world ramp up adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), executive concerns over trustworthiness and bias are rising to the top of the agenda.

To address this, digital health and wellness businesses and their insurers need to ensure the right protection is in place. However, Beazley’s research found under a third of Canadian businesses (30%) buy the essential tailored insurance covers that protect against bodily injury caused by a variety of technology-based drivers.

Supply chain and recruitment issues are also key challenges facing Canadian digital health and wellness businesses as they strive to grow, with 30% and 30% reporting this respectively. By contrast, in 2022, only 17% and 16% globally identified supply chain and recruitment as their top issues impacting growth. In fact, fewer than half (43%) of firms globally expect their business to grow in 2024, though there are significant regional differences.

Looking ahead, two risks continue to dominate C-Suite agendas: cyber and competency. Both were highlighted in the 2022 report, but in 2024 both risks loom larger than in 2022, and for the first time it’s concern over competency that dominates. 37% of Canadian executives worry that clients will complain that treatment or advice was not as advertised or that competency was unfairly represented. In 2024, 37% of Canadian executives worry about cyber threats including ransomware and phishing.

Evan Smith, Product Leader, Global Healthcare, Specialty Risks, Beazley said: “Business leaders are right to be considering the varying challenges facing their firms. For instance, it’s clear deep learning algorithms in AI offer great benefits but also pose substantial risks. Because AI seems like a “black box” it can be hard to understand how it arrives at its conclusions, making it difficult to identify and correct bias, and to fully trust in AI’s recommendations. With our research finding that many businesses don’t have essential tailored insurance, it’s important insureds are considering the options available to them and ensuring the right cover is in place.”

Keri Marmorek, Claims Team Leader, Healthcare, Beazley said: “Transformative technologies, such as AI, bring both risks and rewards. With 87% of US digital health and wellness companies planning to use or increase their use of AI to diagnose or treat patients, we can expect to see an increase in claims. It’s therefore essential that businesses partner with specialist insurers who have a deep bench of cyber and healthcare experts and a comprehensive, forward-looking view of the risks.”

The Digital Health & Wellness 2024 report is based on a survey of 600 business leaders in the digital health and wellness sector located in the US, Canada, UK, Singapore, Italy and Spain (“Europe”). Research was conducted during May 2024 by Opinion Matters on behalf of Beazley. Industry subsectors included in this research are health and wellness practitioners; software and platform providers; health-technology and life sciences technology companies, mHealth, telehealth and telemedicine providers. There was an equal split of respondents across company sizes ranging from US$250,000 to more than US$1bn.

Previous similar surveys were undertaken in 2020 and 2022.

2020 methodology – survey conducted 24.11.2020 – 04.12.2020

The research was conducted by Opinion Matters, among a sample of 376 Insurance decision makers or insurance purchasers (or CFOs/CEOs/Founders/CMOs/Risk Managers/General Counsels with insurance purchasing or insurance senior decision making responsibilities) working in companies 1) providing telemedicine / telehealth, (e.g., an app for contacting doctors / GPs /lifecoaches), 2) m-health or digital health (e.g., mobile & wearable devices used for health wellness / health apps that may also have an accompanying mobile or wearable device), 3) health/lifestyle/wellness related software & platform providers, 4) life science-tech companies or 5) health-tech companies guaranteeing at least 75 respondents working in companies that have traded for less than 1 year, at least 75 respondents working in companies that have traded for 1-up to 3 years, & at least 75 respondents working in companies that have traded for 3 years plus, and have funding (whether self-funded or investor funding) (equal split across the 5 industry segments).

2022 methodology – survey conducted 24.03.2022 – 08.04.2022

The research was conducted by Opinion Matters, among a sample of 300 (75 per territory) Insurance decision makers or insurance purchasers (or CFOs/CEOs/Founders/CMOs/Risk Managers/General Counsels with insurance purchasing or insurance senior decision making responsibilities) working in companies (an equal split across the five industry segments listed below) 1. Providing telemedicine / telehealth, (health-related companies and practitioners or wellness/fitness companies and practitioners that use technology to provide consultations, diagnosis and treatment recommendations remotely e.g. via an app or technology-based platform) 2. M-health or digital health (companies providing mobile or wearable devices used for health wellness or offering health apps that facilitate healthcare/fitness support, monitoring and remote tracking) 3. Health/lifestyle/wellness related software & platform providers 4. Life sciences (Companies providing remote monitoring of clinical trials and patient testing, or working with digitally connected medical devices and diagnostic equipment) 5. HealthTech (Companies that provide or manufacture tech platforms, analytics, and software that make digital health and telemedicine possible). And guaranteeing 75 respondents from each territory – UK/USA/Canada/Singapore & Hong Kong combined – that have been trading for more than a year/split as evenly as possible across the following company revenue segments US$/GB£: US$/GB£250,000 to US$/GB£999,999, US$/GB£1m to US$/GB£9.99m, US$/GB£10m to US$/GB£99.99m, US$/GB£100m to US$/GB£999.99m, US$/GB£1bn plus.[BK1] [HS2] [3]

Opinion Matters abides by and employs members of the Market Research Society and follows the MRS code of conduct and ESOMAR principles. Opinion Matters is also a member of the British Polling Council.

About Beazley

Beazley plc (BEZ.L) is the parent company of specialist insurance businesses with operations in Europe, United States, Canada, Latin America and Asia. Beazley manages seven Lloyd’s syndicates and, in 2023, underwrote gross premiums worldwide of $5,601.4 million. All Lloyd’s syndicates are rated ‘A’ by A.M. Best.

Beazley’s underwriters in the United States focus on writing a range of specialist insurance products. In the admitted market, coverage is provided by Beazley Insurance Company, Inc., an A.M. Best A rated carrier licensed in all 50 states. In the surplus lines market, coverage is provided by the Beazley syndicates at Lloyd’s.

Beazley’s European insurance company, Beazley Insurance dac, is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and is A rated by A.M. Best and A+ by Fitch.

Beazley is a market leader in many of its chosen lines, which include professional indemnity, cyber, property, marine, reinsurance, accident and life, and political risks and contingency business.

For more information, please visit www.beazley.com.

SOURCE: Beazley Group

Tags: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Beazley, health care, virtual health care