Markel Canada partners with hyperexponential to build AI-native underwriting environment 

Toronto, ON (May 12, 2026) – Markel International, a division of Markel Insurance, the insurance operations within Markel Group Inc., is pleased to announce its partnership with hyperexponential (hx) to modernize rating, underwriting workflows and integration architecture across its Canadian business. The partnership reflects Markel’s significant investment in building a more sophisticated, AI‑native underwriting environment and further expands hyperexponential’s footprint in North American markets as the leading pricing and underwriting decision platform for commercial P&C carriers.

As part of its collaboration with hyperexponential, Markel Canada has launched a purpose-built Environmental rating capability on the hx platform, enabling a more streamlined, digital experience. This investment marks a shift from fragmented, transactional pricing toward a more connected underwriting experience. By bringing data, pricing and context together in a single workflow, Markel Canada is creating an environment where underwriters have what they need at the point of decision – without friction or unnecessary hand‑offs.

Establishing the hx platform as a centralized rating layer creates a scalable foundation that can support more sophisticated products, package policies and evolving portfolio needs over time. The result is greater clarity at the point of pricing today, and a platform designed to grow with the business – enabling faster, more informed decisions as underwriting complexity and ambition increase.

“Our underwriters need tools that support good judgement, not slow it down. By pulling data directly into the rating workflow, we’re cutting friction from everyday decisions and letting our teams focus on what matters most – building trusted relationships with our broker partners, understanding risk and delivering consistent outcomes for clients,” says Cliff Laidlaw, Senior Vice President, Underwriting at Markel Canada.

Built with the future in mind, the architecture is designed to support emerging agentic and AI‑enabled capabilities as they mature, positioning Markel Canada to continue advancing toward truly AI‑native underwriting workflows.

Maureen Tomlinson, Senior Vice President of Operations at Markel Canada and Head of AI at Markel International, added: ”For Markel Canada, this is about more than replacing spreadsheets. It reflects our commitment to investing in a more sophisticated underwriting environment. The hx platform gives our underwriters a better experience today, while laying the groundwork for faster delivery, stronger data capture and future AI-native workflows across the business.”

Richard Gunn, President at hyperexponential, commented: “Canada is an important market for commercial underwriting, and Markel’s ambition here stands out: they’re not just patching existing systems, they’re building for what comes next. hyperexponential has built the leading AI-native underwriting workbench that keeps pricing, data and decisions in one place, from intake through to quote. We’re proud to support a team moving with this level of pace and intent to deliver the decision infrastructure for the next era of underwriting.”

About Markel Insurance

We are Markel Insurance, a leading global specialty insurer with a truly people-first approach. As the insurance operations within the Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL), we leverage a broad array of capabilities and expertise to create intelligent solutions for the most complex specialty insurance needs. However, it is our people – and the deep, valued relationships they develop with colleagues, brokers and clients – that differentiates us worldwide. For more information, visit www.markel.ca.

About hyperexponential

hyperexponential provides the leading pricing and underwriting platform for the global commercial P&C insurance market, powering AI-assisted decisions from triage, to pricing, to portfolio optimization. Trusted by carriers processing over $60bn GWP annually, and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Battery Ventures, the hx  platform enables insurers, reinsurers, and MGAs to reduce time-to-quote, iterate on rating models faster, improve loss ratios and write a more profitable book. For more information, visit www.hyperexponential.com.

Source: Markel

Tags: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Markel, partnership, Underwriting