Looking Ahead: Todd Campbell on the Next 30 Years of Insurance, Reinsurance, and Capital

What will the insurance industry look like 30 years from now?

That was the question at the center of an Insurance Insider panel held during this year’s Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo, where leaders from across insurance, reinsurance, broking, and technology gathered to consider how the market could evolve over the decades ahead.

Builders President & CEO Todd Campbell joined Andy Moss, General Manager of Underwriting at Duck Creek; David Govrin, Group President and CEO of Global Reinsurance & London Market Specialty at SiriusPoint; and Richard Dudley, Group Chief Broking Officer and CEO of UK & International Reinsurance at BMS for the conversation. 

The discussion, held in recognition of Insurance Insider’s 30th anniversary, explored four big questions: how the industry’s role may change, which risks and business models will shape the future, how capital will reach risk, and what today’s leaders need to get right. 

An Essential Industry in a Changing World

For Campbell, one of the clearest constants is the fundamental role insurance plays in supporting economic activity.

While technology, products, risks, and capital structures may look very different in 30 years, he argued that insurance will remain essential to businesses and the broader global economy. What is more likely to change is how that protection is delivered and how capital reaches the risks that need it. 

That distinction surfaced throughout the panel.

The industry has already changed dramatically over the past three decades. New sources of capital have entered the market, technology has reshaped operations, and the boundaries between different parts of the insurance value chain have become less rigid.

Campbell expects that evolution to continue.

When the conversation turned specifically to capital, he noted that the players, structures, and sources of funding may look very different decades from now, just as they do today compared with 30 years ago. What remains important is the industry’s ability to adapt as risks themselves evolve. 

AI Is Accelerating the Pace of Change

Artificial intelligence was another recurring theme—and one Campbell described as both exciting and challenging.

Speaking from the perspective of a traditional commercial carrier, he acknowledged that employees are thinking seriously about how AI could affect their work. At the same time, Builders and other insurers are already exploring where technology can improve efficiency and change the way business is handled. 

Campbell’s message to leaders was not to stand still.

The pace of technological change, he said, requires companies to keep moving forward, make thoughtful decisions, and involve strong talent as they determine where and how new tools should be applied. He described the current period as moving faster than anything he has experienced during his career. 

That perspective echoes a separate conversation Campbell had with Insurance Insider while in Monte Carlo, where he discussed how Builders is already applying AI across its Core Division including underwriting, claims, marketing, sales, and the Specialty Division in data processes and program auditing.

For Builders, the goal is not simply adopting technology for its own sake. The company is focused on using it to reduce friction, strengthen decision-making, and give employees better tools to serve agents and policyholders.

The Value of Insurance Still Matters

Technology and capital may dominate many conversations about the industry’s future, but Campbell also raised a more fundamental challenge: how insurance is understood by the people and businesses it ultimately serves.

During the panel’s final discussion, he spoke about the gap between the value the insurance industry believes it provides and how that value is sometimes perceived outside the industry. 

Insurance helps businesses recover from losses, supports injured workers, enables investment, and makes economic activity possible by transferring risks that organizations and individuals could not reasonably absorb on their own.

Campbell argued that the industry has an opportunity—and a responsibility—to help more people understand that role.

That idea also connects closely with another theme raised throughout the panel: the insurance product itself must continue evolving alongside the world it protects.

The technologies, industries, and exposures of 2056 may be difficult to predict today. But as new risks emerge, insurers will still need to develop solutions, provide expertise, and connect those risks with capital.

Adapting Without Losing the Fundamentals

One of the strongest themes to emerge from the discussion was that change does not necessarily mean abandoning the principles that have long defined the industry.

Technology will advance. Data will become more sophisticated. New forms of capital will emerge, and products will evolve to address risks that may not yet exist.

But disciplined risk selection, expertise, strong relationships, and the ability to deliver meaningful protection will continue to matter.

That balance between adaptation and fundamentals also reflects Builders’ broader approach.

In his separate interview with Insurance Insider, Campbell discussed the importance of taking a long-term view rather than reacting to every shift in the market. Across Builders’ traditional commercial business and growing Specialty operations, that means remaining thoughtful about where the company deploys capital, the partners it works with, and the opportunities it chooses to pursue.

The next 30 years may look very different from the last 30.

For Campbell, the opportunity is to embrace that change while remaining focused on what insurance is ultimately there to do: help businesses, people, and economies move forward when risk becomes reality.

Watch the conversations from Monte Carlo:

• Insurance Insider Panel: The next 30 years of insurance, reinsurance, and capital 
• Todd Campbell Interview: Discipline, Specialty, AI, and Builders’ approach to the future