Three important macro trends influencing risk

We asked Iryna Lozynska, HSB Canada’s Product Innovation Strategist New Solutions, to walk us through three important macro trends she feels have implications for the risk landscape and insurance industry.

1.    Hiring and employment regulation is becoming more complex

Businesses and organizations need to constantly keep pace with labour laws. At the provincial level, proposed regulations will directly impact employment practices. For example, Ontario’s Bill 149 will prohibit employers from including any requirements of Canadian work experience in public job postings. It will also require expected compensation to be advertised.

Employers who use A.I. to screen applicants will now need to disclose this practice on job postings. In short, there is a strong push toward equity, transparency, diversity and inclusion. This will require a revision of current employment practices and consideration of legal liability exposures.

2.    Motor vehicles face cyber risks

I was watching a recent popular movie where a cyber attack caused a fleet of electric vehicles to run on autopilot and crash into each other (and everything else in their way). It’s scary to imagine cars being turned into weapons of mass destruction, but it’s not far-fetched to imagine a cyber attack causing interference with the operation of a connected vehicle.

HSB recently conducted a survey¹ and found that 37 percent of consumers were concerned about the cyber security and safety of their connected vehicles. Concerns included hackers immobilizing their vehicle, safety systems being compromised, and being locked out. The same survey found 10 percent reported a cyber incident had affected their vehicle.

3.    Deep fake technology can cause substantial reputational risk

A colleague recently experimented with A.I. to create a video of himself delivering a famous person’s speech, delivered in a language he had never spoken before. The realism was remarkable.

One of the most concerning aspects of deep fake A.I. is the potential to spread misinformation. Think about how influential politicians and public figures are in our society. Manipulating their likeness and fabricating speeches raise the risk of sowing discord, damaging reputations and influencing public opinion. Deep fake technology could be exploited to create damaging explicit content, leading to severe emotional and reputational harm to individuals.

¹ HSB Cyber Survey Finds Connected Car Tech Makes Consumers Uneasy, 2021

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Iryna Lozynska

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