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As technology gets cheaper and more accessible for all organizations, analysts and risk managers say a top-down commitment is necessary to assess the risk of technology and limit exposure with planning and with insurance.
One problem is the technology can be so new that risk managers don’t have enough data to identify and assess all the potential risks.
“Technology is evolving so quickly. You have to evaluate the ROI to ensure a large [capital expenditure] purchase you’re making today won’t be obsolete. And you have new risks associated with it,” Mike Thoma, VP, chief underwriting officer of global technologies at Travelers, told Risk & Insurance.
New technologies carry glitches that haven’t been worked out, as well as potential hacks, data breaches, brand damage, and lawsuits.
The medical industry continues to face added risk.
Sam Friedman, insurance research leader at the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, said in an interview that new devices can make patient liability more complicated in the event of an injury.
Liability could be pegged to the doctor’s decision to use the technology, the manufacturers of the robot, the software developer that wrote the program or improper use by the doctor. “You could have a free-for-all if a patient is injured. Who pays? These types of things need to be resolved by the entity’s risk manager as they start deploying these new technologies,” Friedman said.
