With its new CertAI validation service, Munich Re is increasing the acceptance of artificial intelligence (AI), paving the way for the responsible use of AI applications. Companies from a wide range of industries are currently investing in the development and deployment of AI in order to generate promising business opportunities. However, many people continue to have reservations about using this technology in operational processes – and the novel risks associated with AI are fraught with uncertainty. CertAI validates the trustworthiness of AI in new product solutions in an independent and objective manner, demonstrating its quality to clients, investors, and regulatory authorities. Potential use cases include the financial sector and the manufacturing industry, for example.
CertAI validates fully fledged AI systems or AI solutions that are already in use. It evaluates these solutions based on six criteria: fairness, autonomy and control, transparency, robustness, functional and cyber security, and data protection. Munich Re has combined its many years of risk expertise in traditional industrial insurance and new technologies with the experience of the Swiss certification company CertX for this purpose. This four-year-old start-up company, in which Munich Re has a stake since late 2021, was founded at the University of Applied Sciences in Freiburg.
“CertAI supplements our offering, and we, in turn, contribute our own know-how to it,” says Jens Henkner, director of CertX. We are looking forward to a long-term partnership, which Munich Re has backed up with a strategic shareholding. In the future, I am confident that we will be able to collaborate on more global business ideas that combine certification and insurance.”
“CertAI is a service that will give Munich Re yet another opportunity to contribute its qualified risk perspective to a forward-thinking technology at the earliest possible stage and on the broadest scale,” says Fabian Winter, Chief Data Officer at Munich Re. CertAI will allow us to meet the market’s rapidly expanding coverage needs for AI solution providers. Simultaneously, it will assist us in honing our analytical skills in assessing the use of artificial intelligence for future insurance risks.”
Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems is another important collaborator. Fraunhofer IAIS is a pioneer in the development of AI certification systems as one of Germany’s and Europe’s leading research organizations in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. It created one of the first sets of AI guidelines that allowed businesses to operationalize requirements for the trustworthiness of intelligent systems for the development of personalized AI applications.
New risk areas and client needs
CertAI is the result of Munich Re’s global innovation efforts, and it was created in the company’s own venture building and incubation program. The risk service is the second AI product in which Munich Re has collaborated, following aiSureTM. While CertAI can assist in determining whether AI systems meet the requirements for trustworthy AI, aiSureTM focuses on the performance of these systems and covers the financial costs associated with decreased AI application performance. Both products complement one another by meeting distinct client needs.
The increasing use of AI in business – for example, as part of Industry 4.0 and autonomous driving – is creating a slew of new risk areas and client requirements that must be identified, analyzed, comprehended, and evaluated. Munich Re sees trustworthy artificial intelligence as a strategic growth area with attractive business opportunities, especially as the AI risks posed by future technologies such as quantum computing become more significant in the future.