Towards foundation models for insurance risk modelling

Claim narratives, images and sensor data contain information about insured risks that is difficult to use through existing actuarial models. Foundation models learn patterns from large datasets before being adapted to particular tasks. By turning these high-dimensional sources into variables or numerical representations, they could help insurers use more of the information they already collect, potentially reducing the experience needed to develop each application. For example, a language model could identify a worsening injury in a new claim note, allowing a reserving model to recognise the change in expected cost before the payments reveal the deterioration. In this paper, we review language, vision, geospatial, time series, tabular and scientific models, explaining existing insurance applications and potential future uses. Scientific models extend this approach to future weather and climate conditions: their simulations can inform loss estimates once local hazards are linked to asset damage, repair costs and insurance coverage. We propose a process to connect these model outputs to actuarial calculations and to assess their predictive contribution, stability and compliance with rules on information use. Evaluating these applications is difficult when final claim costs become known only after long delays, large losses are rare or patterns learned elsewhere fail to transfer to the target portfolio. Richer data can reveal private information and support finer risk classification, which can change access to insurance. Reusing the same models across insurers also creates dependence on shared predictions and providers.