We’re a couple weeks out now from the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA)'s 2026 Risk Summit and there’s still so much to unpack.
The Summit is always an invaluable opportunity for our team to engage with Bermuda’s risk and cyber ecosystem, but this year’s conversations were among the most progressive yet.
After three packed days of panels, sessions, and discussions with risk industry leaders two concerns came through loud and clear above it all – AI governance and cyber risk.
Neither are new territory for the Gnosis Bermuda team, but it was encouraging to see the wider industry starting to ask some of the really hard questions we know have been stewing for a while about how to prepare and get ahead.
As someone who works at the intersection of cyber risk and regulatory compliance every day, here’s what I know:
AI Governance – If You’re Waiting for Regulation, It’s Already Too Late
The message across the Summit’s AI discussions was consistent: there’s no one-size first-all approach. Every organisation needs to assess its own risk tolerance, regulations, and operational context before building any kind of controls.
The BMA’s Discussion Paper on the Responsible Use of AI in Bermuda’s Financial Services sector published last July is a meaningful step forward for the island, built around board-level accountability, risk-based assessment, transparency, and alignment with global standards.
Formal guidance is expected through 2026, but it’s crucial that organisations don’t just wait for this to get started. The ones that act now will be prepared whatever the framework dictates and be in a better position to build on top of it, not scrambling to cover the basics.
Done correctly, AI is a genuine competitive differentiator. Clear policy, practical guardrails mapped to your businesses, and meaningful oversight will help get those crucial foundations in place. With this, AI stops being a liability and starts being a tool that you can leverage to get ahead, freeing your people up to focus on growth and innovation.
Cyber Risk – The Emerging Frontier
Cyber has the potential to become the next major P&C line, with real implications for underwriting, capital allocation, and risk management as we know it. The cyber risk we understood yesterday will look very different from what we’re dealing with tomorrow.
None of this is surprising. The accelerating pace of threats and growing dependence on digital infrastructure are challenges we’ve been helping Bermuda’s businesses navigate for years.
The comparison that stuck with me the most was cyber vs. wildfire risk. Wildfires are devastating, the human and economic toll is severe. But they’re a known quantity, with decades of modelling behind them.
From a risk management perspective, cyber threats provide a very different challenge. They are intangible, rapidly evolving, and potentially systemic, capable of triggering correlated losses across multiple industries and geographies simultaneously.
Reinsurers need to understand that the future of risk management will require balancing traditional physical catastrophes with emerging digital systemic threats. Again, the time to act is now and learn how to do this, or work with a partner who can help you do so, before your organisation is already three steps behind.
The 2026 Bermuda Risk Summit reaffirmed that Bermuda's risk community is thinking ahead - and asking the right questions. What I’d love to see now is that thinking translated into action, because the gap between awareness and preparedness remains wider than it should be.
If this resonates with challenges you’re navigating in your own organisation, now is the time to get in touch. For more information on how Gnosis Bermuda can support your organisation with vCISO services and BMA regulatory alignment, contact us
