AIG and McGill and Partners have announced a significant collaboration involving AIG committing capacity across up to $1.6 billion of McGill's specialty gross premiums written. A distinguishing feature of this deal is that 25% of this capacity will be allocated to individual risks by agentic AI running on Palantir's Foundry platform. This automation specifically targets follow underwriting decisions on live specialty risks in the London subscription market, a segment traditionally characterized by lower analytical burden and strong potential for automation compared to lead underwriting which involves deep analysis and negotiation.
The collaboration aims to embed AIG's underwriting criteria directly into McGill's digital broking platform, allowing the system to evaluate risk appetite and allocate capacity without constant human intervention. The Foundry ontology maps all relevant entities, risks, exposures, and relationships in McGill's portfolio, providing near real-time data for exposure management, limit deployment, and risk assessment. This approach is expected to deliver greater efficiency to the subscription market, as noted by AIG's Peter Zaffino, and has the potential to disrupt market dynamics, according to Steve McGill.
This initiative builds on the success of earlier algorithmic underwriting efforts, such as Ki Insurance, which is the first algorithmic follow-only Lloyd's syndicate. Ki Insurance posted $1.11 billion of gross managed premium in 2025 and $171.4 million in profit before tax in its first year as a standalone entity, demonstrating the profitability of algorithmic following. The AIG-McGill deal scales this concept, with its $1.6 billion covered premium exceeding Ki's book and representing only a fraction of AIG's capacity through this single broker relationship. The AIG-McGill architecture is also more robust, enabling continuous portfolio-level correlation checks rather than just quarterly reviews. The primary immediate benefit is a significant reduction in expense due to minimizing human involvement in follow underwriting, potentially allowing for greater margins or more competitive pricing.
