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Humanoid robots set records, raising liability risks for insurers
Insurance consulting firm EY says insurers may need to shift from pricing human operators to pricing systems, with a single incident potentially spanning multiple parties.
Humanoid robots shattered sprint and jump benchmarks at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, including a 100 meter time of 9.39 seconds by a robot at the opening ceremony. A separate unofficial trial saw a robot called Lightning, built by Chinese phone maker Honor, run 100 meters in 9.32 seconds, according to Insurance Business.
While the athletic results drew attention, the outlet highlighted that the more insurance-relevant exposure is how robots handle real work tasks that require physical interaction. Of 51 events, roughly 40% required a robot to complete warehouse style or service tasks such as connecting cables, sorting packages, charging an EV, or taking a restaurant order, often without a human operator standing by to intervene.
Chris Raimondo, insurance consulting leader for the Americas at EY, said the bigger industry shift is from pricing and managing risk around human operators to system-centric operators and system-centric liabilities. He warned that liability on one incident could ultimately involve the hardware manufacturer, the AI software platform, and the commercial owner, increasing complexity for casualty and workers' comp risk models.
The report also pointed to workers' comp claims, saying evidence used in claims may move from eyewitness accounts and physical evidence toward sensor logs and OEM data. Insurance Business framed the games as a preview of how physical AI, autonomous vehicles, and humanoid robotics could be more disruptive to carriers than generative AI, because they force a rethink of how systems are priced and insured.