How Preventive Maintenance Makes Hidden Risks Visible

Musculoskeletal injuries are one of the largest health care costs for employers, and the traditional loss prevention response has been ergonomic changes, such as redesigning workstations, adjusting shelf heights, and limiting box weights. Sam Hollenbach, CEO and President of Amp Health, sees a more effective path: assess the worker's movement health, and better prepare the body for the demands of the job.The conversation explores Amp Health's flagship Prevent product and its innovative "workforce readiness" feature, which delivers fully personalized, six-minute pre-shift warm-ups based on each employee's unique movement profile, job demands, and injury history. Sam breaks down how the company uses computer vision and a three-minute smartphone-based movement assessment to capture a complete picture of injury risk, all while safeguarding employee privacy by processing video on the device and never storing it. The discussion also covers how Amp Health focuses on the individual worker rather than solely redesigning the job, how the platform supports holistic employee well-being, and the company's expansion into desk-worker ergonomics and group-based warm-ups. Sam also shares details on a recent pilot with Compass Group Canada following recognition from the National Safety Council's MSD Prevention Innovation Challenge.Resources:Amp Health website: www.amphealth.comThe Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

The insurance industry has spent decades refining how it responds to loss. A newer and more pressing question is whether it can get better at preventing loss in the first place, and what that shift demands from every player in the risk management chain. Rose Hall, founder and CEO of RH Business Ventures LLC, draws on her experience as a risk engineer and innovation leader at AXA XL to explain why today's rapidly expanding risk landscape — driven by climate, geopolitics, AI, and the data center boom — is forcing insurers, brokers, and corporate risk managers to get more creative about how risk is retained, transferred, and managed.The conversation dives into why insurers are uniquely positioned to lead this change, why technology alone isn't the answer, and how genuine innovation means rethinking business models rather than iterating on old ones. Rose shares candid, real-world lessons on building client trust around data sharing, designing frictionless loss-prevention technology, and identifying the "hidden engine of profit" in strategically retaining the right risks. She closes with a thought-provoking look at the future, arguing that the winning carriers will act as holistic risk advisors—writing insurance as a byproduct of trusted guidance rather than the other way around.Resources:RH Business Ventures website: https://www.rhbusinessventures.com/The Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

Before a damaged roof ever becomes a filed insurance claim, something else is already happening. Public adjusters are buying search ads. Doppelganger websites are going live. Lead generators are positioning themselves to intercept confused policyholders the moment they turn to a search engine for help. This is the world Todd Kozikowski, CEO of 4WARN, is mapping, and the picture he paints in the latest episode of the Predict & Prevent podcast is one that most insurance carriers have never seen.Todd details how 4WARN's outside-in approach differs from traditional claims analysis tools by monitoring trillions of public digital signals to act as an "early warning radar." He shares concrete client results, including a Louisiana insurer that saved nearly $9 million by cutting its litigation rate, and discusses emerging threats such as AI-driven search manipulation and internationally hosted fraudulent insurance sites. The conversation underscores a "predict and prevent" philosophy to get ahead of fraud, litigation, and brand abuse before they ever materialize into a claim or lawsuit.Resources:4WARN website: https://www.4warn.com/The Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

Insurance regulation and technological innovation are often portrayed as opposing forces, but Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Nathan Houdek sees them as complementary. In this episode of the Predict & Prevent podcast from The Institutes, Commissioner Houdek joined guest host Frank Tomasello, Executive Director of The Institutes' Griffith Insurance Education Foundation, for a wide-ranging conversation about how data, artificial intelligence, and collaborative public-private programs are reshaping how the insurance industry approaches risk.Commissioner Houdek discusses the rise of loss mitigation tools such as drones, sensors, and programs to "strengthen homes," as well as the ethical imperatives and regulatory frameworks emerging around big data and artificial intelligence. He offers an inside look at the NAIC's multi-step AI regulatory journey while emphasizing that responsible innovation and consumer protection are not mutually exclusive. The conversation closes with a call for a new consumer mindset around personal risk management and a vision of collaborative public-private partnerships to keep insurance accessible and affordable.Resources:National Association of Insurance Commissioners: https://content.naic.org/Center for Insurance Policy and Research: https://content.naic.org/researchCatastrophe Risk Management Center of Excellence: https://content.naic.org/research/catastrophe-modeling-center-of-excellenceThe Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/The Institutes Griffith Foundation: https://www.griffithfoundation.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

Neglected maintenance of commercial properties is one of the largest and most overlooked challenges in the insurance and property sectors, with a strong correlation to eventual insurance claims. Yet trillions of dollars in property assets are being managed with spreadsheets and sticky notes, according to Jon DeWald, CEO and co-founder of HelixIntel.Jon explains how this lack of digital infrastructure creates "invisible risk" that compounds into costly, preventable insurance claims. For example, a small roof penetration after a hailstorm, left uninspected by maintenance teams, becomes water intrusion, then structural damage, then a full roof replacement. "That minor repair, which would have cost you maybe fifty or a hundred dollars, you're now replacing a full roof," he said. That pattern, small and preventable problems compounding into major losses, is what HelixIntel is built to interrupt.Among the topics discussed in this episode: The Direct Link Between Maintenance and ClaimsWhy HelixIntel Chose the Insurance EcosystemNew Visibility for Underwriters and Risk ManagersShifting from Reactive to Preventive MaintenceThe "Silver Tsunami" of Retiring Maintenance WorkersResources:HelixIntel: https://helixintel.com/The Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

The global conversation on climate risk is heavily skewed toward decarbonization and net zero. While mitigating future climate damage is critical, that focus often overshadows an equally urgent challenge: surviving the climate reality we already live in.Moustafa Naiem, founder and CEO of Resiliocs Intelligence, helps institutional asset owners move beyond risk scores to understand what their climate exposures will actually cost — and which adaptation investments will reduce them most.Drawing on a Ph.D. in resilience prediction, digital twin research at Cambridge, and consulting at KPMG, Moustafa explains why existing tools fall short. He points to a striking imbalance: roughly five dollars are spent on climate mitigation for every one on adaptation — a gap with consequences ranging from insurers exiting markets to displaced residents.The conversation covers Resiliocs' "spatial twin" approach — delivering the predictive power of digital twins without expensive sensor networks, using satellite data and climate modeling instead. Moustafa also reframes Black Swan events as cascading system-wide failures, not simply high-intensity storms — a distinction the company's models are built to capture.Resources:Resiliocs Intelligence: https://resiliocs.com/The Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

A surprisingly overlooked problem in water leak prevention takes center stage in this episode: getting smart water devices installed is only half the battle.Paul Vacquier, founder and CEO of Beagle Services Inc., shares his unconventional path from practicing law in California to building the insurance go-to-market strategy for Flo by Moen — and ultimately launching Beagle to address a critical gap he discovered along the way. With an estimated 30 to 50% of installed smart water valves sitting offline at any given time, homeowners and insurers may be operating under a false sense of security. Paul illustrates the stakes with a $900,000 claim that traced back to a single unplugged valve.The conversation covers Beagle's full-stack service model, featuring employed (not contracted) technicians, ongoing device monitoring, and its Watchdog platform, which proactively reaches out to homeowners with offline devices ahead of severe weather events.The episode also explores the broader shift underway in insurance, where carriers are beginning to require smart water devices as a condition of coverage, and where agents are evolving from price-shoppers into genuine risk advisors, helping craft mitigation strategies tailored to a client's specific exposures.Resources:Beagle Services: https://www.beagleservices.com/The Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

What if earthquakes could be forecast up to 25 days in advance? That's the premise behind one of the most unconventional companies in risk management today.Itamar Zabari, CEO and CTO of AstroTeq, joins host Pete Miller, CPCU, to explain how his company leverages cosmic radiation data combined with multi-channel machine learning to do exactly that. Itamar shares the origin story behind the venture — sparked by his wife Noemi's astrophysics Ph.D. research — and explains how their approach fundamentally differs from traditional seismology, which currently offers only seconds of warning at best.The conversation explores the enormous implications of early warnings. Itamar shares the example of nuclear power plants being able to move to safe mode ahead of a major event — potentially preventing disasters like the Fukushima meltdown in 2011, which caused nearly half a trillion dollars in damage and widespread radiation contamination.The episode also covers what advance warning means for insurance and risk management, where earthquake forecasting could eventually become a coverage requirement similar to sprinkler systems or anti-theft devices. Itamar also addresses the skepticism AstroTeq has faced from traditional seismologists — and makes the case that earthquake forecasting not only is possible today, but already is happening.Resources:AstroTeq.ai: https://astroteq.ai/The Institutes: https://web.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

What if legacy security cameras already installed at distribution centers and warehouses could do more than just record footage? What if they could also prevent spoiled food from reaching grocery stores or catch cargo errors or even theft before it happens?That's the vision driving Technova Industries, a company transforming how the logistics industry handles cold chain verification. On this episode of Predict & Prevent, host Pete Miller, CEO of The Institutes, sits down with Aymen Azim, co-founder and CEO, and Jenna Azim, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, to explore how their AI-powered technology is breathing new life into legacy security systems.The conversation covers how generative AI has dramatically improved the accuracy of visual verification, why this approach solves liability challenges for shippers and insurers alike, and where the technology is headed. From preventing spoiled vaccines from reaching pharmacies to detecting potential cargo theft through USDOT number verification, Aymen and Jenna share their vision for creating continuous visibility checkpoints throughout the entire cold chain—including truck stops during transit.Resources:Technova Industries: https://www.technova-industries.com/ The Institutes: https://global.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/

As climate disasters, cyberattacks, and geopolitical instability increasingly intersect, traditional insurance models are reaching their limits. AXA is shifting from simply paying claims after disasters to actively helping to prevent losses before they happen.Pierre du Rostu, CEO of the AXA Digital Commercial Platform, discusses his team's risk management platform with Pete Miller, CEO of The Institutes and host of the Predict & Prevent podcast. The AXA Digital Commercial Platform is the winner of the International Insurance Society’s Global Innovation Award for Predict & Prevent, awarded at the 2025 IIS Global Insurance Forum in Rüschlikon, Switzerland.The conversation explores how AXA's Digital Commercial Platform leverages advanced technologies like AI and real-time data to predict and prevent potential losses. Du Rostu discusses the concept of polycrisis, where multiple risks are interconnected, and how AXA is shifting its business model from traditional insurance to a more proactive partnership approach with clients. The discussion highlights the importance of innovation in the insurance industry and the future of risk management.Resources:AXA Digital Commercial Platform: https://axaxl.com/axa-digital-commercial-platformGlobal Innovation Awards: https://www.internationalinsurance.org/global-innovation-awards The Institutes: https://global.theinstitutes.org/Predict & Prevent website: https://www.predictandprevent.org/Sign up for our weekly Predict & Prevent newsletter: https://www.predictandprevent.org/newsletter/