Beazley’s Sam Franks on helping businesses navigate an era of converging risks

Businesses are not looking at risks in isolation; they are trying to understand how different pressures interact; and that creates an opportunity for brokers to differentiate through advice, argues Sam Franks, country manager and head of partner engagement – UK & Ireland at Beazley.

The risk landscape facing businesses is no longer defined by individual threats. Cyber incidents, geopolitical volatility and changing regulation are increasingly converging, compounding and amplifying one another. For many organisations, the challenge is not only how to protect against these risks, but how to keep investing, growing and making confident decisions in spite of them.

That is where specialist insurance has an important role to play: combining risk transfer with insight, expertise and practical support to help businesses understand emerging exposures, respond effectively and continue to pursue opportunities in a more uncertain environment.

That will be the focus of our conversations at Broker Expo 2026. A significant part of my job is listening to brokers, understanding their clients’ needs and working with our team to deliver specialist products in an accessible way. The event is an opportunity to build and strengthen the carrier-broker relationships that help keep businesses protected, combining specialist underwriting expertise with the client insight and advice brokers bring every day.

Cyber: responding to a threat that keeps changing

Cyber remains one of the fastest-moving risks facing businesses. The methods used by attackers, the organisations they target and the technologies available to them continue to evolve. For brokers, the challenge is helping clients take a full-spectrum approach that is pre-emptive, responsive and adaptive, while making clear that cyber resilience is not reserved for large corporates.

Recent enhancements to Beazley Breach Response reflect that reality. A more streamlined digital quotation process, fewer questions and clearer vulnerability reporting are intended to make cyber insurance easier to access and explain, while supporting better risk conversations between brokers and clients.

AI is adding another layer of complexity. As organisations adopt AI tools, cyber criminals are also using the technology to increase the scale, speed and sophistication of attacks. In that context, clarity matters. Our affirmative AI wording is intended to give clients more certainty by expressly addressing AI-related risks already covered within existing cyber cover.

Deadly Weapon Protection: preparing for a difficult risk conversation

Some risks are particularly difficult for organisations to contemplate, but increasingly difficult to not prepare for. Deadly weapon events sit firmly in that category, particularly as businesses, venues and public-facing organisations consider preparedness, response and recovery in the context of Martyn’s Law and a broader focus on public safety.

Prevention remains the priority. But organisations also need to understand what support would be available if the worst were to happen, from crisis response and communications through to recovery planning and specialist services.

For brokers, this is a sensitive but important conversation. Clients may need help understanding how this risk fits within their broader duty of care, resilience planning and operational continuity.

Healthcare: managing risk at a digital health inflection point

Healthcare providers are also operating in a more complex risk environment, particularly as digital health reaches an inflection point. After years of pandemic-fuelled demand, abundant capital and rapid technological innovation, growth has cooled, regulatory scrutiny is intensifying and AI is transforming how care is delivered. As our recent Digital Health and Wellness report found, the sector has entered an era of accountability.

That shift is changing the risk conversation. Clinical, operational, regulatory, technological and cyber risks are increasingly converging. With 77% of executives planning to use AI in diagnosis and 81% planning to use generative AI in treatment, success depends not only on innovation and scale, but on accountability, resilience and the ability to manage interconnected risks.

For brokers, this is another area where advice matters. Clients may need help looking beyond standalone products to consider the services they provide, the regulatory expectations they face, the technologies they are adopting and the pressures that could affect continuity, reputation and patient outcomes.

Why specialist insight matters

Across these areas, a common theme is emerging. Businesses are not looking at risks in isolation; they are trying to understand how different pressures interact and what that means for growth, investment and resilience. That creates an opportunity for brokers to differentiate through advice, insight and practical support, not just placement.

Stop by our Beazley Pink Stand (50B) – you can’t miss us. We would welcome the opportunity to continue that conversation. Whether the focus is cyber, public safety, healthcare or the broader question of how businesses navigate converging risks, the priority is the same: building the carrier-broker relationships that help clients make sense of complexity, stay protected and move forward with greater confidence.

Sign up to attend the Broker Expo on 8 October at the Birmingham NEC

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