Swiss Re has teamed with Microsoft to launch its new Digital Market Centre, which it says will transform the way insurers measure business risks in a digital environment and enable a new class of technology solutions.

The Digital Market Centre uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud technologies, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Connected vehicles, industrial manufacturing and natural catastrophe resilience are the first applications earmarked.

Swiss Re will also move its internal operating platform to the Azure cloud, leveraging its advanced data processing and AI capabilities.

“The strategic alliance with Microsoft will greatly advance our ability to make our risk expertise available to our clients,” Swiss Re COO Anette Bronder said. “At the same time, we can achieve significant efficiency gains for our own internal platforms and processes.”

One example of the broader understanding of risks the company will be able to call on is in vehicle safety, where much deeper analysis of a car’s safety performance using new driving-assistance technologies will be possible.

With these data-driven insights, Swiss Re says insurers can design innovative new motor insurance products, such as pay-as-you-drive covers.

In another example, risk managers could get a greater understanding of how the loss of a ship’s cargo may impact global supply chains, or how natural catastrophes will impact a government’s key infrastructure investments, allowing insurers to proactively mitigate losses before they occur.