A recently launched insurance product, called aiSure, is designed to protect organisations against liability and financial losses arising from errors made by agentic AI systems and large language models. The offering, now available in South Africa, was developed by reinsurer Munich Re in partnership with specialty insurance underwriter iTOO Special Risks.
As AI adoption accelerates across industries, businesses are increasingly relying on machine learning models to make or support critical decisions. The new product provides an insurance guarantee for AI developers.
AI systems are statistical and nondeterministic by nature, and may produce inaccurate outputs such as hallucinations or misclassifications, even when functioning as designed. Such errors can result in operational disruption and financial loss.
“AI is not like traditional software, and it doesn’t always produce the same output from the same input, and even the best models carry a measurable error rate,” says Stefano Cavalieri, iTOO Special Risks product lead. “aiSure gives organisations a safety net by insuring the performance of the AI models they develop or deploy. If the AI underperforms and causes a loss, the policy responds.”
Unlike cyber insurance, which responds to malicious attacks, data breaches, ransomware, or system compromise, aiSure covers losses arising from the non-malicious failure of an AI system to perform as intended. It differs from professional indemnity cover, which applies when a human professional makes an error.
“aiSure is specifically designed for autonomous AI decision-making that impacts critical decisions and business processes. If a human is still reviewing or approving the AI’s output, like a lawyer checking a draft generated by an AI tool, then that falls under professional indemnity. But when an AI model is left to make critical decisions on its own, that’s where this product becomes essential.”
Examples of agentic AI-generated risks include fraud detection models incorrectly approving fraudulent transactions, credit scoring engines misclassifying risk, or AI-driven agricultural systems recommending incorrect inputs. These are not cyber events, but performance failures of the AI itself.
Although Munich Re launched the aiSure brand in Europe four years ago, South Africa and Africa had not previously been a focus market. That changed when iTOO chief executive Justin Naylor identified the opportunity to bring the product to Africa.
“South Africa is at a point where AI adoption is accelerating rapidly,” says Naylor. “We’re seeing enterprises and developers integrating AI into their systems at a rapid pace, but the regulatory environment is still catching up. That creates a real need for risk mitigation tools that allow companies to innovate confidently.”
SA is home to a fair number of software developers, many of whom are now building or integrating AI models. For these developers, particularly startups and scale-ups, aiSure aims to offer a competitive advantage.
Cavalieri says: “If you’re a small AI vendor trying to convince a bank or enterprise to adopt your model, it’s difficult to prove performance upfront. With aiSure, developers can go to market with a guarantee backed by iTOO and Munich Re. It helps them land deals and build trust.”
Naylor says: “AI is the buzzword in every boardroom right now. Companies want to experiment, automate and innovate, but they also want assurance. This product enables that innovation by reducing uncertainty.
“iTOO brings the broker relationships, the client understanding and the ability to distribute and support the product locally. Munich Re brings the underwriting experience, the actuarial models and several years of real‑world data from markets where aiSure is already live.”
Munich Re and iTOO will share underwriting risk and iTOO will gradually build local capacity. The partnership includes training and knowledge transfer to develop an SA dedicated AI‑insurance underwriting capability.
Naylor says: “Insurance has always enabled progress by absorbing risk. If executives are hesitant to deploy AI in critical processes, aiSure gives them the confidence to move forward. We’re entering a world where autonomous AI agents will run complex tasks without human oversight. That creates enormous opportunity, but also new forms of risk. aiSure is designed precisely for that future.
“We’re ready, the infrastructure is in place, the partnership is strong, and the demand is already there. South Africa is ready for AI insurance, and we’re proud to be the first to bring it to the continent.”