Robots also need to get a "personal accident insurance" (New Economic Perspective)

Originally from: People’s Daily

(Headline: During the interaction experience, who bears accidental risks and damage losses? Robots also need their share of “accident insurance” (a new perspective on the economy))

On the performance stage, robots spin and jump; in ordinary households, next to “the older adult and the child,” an intelligent little assistant has appeared; in factories and production lines, precise operations are performed with hands that are never idle… In recent years, embodied intelligence robots have entered an ever-growing number of production and living scenarios, and demand for risk protection has grown accordingly. Recently, multiple insurance companies have rolled out dedicated insurance products aimed at the risks of developing and producing embodied robots and risks in scenario applications. What situations can these insurance products provide coverage for? What role do they play in promoting the rollout of robot products and the development of the industry? A reporter recently conducted interviews.

Insurance provides services for the entire chain of the embodied intelligence industry

Not long ago, Guangdong Shenzhen’s 6S robot store expanded and upgraded, and immersive experiences with ever-new robot concepts attracted many customers.

“From the former—massage, moxibustion, and making coffee—to brand-new brain-controlled experiences, human-robot chess, and dialogue interaction, and then to robot boxing matches and human-robot coordinated confrontations—this place integrates robot sales, accessories, after-sales service, as well as leasing and personalized customization. Users can directly feel the robot’s motion and interaction capabilities. The store helps facilitate efficient matching between supply and demand through scenario-based displays.” said Lin Feng, the store manager.

But as robots achieve broader scenario applications, some risks have come to light: during interactive demonstrations, robots may cause personal injury to third parties and property damage; in addition, on-site staff may also encounter accidental injuries during exhibition setup, commissioning, and operations and maintenance.

Who shares these risks? “We tailor dedicated insurance方案. It provides coverage for losses that robots within the premises cause to third parties. We can also, based on the store’s differentiated risk coverage needs, offer additional coverage to ensure that while the new business format provides open experiences, risks remain controllable.” said Shi Hequn, general director of the group business of Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance.

From exhibitions and sales to experience, and then to use, and from front-end R&D to pilot production and other links—insurance is providing diversified, well-matched services for the development of the embodied intelligence industry.

A financial director of a robotics company, Zhang Hao, said: “While developing a new type of elderly-care robot, the project was interrupted. About 2 million yuan in initial investment faced the risk of being ‘thrown away,’ but fortunately, insurance provided some economic compensation.”

A person in charge of a company using an electric power inspection robot said that the cost to purchase a single robot is about 300k yuan. The company purchased property insurance covering the robot itself. “There’s money lined up for repairing the robot.”

Industry insiders say that for users, when a robot is underwritten with insurance, it is also like a “medical check report” of its reliability. In fields such as medical care, logistics, and public services, robots with insurance coverage have higher market acceptance and shorter procurement decision cycles. And based on international market experience, robot products often need to be “insured” before they can be applied in practice.

Zhang Chun Guang, an executive with DeYi Robotics, believes that with the insurance industry coordinating to build a favorable ecosystem, it will help robots enter the market, into real-world scenarios, and further overseas.

Insurance helps companies innovate, including covering R&D expense losses and failures in成果转化

The Development Report 2025 on China released by the Development Research Center of the State Council shows that China’s embodied intelligence industry is in its early stage. The market size is expected to reach 400 billion yuan by 2030 and exceed one trillion yuan by 2035, and will also help application fields such as transportation and logistics, industrial manufacturing, and commercial services rise further. As robots move into more open and more complex scenarios, the insurance industry faces new challenges.

“In the process of robots moving from experimental validation to testing lines, and then to large-scale mass production and commercial operations, companies urgently need to move risk management upstream.” Shi Hequn said. “Insurance institutions should help enterprises improve mechanisms such as operating standards, on-site management, safety inspections, and emergency response.”

Helping corporate R&D innovation—insurance has started to play a role. In Guangdong, PICC P&C’s “IntelliResearch Insurance” brings technical方案 and defects in raw materials into the coverage scope, providing enterprises with an intact risk barrier across the full cycle—from R&D, small-scale tests to pilot tests—so as to better reduce the direct losses caused by R&D failures.

“Insurance for losses of R&D expenses, failures in成果转化, and the like can reduce economic losses caused by project accidents leading to stoppage or interruption, helping companies focus more on R&D innovation activities. It gives them the ‘confidence to clear the gate’ and the ‘ability to pass the test.’” said Wei Li, president of the China Insurance Research Institute of Renmin University of China.

Industry insiders say that with the promotion of remote operations and maintenance and cloud-based control technologies, cybersecurity, data security, and system stability have become important prerequisites for large-scale robot applications. In response, an executive with PICC P&C said the company will further improve its digital security insurance product system. The company has also launched comprehensive insurance for embodied intelligence robots, covering both cybersecurity and system crashes.

Given the intertwined characteristics of multiple risks—such as hardware failures in robots, algorithm defects, and also operational mistakes and cyberattacks—multiple insurance institutions say they will continuously improve one-stop comprehensive insurance方案.

The embodied intelligence industry iterates quickly and has new scenarios. For insurance innovation, challenges include insufficient data and difficulties in pricing.

“We should start from areas such as building platforms together and sharing data, to create a favorable ecosystem for insurance innovation.” Wei Li believes that products could be explored that allow dynamic data supplementation and flexible rate adjustments, and that underwriting risks can be diversified and underwriting capacity improved through means such as reinsurance, co-insurance groups, and risk securitization.

Technology insurance keeps expanding its coverage

Insuring robots is also a snapshot of how the insurance industry serves high-level technology self-reliance and self-strengthening, and helps develop new quality productive forces: intelligent assisted driving moves onto a “fast track,” and many insurers have launched assisted driving coverage services; with the low-altitude economy and commercial aerospace gathering momentum for takeoff, new insurance products such as aviation product liability insurance and loss compensation insurance for testing equipment have been introduced……

The “14th Five-Year Plan” implementation outline proposes establishing a technology insurance policy system and enriching technology insurance products. “Technology insurance continues to expand its coverage scope, and initially formed a multi-layered technology insurance product system covering the full innovation cycle such as project initiation R&D,成果转化, and industrialized promotion.” said Zhao Yulong, president of the China Insurance Industry Association. Data show that during the “14th Five-Year” period, technology insurance cumulatively provided risk protection of more than 10 trillion yuan.

The risks in emerging industries and future industries have complex and ever-changing structures, and there is insufficient accumulation of risk data—these are the difficulties in driving high-quality development of technology insurance. How can the next breakthrough be achieved?

Wei Li believes insurance institutions should speed up exploring the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, focusing on cultivating professional talent and building specialized institutions.

“Financial institutions, technology companies, and research universities and institutes can jointly build risk and insurance laboratories to enhance capabilities in accident mechanism analysis, scenario assessment, and model validation.” said Wang Xiangnan, a researcher at the Institute of Financial Research, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In the claims process, for scenarios where insurance terms are mature, mechanisms can be implemented for automatic triggering, verification, and preliminary payouts based on Internet of Things data and a rule engine to improve service efficiency.

Upgrading and improving technology insurance to achieve better quality and efficiency also relies on a favorable policy environment.

“To reduce companies’ financial burdens and increase their willingness to purchase insurance, and to promote the rollout of insurance tools, certain premium subsidies could be provided for related technology insurance products, or relevant tax incentive policies could be studied. Through coordinated efforts among finance, taxation, and the financial sector, we can amplify the effective use of fiscal funds and better play the supporting role in technology innovation.” Wei Li suggested.

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