Conference attendees at AIRROC’s 2026 Chicago Education Day took part in a presentation focused on the use and impact of data centers presented by panelists, Martha Conlin and Leslie Davis, both Partners with Troutman Pepper Locke, who hosted the event. With the explosion in AI use, data centers have become critical national infrastructures that now underpin nearly every sector, with wide ranging insurance implications. The panelists walked through the rapid build-out of data center capacity, fueled by federal and state incentives. Contrasting that growth is rising community pushback over noise, water and power usage, and serious environmental impacts.
The panelists highlighted the spectrum of insurance risk related to the rise of data centers: traditional property perils such as fire, flood and catastrophe losses; environmental concerns; cyber and systemic risks; supply-chain fragility; business interruption; and contingent risk coverage. From there, the discussion turned to how these risks collide with coverage and the wide variety of unique claims insurers and reinsurers might expect to see in the coming months and years.
A video replay of this presentation can be accessed in the AIRROC On-Demand Library at https://airroc.memberclicks.net/airroc-on-demand.
