AI, automation and the next era of trade credit underwriting

In today’s trading environment, credit decisions that once took days must be delivered within minutes. Supporting customers in real time, in a world where commercial activity accelerates at unprecedented speed, requires a fundamental shift in how trade credit underwriting operates. This transformation is driven by the judgement and experience of our underwriters, strengthened by strong digital capabilities. Automation, deeper data integration, and AI‑supported monitoring now play a central role, speeding up decisions, improving consistency, and giving customers earlier visibility of emerging risks.

In this fast‑moving context of transformation, Atradius has been recognised as Best Trade Credit Underwriter by Trade, Treasury and Payments and the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade. Aaron Rutstein, director of Risk Services for Atradius North America, was interviewed about how we are shaping day‑to‑day underwriting. Below, we share an excerpt from that interview, originally published in Trade, Treasury and Payments.

What prompted Atradius to prioritise digitalisation and AI so heavily across underwriting and risk services?

Trade credit insurance has long been built on trust and expertise, and that hasn’t changed. What has changed is the speed, scale, and volatility of risk that our clients operate in today. Since 2019, Atradius has prioritised digitalisation and AI because manual processes alone cannot keep pace with today’s trade environment.  

Our goal was not to replace human judgment, but to augment it. By embedding AI into our underwriting and risk services, we’ve created a digital ecosystem that delivers greater transparency, consistency, and speed, while still relying on experienced underwriters for complex or nuanced risks.

How has that changed the speed, consistency, and day-to-day experience for clients and brokers?

Automation has significantly improved the client and broker experience. Today, more than 70% of credit limit applications, across more than 140 countries and 3.4 million applications annually, are processed automatically using our proprietary AI machine learning models. For clients, this means faster decisions and clearer outcomes. For brokers, it has brought greater predictability and precision, all while freeing our underwriters to focus on more complex cases.

Looking ahead, how do you see AI-driven underwriting and risk monitoring shaping the next phase of the market?

We see AI becoming central to how trade credit insurance supports clients, not just by reacting to risk, but by anticipating it. Over time, AI will make underwriting more predictive, proactive, and aligned with both financial and sustainability outcomes.

Our AI-powered news monitoring already scans 180,000 sources globally with 95% match accuracy, providing early alerts on negative events at the buyer, sector, or country level.

How important is integration to the future of trade credit insurance, and what does that mean for how insurers and corporates work together?

Integration will be critical to the future of trade credit insurance. Through our APIs, clients can connect Atradius directly to their ERP and treasury systems to automate credit limit requests, buyer health checks, and policy management.

Atradius Flow goes further by embedding our data directly into Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Business Central, bringing real-time insights into everyday workflows. Ultimately, this changes the relationship between insurers and corporates, shifting from transactional to collaborative.

What does it mean to you to have been selected as the best trade credit underwriter at the TTP awards?

It’s an honour, reflecting the collective work of the entire Atradius team. Our industry-leading NPS scores, strong broker loyalty, and tangible outcomes demonstrate that we’re not just modernising trade credit insurance but also raising the bar for the market.

To explore how to strengthen your own credit risk strategy, get in touch with us and see how we can help you stay ahead.