This article is by Pete Gillett, founder, Marketpoint Recall
Product recalls are becoming bigger, faster and more visible across almost every sector.
Government data shows more than 250 vehicle recalls were issued in the UK last year, affecting around 1.8 million vehicles. Food recalls rose sharply too, while retailers ranging from IKEA to Waitrose have had to pull products over safety concerns covering everything from baby products to batteries.
Most businesses already have recall processes in place. The challenge is that many of those processes have simply become established over time rather than actively improved. Recalls are rarely a boardroom priority until one happens but, by then, it is too late to rethink a process that may be creating unnecessary cost, delay and operational complexity. That’s a growing issue for insurers.
Established processes need improving
Today’s recalls move at the speed of screenshots, WhatsApp groups and rolling news alerts. Consumers expect immediate answers. Regulators want evidence. Insurers need clarity on exposure while events are still unfolding. At the same time, many businesses still rely heavily on fragmented reporting, manual administration and disconnected customer data. What may have worked adequately years ago can now create significant operational drag and unnecessary financial leakage.
The issue for insurers is not simply that recalls are increasing. It is that recall costs can vary dramatically depending on how efficiently the response is handled. Two superficially similar recalls can produce completely different outcomes based on the speed of customer engagement, the quality of data available and the ability to track progress in real time.
Cutting friction, cutting cost by up to 40%
Most businesses are simply unaware there is now a far more efficient way to run recalls. Traditional recall processes often involve manual administration, fragmented customer communication and disconnected reporting. They work, but they can also be slow, expensive and resource-heavy, particularly during multinational recalls.
Digital recall management changes that equation entirely. Modern systems can automate customer outreach, multilingual communications, evidence capture and live reporting. AI-supported workflows are particularly valuable where businesses need to coordinate recalls across multiple countries, languages and regulatory frameworks simultaneously.
The commercial implications are significant. Digitised recall management has shown it can reduce recall costs by up to 40% by lowering administrative overheads, reducing manual processes and accelerating resolution times.
Visibility changes everything
One of the biggest advantages of modern recall systems is visibility. Many businesses still do not know exactly who bought a product, where it was sold or whether the customer can realistically be contacted. That creates obvious problems for insurers trying to assess exposure accurately and price risk with confidence.
An Office for Product Safety and Standards survey found only around 50% of consumers recalled seeing a product recall notice after purchasing a faulty item. That statistic alone highlights how much room there still is for improvement in customer engagement and traceability.
Digital recall systems fundamentally improve that visibility. Businesses can track customer engagement in real time, verify actions taken and build defensible audit trails throughout the process. For insurers, that creates something the recall market has historically struggled with: measurability.
The fraud problem insurers cannot ignore
Better visibility also helps tackle another growing issue in recalls: fraud. The larger and more public a recall becomes, the greater the opportunity for false claims, duplicate submissions and attempts to benefit from products never genuinely owned.
Businesses able to directly contact verified customers, capture digital evidence and track interactions throughout the recall process are in a far stronger position to identify suspicious activity and reduce fraudulent claims. Timestamped audit trails and product verification records create a far clearer picture of legitimate exposure for insurers.
Five ways insurers are changing the recall market
1. Underwriting will increasingly examine recall execution capability – The ability to identify customers quickly, track responses digitally and provide live reporting is becoming a meaningful indicator of risk quality.
2. Static reporting will give way to live recall intelligence – Insurers increasingly need at-a-glance visibility into active incidents, including engagement rates, unresolved products and escalation patterns.
3. Recall cover will become more operational, not just financial – Increasingly, value will come from access to crisis response expertise, live reporting capability and pre-built recall processes before an incident escalates.
4. AI will become part of mainstream recall operations – AI-supported triage, multilingual support and automated workflows help contain operational complexity while preserving auditability and consistency.
5. Insurers can be a driving force for change – By encouraging businesses to build stronger traceability, customer engagement and real-time visibility into recall processes, insurers can help modernise recall readiness across entire sectors.
Low bar, big gains
Recalls are becoming a routine part of doing business across multiple sectors. The opportunity for insurers is not simply responding once the damage is done, but helping businesses adopt faster, more measurable and more cost-effective recall processes from the outset. That benefits every part of the chain, from brands and insurers through to the customers caught in the middle.
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