Speaker: Adam L'Italien, Chief Innovation Officer, Liberty Mutual
INTRODUCTION
Adam L'Italien: Hello, I'm Adam L'Italien, Chief Innovation Officer at Liberty Mutual Insurance. The title of our submission is Liberty +. We are a finalist in the predict and prevent category for the 2026 Innovator of the Year award.
IMPACT: What is the scope of the problem being solved by your innovation?
Adam L'Italien: In the 1980s, the US experienced a billion dollars weather disaster about every 82 days. Over the last decade, it's been every 19. Wildfire, flood, hail, hard freezes, and the risk to people's homes does not stop with weather. It can also be an aging roof, a leaking pipe, an appliance failure, or an electrical issue hidden behind the walls. Traditionally, insurance has helped customers recover after those events, but at Liberty Mutual, we believe there is more we can do to protect our customers and communities. It's about preventing risk, not just responding to it. That's Liberty +, a digital experience that helps homeowners understand, manage, and reduce risk before disaster strikes. Liberty + has already driven more than 85,000 resilience building actions across 250,000 homeowners, because when one homeowner takes action, a family is better protected, and when thousands do, communities become more resilient.
CREATIVITY: How does this innovation stand apart from alternatives in the marketplace?
Adam L'Italien: Most prevention advice tells you what to worry about. Liberty + tells you what to do about it and then helps you take action. That's what sets it apart. By combining Liberty Mutual's deep risk expertise, data, and trusted partner network into one simple actionable experience. Take Weather Ready. A homeowner answers a few questions, and Liberty + serves up science-backed recommendations from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, tailored to their home and their most likely threat. Then we make it actionable, what they can do themselves, what they may want help with, and where to find that trusted support. And we have applied the same model across roof health, appliance care, plumbing, outdoor safety, as well as IOT sensors that catch things like electrical fire risk before it sparks. That's the power of Liberty + Expertise turned into action and prevention made practical.
SCALABILITY: How can this innovation be leveraged to enhance its impact?
Adam L'Italien: Liberty + is already helping millions of homeowners move from awareness to action, but the prevention first philosophy behind the platform was designed to go further than any one product or customer group. In communities hit hardest by climate-related disasters, people facing the greatest risk often have the fewest resources to prepare. So we partnered with a national nonprofit focused on disaster resilience and recovery to ask a bigger question. How do we get the tools, the knowledge, and the funding to the people who need them most? That work informed a $1.5 million Liberty Mutual grant to expand resilience building resources to communities across the country. Liberty + is a repeatable model for turning expertise into prevention. One homeowner taking action can scale to stronger neighborhoods, more resilient communities, and better outcomes for everyone. Liberty Mutual exists to help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow.
