This week, host Alex Bond sits down with Will Ross, co-founder and CEO of Federato — the AI-native core platform transforming the full insurance policy lifecycle, from underwriting to claims and billing.
Will and his Stanford AI research co-founder built Federato on a simple but bold premise: AI should support high-value human decision-making, not just cut costs. And they're putting that conviction to the test.
In this episode, Alex and Will discuss:
🏗️ Why legacy \"old core\" insurance systems can't be fixed by bolting AI on top and what a genuinely AI-native alternative looks like
📈 The results that speak for themselves: one client saw a 2.2x increase in quote volume, an 89% reduction in time to quote, and improved high-appetite risk selection from 1 in 10 to 6 in 10, all within 90 days
💰 Why Federato raised $100 million in Series D funding from Goldman Sachs even though they didn't need the capital
🔄 How the conversation around AI in insurance has evolved from cost-cutting to genuinely transforming outcomes
🤝 Why Will believes in being radically honest with clients about the scale of change required and why that's built trust rather than lost it
This is a conversation about what it really takes to modernise insurance from the inside out and why incremental change isn't going to cut it.