The Leadership in Insurance Podcast - Insurtech & Innovation

When did you last hear from your insurance broker outside of renewal?That gap is a huge opportunity.On this episode of The Leadership in Insurance Podcast, Alex Bond speaks with Bryan Davis, President and CEO of VIU by HUB, about making personal insurance easier to buy, understand and manage.Bryan makes the case that personal lines can be an innovation lab for the wider brokerage business — a place to rethink customer experience, build trust and deliver advice at scale.They explore:💡 Why competing on price alone misses the value of a broker.🤝 How partnerships with credit unions and mortgage servicers can bring insurance into moments that matter.🤖 How AI could help more customers receive meaningful advice and regular policy reviews.For brokers and insurance leaders, there’s a clear question: how can technology help you give more customers the attention they deserve?#LeadershipInInsurance #Insurtech #InsuranceBroking #EmbeddedInsurance #FinPro

Everyone wants an AI strategy. But who’s responsible for making it happen?This week’s Leadership in Insurance Podcast is a little different. Host and FinPro founder Alex Bond sits down with his colleague Dan Briselden, Director at FinPro, to discuss the rise of the Chief AI Officer.Drawing on their conversations with insurance leaders and candidates, Alex and Dan explore what this emerging role could mean for the industry—and what businesses need to get right before making the hire.Does AI leadership need its own seat at the boardroom table?Should insurers look outside the industry for talent?What matters most: technical expertise, commercial thinking or the ability to bring people with you?How do you turn a significant investment in talent into measurable business value?A key takeaway: hiring someone to drive change only works if you give them the authority and support to deliver it.If you’re shaping your AI strategy or thinking about your next leadership hire, this conversation is for youu.#LeadershipInInsurance #FinPro #Insurtech #AI #InsuranceLeadership

Everyone’s talking about AI in insurance. But can they explain what it really does for the customer?In the next episode of The Leadership in Insurance Podcast, FinPro founder Alex Bond is joined by Shaun Routledge, CRO of FF News, to explore how insurtech businesses can turn attention into meaningful conversations — and commercial results.From generic AI messaging to expensive conference appearances, they ask whether the industry is putting enough thought into what really works.🎙️ In this episode:▪️ What can insurtech marketing learn from fintech — and why do specific customer stories matter more than broad technology claims?▪️ Are the biggest conferences always the best investment, or can smaller events deliver stronger connections?▪️ How should businesses assess the true cost and return of attending industry events?▪️ Is AI solving a real problem, or being introduced for technology’s sake?Shaun also shares how FF News approaches telling insurtech stories, and why showing the practical impact of technology matters when attracting customers, talent and investment.If you’re building, marketing or growing an insurtech business, this conversation will give you plenty to think about before your next campaign or conference booking.#InsurTech #LeadershipInInsurance #Insurance #Marketing #FinPro #FFNews

🎙️ Could the biggest risk in insurance AI be doing nothing?In this week’s Leadership in Insurance Podcast, Alex Bond speaks with Olivier Lafontaine, Chief Product Officer at Equisoft, about autonomous agents and how insurers can modernise their technology.Drawing on 20 years at Equisoft, Olivier explores:🔹 Where AI agents can reduce friction in insurance workflows—and why human oversight and guardrails matter.🔹 How AI coding tools are reshaping the build-versus-buy debate.🔹 How Equisoft/amplify helps carriers modernise incrementally, without replacing their entire core system.For insurance leaders navigating AI adoption and legacy technology, this conversation offers a practical perspective on where to start.

This week on The Leadership in Insurance, Alex Bond sits down with Dan Schuleman, CEO & Co-founder of Qumis, to explore how AI can help insurance professionals navigate complex policies — and why human judgement still matters.Some of what they cover:📄 Why lengthy policies, amendments and endorsements make insurance a tough challenge for AI 🤝 AI as a co-worker — helping professionals spot issues while keeping people responsible for decisions 💬 Why a good claims experience matters for trust, retention and the wider business 🎯 Measuring AI’s value beyond time savings — 72% of Qumis users reported catching coverage issues they would otherwise have missed 💡 Moving beyond faster processes to entirely new ways of transacting insuranceA must-listen for anyone exploring how AI can strengthen claims decisions and support the people making them.

This week on The Leadership in Insurance, Alex Bond sits down with Ashwin Agarwal, Founder & CEO of Advocate Technologies, to talk about bringing pricing transparency to commercial insurance.Some of what they cover:📊 An $8 billion data network, built in five years — think "Verisk 2.0" meets Bloomberg for insurance pricing⏳ Insurance pricing is 40 years behind financial markets — and that gap is costing the industry🔄 A 12.5% quote-to-bind ratio that shows just how badly the market needs better benchmarking💡 A bold bet: turning a $3 trillion market into $150 trillion with floating-rate policies and price-indexed hedges🎯 Real innovation vs. cost-cutting — and why insurance needs an investment mindset like Buffett'sA must-listen for anyone tracking where pricing data and market infrastructure in commercial insurance are headed next.

 This week, host Alex Bond is joined by Michael Nadel, Global Practice Lead at Simon-Kucher, to unpack how AI is upending pricing and monetization in insurance.In this conversation, Michael shares:✅ Why AI is breaking the traditional per-user-per-month pricing model and forcing carriers and vendors toward outcome-based, value-aligned pricing instead✅ The hard truth that AI speeds things up but doesn't always cut costs ✅ How to manage pricing transitions without alienating existing customers✅ The State Farm AI claims lawsuit as a cautionary tale for deploying customer-facing AI in a regulated industry✅ Why he believes specialized judgment and expertise will remain valuable in consulting, even as AI commoditizes more technical knowledgeIt's a conversation about the gap between perceived value and willingness to pay — and why pricing strategy is really a signal of who you are as a business.

This week, host Alex Bond is joined by Dax Craig, co-founder and CEO of Comeryx — a serial insurance entrepreneur.In this conversation, Dax shares:✅ His journey from a wireless start-up in grad school to founding two prior insurance ventures and why he came back for a third✅ Comeryx's AI-native approach to small commercial insurance, targeting hard-to-place ENS risks through wholesale brokers with no-touch processing from submission to renewal✅ How a five-person team is aiming to deliver the output of 50-75 employees and why profitability matters more to him than growth for growth's sake✅ Why MGA structures beat traditional carriers on speed and innovation and his warning against MGAs drifting into becoming carriers✅ What's really overlooked in small commercial insurance, and where investors are repeating mistakes from the mid-2010sIt's a conversation about building lean, staying disciplined on profitability, and why real distribution expertise still beats hype in Insurtech.