The Leadership in Insurance Podcast - Insurtech & Innovation

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This week on The Leadership In Insurance Podcast podcast, I had a brilliant conversation with Rohit Mittal, all about just that. We covered why he chose to buy and operate an insurance tech company and how he’s helping agents reclaim their time and boost productivity through AI.Here’s a few highlights from what we covered...⚙️ “From 45 minutes to 5 minutes” – Solving the data bottleneck with AI Rohit explained how InsurGrid uses AI to extract declaration pages and policy data by connecting directly to carrier websites. 🏢 Tech lags in insurance—and it’s costing us I shared my own frustration of being sent a fillable PDF by a large broker, which sparked a discussion on the gap between modern digital expectations and outdated insurance workflows. “We have self-driving cars,” Rohit noted, “but insurance still runs on paper.”🤝 Equipping small agencies to compete—with a personal touchRohit emphasized that InsurGrid helps smaller, independent agents offer a tech-enabled experience without sacrificing human relationships. “It’s not about removing people from the process—it’s about removing the repetitive tasks,” he said.🧠 Why Rohit chose operating over investing“I didn’t want to just deploy capital. I wanted to build,” he said. We touch on the serial founder mindset and much more... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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This week I was joined by Grace Hanson, CEO of Elysian, who’s on a mission to fix one of the most overlooked parts of insurance: claims handling.“People underestimate how much profit lives in the claims department — and how much value is wasted when it’s not run well,”Grace calls Elysian an AI-native outsourced claims service — but what that really means is her team uses their own technology to handle commercial claims better than traditional models allow. Faster answers. Better data. Fewer inconsistencies. All designed by people who’ve actually sat in the adjuster’s chair.Some highlights from our chat...📚 From Courtrooms to Claims:Grace shared how she went from practicing law to leading claims teams — a move she made after having a baby and realizing, “I needed balance — but I also needed work that challenged me.” Turns out the strategic, big-picture thinking she honed as a lawyer was exactly what complex claims needed.📊 Claims: Insurance’s Hidden Profit Engine:We talked about why claims teams rarely get the spotlight — despite being the lever for an insurer’s profit and reputation. As Grace put it, “If you don’t run claims well, you don’t make money. Full stop.”🤖 What AI Actually Fixes:Grace told a great story about her time at Homeside — rolling out AI and machine learning to detect fraud and speed up everyday decisions. “You can’t fix just one piece. If the rest of the process is clunky, the tech is wasted,” she said.⚙️ Why Elysian Exists:How five years of tech advancements made Grace’s vision of an AI-native claims solution finally possible — and why now is the time to fix an industry pain point that’s too costly to ignore.🔥 Protecting People, Not Just Automating Jobs:Why better tech should empower adjusters to focus on high-value work — and how Grace’s team is tackling burnout by design. I loved Grace’s honesty when she said, “Adjusters burn out because they’re stuck doing repetitive tasks — our tech frees them up to do the hard thinking, the negotiation, the human work that actually matters.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I was joined this week by Murtaza Ali, CEO & Co-Founder of Symphony (YC F24), for a conversation about how he’s tackling some of the biggest challenges in the insurance industry with cutting-edge voice AI — without losing sight of the human touch.A bit of context: Murtaza’s journey insurtech journey started at McKinsey before joining Tractable to build out their platform. He’s seen firsthand how AI can transform industries — but also where it can fall short without humanity in the loop. That insight became the driving force behind Symphony AI.What we covered in this episode: 🔍 From Tractable to Symphony: Why Murtaza left a leading AI scale-up to build his own YC-backed startup focused on the insurance sector. 🧑‍💼 The insurance industry’s talent gap: How Symphony AI is tackling high turnover and lengthy onboarding by using voice AI to simulate real-world claim calls. 🎭 AI-powered role-play: How claims adjusters practice tough conversations with AI personas — from handling a frustrated customer to delivering empathetic responses during stressful moments. 💡 Humanity in the loop: Why empathy will always be a competitive edge — and how AI can enhance it, not replace it. 🔄 AI adoption in traditional industries: The importance of messaging AI tools as training allies — not threats to jobs. 🚀 Insights from Y Combinator: How YC’s “make something people want” mantra helped shape Symphony’s roadmap — and what other founders can learn from it. 🔮 The future of claims handling: How automation may shift claims adjusters into project manager roles, overseeing AI agents while focusing on complex cases that demand human understanding.My key takeaway? Tech is powerful — but putting people first is what makes it stick. Symphony’s approach is a great reminder that the best AI solutions augment human skills, they don’t replace them.We've also got to give a special shout out to the I Love Claims team - and a huge congratulations to Murtaza and his co-founder Shobhit Srivastava for winning their pitch competition! We work with the ILC team every year to help them scout the latest in claims innovation and we're so glad that we were able to put these masterminds together! Sue Whyte Jonathon Valentine Mark Hadaway mbaIf you work in insurance, customer experience, AI, or just want to hear how real startups navigate AI hype vs. real-world impact — give this one a listen. 💬 I’d love to hear your thoughts — where do you see the balance between AI and the human touch going next? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm excited to share this week's conversation on The Leadership In Insurance Podcast with no other than JP Fabri, CEO of myUbuntu all about transforming agricultural insurance in Africa 🌱🎙️ Tune into the episode: "From Risk to Resilience: Empowering Africa's Smallholder Farmers"We discuss a whole host of topics, here are some of the highlights... 👇 📌 JP's mission of targeting 200+ million smallholder farmers most vulnerable to climate change and their ambitious goal got insure 20 million farmers within 10 years ✨ 📌Their journey developing parametric insurance products with blockchain-powered technology platform designed to scale📌 We look at their unique distribution approaches: partnering with agricultural cooperatives and banks, engaging through religious organizations like Catholic parishes, leveraging mobile wallet technologies for rapid fund transfer and simplifying insurance concepts for farmers unfamiliar with traditional models📌 How to focus on mission-driven impact: helping farmers maintain economic stability during climate events, enabling children to stay in school during crop failures, providing immediate financial resilience and transforming agricultural risk managementThank you JP for joining me for this one - a powerful narrative of how technology, empathy, and innovative thinking can create meaningful social change in the insurance industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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🏠 Unlocking the Future of Short-Term Rental Insurance with Safely's CEO Andrew Bate Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Tune into our latest episode of The Leadership In Insurance Podcast Podcast, where I was joined Rory Pyke at Insurtech Insights, to unpack the real state of innovation in insurance.👉 We discuss the truth about AI in insurance - separating hype from real innovation and how InsurTech Insights is catalysing industry transformation👉Upcoming event insights, including a keynote by chess legend Gary Kasparov and the critical role of events in connecting industry innovators👉 Challenges of qualifying genuine tech solutions vs. "AI cowboys" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.