The Leadership in Insurance Podcast - Insurtech & Innovation

In the latest episode, host Alex Bond sits down with Chris Luiz, the founder behind one of Insurtech's most community-driven conferences: the Scout InsurTech event in Columbus, Ohio, which has grown to over 80 startups and nearly 500 attendees this year.

What makes the Scout InsurTech conference different:
🚫 No expo floor, no paid mainstage slots, no junior salespeople filling seats
🤝 Structured networking designed to create real business interactions
🎯 Decision-makers only — the kind of room the bigger Vegas and New York events can't replicate
What else they cover:
💡 The real state of MGA innovation — where VC has pulled back and where opportunity still exists in parametric and embedded insurance
💰 Why a PE-style model might suit MGA builders better than traditional venture capital
🤖 How AI is levelling the playing field between large tech-forward carriers and mid-sized mutuals — and what that means for the next decade

Whether you're building an MGA, thinking about where smart capital should go next, or simply want a front-row seat to where Insurtech is heading, this episode is a genuinely honest conversation from someone who has been at the heart of the community for years.

#LeadershipInInsurance #InsurTech #MGA #AI #Insurance #Podcast #ScoutInsurTech

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This week, host Alex Bond sits down with James Thom, Chief Product Officer at Vertafore, the insurance technology company powering agencies, MGAs, and carriers across the US and Canada.

James brings a fascinating perspective: from consulting at McKinsey to leading product at scale, he's seen first-hand why making the leap from recommendation to real-world implementation changes everything.

In this episode, we get into:

💡 Why AI transformation requires more than piecemeal adoption — and why the companies going all-in are seeing 2x–3x productivity gains
🏗️ How Vertafore's new Velocity AI platform is embedding AI natively into the tools insurers already use every day
🔄 The "human plus" moment — giving every individual a team of AI agents to multiply their impact
⚖️ How regulation shapes product development in a highly governed industry — and why that's not a bad thing
🤝 Why the build vs. buy debate has come roaring back, and how smart operators are thinking about their "secret sauce"

James also opens up about what's kept him at Vertafore for eight years — and it speaks volumes about the community they've built.

Whether you're in insurtech, distribution, or just fascinated by how AI is reshaping industries from the inside out, this one is well worth your time.
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What does it take to make AI work in insurance, not just in a pilot, but in production?

In the latest episode of the Leadership in Insurance Podcast, host Alex Bonds sits down with Kyle, founder of Clearcover and the newly launched Dearborn Labs, for a candid conversation about the realities of AI adoption in the insurance industry.

Kyle brings a rare perspective: a decade of building one of insurance's most tech-forward carriers, and now a mission to bring those hard-won lessons to mid-market insurers everywhere. He shares how Clearcover achieved over 90% of claims intake through AI agents and 93% of policies found digitally - and why getting there was far harder than it looked.

In this episode, Kyle and Alex explore:
🔹 Why traditional AI pilots are "a bridge to nowhere" and what truly embedded implementation looks like instead
🔹 The "last mile problem" holding insurers back from real AI value
🔹 How mid-market carriers and MGAs are being underserved by legacy consulting models
🔹 What it takes to embed AI directly into production workflows, not just bolt it on
🔹 The mindset shift required to move from cost centre to P&L impact

With AI capabilities evolving at unprecedented speed, Kyle's message to the industry is unambiguous: "there's no more time to wait." The technology is ready. The hard part is making it fit the business - and that's exactly what Dearborn Labs was built to solve.

Whether you're a carrier, MGA, or insurance leader trying to cut through the AI noise, this episode is essential listening.
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In the latest episode of the Leadership in Insurance Podcast, host Alex Bond sits down with Kasey Roh, Head of US at Upstage AI, for a conversation that stretches from the lessons of large-scale manufacturing automation to the cutting edge of AI-powered document processing in insurance.

Kasey brings a rare perspective — shaped by hyper-growth stints at Meta and Tesla — to the world of enterprise AI.

She reflects on witnessing Tesla's journey to scale Model 3 production, where the hard-won lesson was clear: attempting to automate before truly understanding every step of the process is a costly mistake. Only by mapping workflows end-to-end with domain experts first did the operation find its footing — a principle she carries directly into how Upstage approaches AI adoption in insurance today.

In this episode, Kasey and Alex explore:
🔹 Why understanding end-to-end workflows is non-negotiable before any automation begins
🔹 How Upstage made the leap from the Korean enterprise market — where it now powers over 60–70% of claims processing — to cracking the US market
🔹 The critical difference between how Asian and North American enterprises buy technology
🔹 Why OCR and LLM technology is transforming underwriting and claims processing, handling the complex "tail end" of documents that traditional systems simply can't
🔹 Whether AI will truly disrupt existing carriers, or whether it's the new AI-native players who will reshape the industry first
Kasey also shares her candid take on AI adoption in insurance: the proof-of-concept phase is ending, and organisations that haven't figured out governance and human oversight are going to struggle in the scale-up.
Whether you're in underwriting, claims, or leading digital transformation at a carrier, this episode is packed with hard-won lessons from someone who has scaled technology at some of the world's most demanding and successful companies.
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What does the future of underwriting look like and how close are we to getting there?

In the latest episode of The Leadership in Insurance Podcast, host Alex Bond sits down with Alex Schmelkin, Founder & CEO of Sixfold, to explore how AI is fundamentally reshaping the underwriting landscape.

Alex Schmelkin shares how Sixfold has evolved from building a helpful assistant for underwriters into developing end-to-end underwriting agents, capable of producing quotes as polished as those from senior underwriters, straight from a broker submission.

The results speak for themselves. One customer cut quote turnaround time by half and increased bind rates by 18% - not by replacing their underwriters, but by freeing them up to do what humans do best: build better relationships and find better risks.

On what's driving Sixfold's success, Schmelkin is clear:

"You can't be all things to all people in this AI world. Develop your killer product and bring it to your customers."

Alex and Alex also dig into the wider market landscape: why so many insurers are stuck in pilot purgatory with multiple AI solutions, and what it actually takes to find best-in-class capabilities that scale globally.

A fascinating conversation for anyone navigating the intersection of AI and insurance

#InsurancePodcast #LeadershipInInsurance #AIUnderwriting #InsurTech #Sixfold #Insurance
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