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Hello. Happy Friday.

Brokers are done for.

SaaS is dead.

Tax-free life in Dubai isn’t all that. For now at least.

One of those is definitely true. Crazy times.

It’s been a busy old couple of weeks.
A lot of Paris. A lot of London.

A great session with the Systems iO crowd.

A bunch of senior folk across carriers, reinsurers, brokers.

Key takeaways:

1. In 10 years, very little has changed. And that’s by design.

2. The business case looks small in isolation. The problem isn’t.

3. Innovation is decentralising. But capability isn’t.

You can read more on that one and see my slides here.

And loved QuanCon26 – Quantexa’s gathering of the great and the good. A pleasure sharing the stage with Alex Johnson and Guidewire’s Federica Pisano.

TL;DA (Too Long; Didn’t Attend? 🤷‍♂️):

AI alone isn’t the advantage anymore. Better data and better decisions are. The leaders are those turning AI into real underwriting and claims outcomes.

Why Incumbents won’t catch up

Daniel Schreiber of Lemonade dropped a very bullish, beautifully written post this week arguing that traditional insurers simply won’t catch AI-native carriers.

And he’s got talent. It’s a very easy read (I dare you not to nod your head as you go).

His argument is simple: incumbents can bolt AI onto legacy systems, but they can’t easily rewire decades of incentives, distribution models and technology stacks.

He even points to GEICO, Allstate and Progressive as examples – highlighting GEICO’s reported 600+ internal systems that don’t really talk to each other. And their seeming lack of desire to do much about it.

Schreiber says the proof shows up in the numbers.

Lemonade claims it’s growing exposure 65% while reducing headcount, with claims costs falling and underwriting precision improving.

Now…there’s truth in the thesis.

But also a little theatre. As you may expect.

Incumbents aren’t ignoring AI. They’re cautious. Ajit Jain at Berkshire Hathaway recently described GEICO’s approach as “wait and see”, and a Munich Re survey suggests many insurers are still holding back meaningful investment until ROI becomes clearer.

The real issue isn’t access to AI.

It’s structure, coordination and incentives.

And those things take a lot longer to change than software.

It’s a great read:

https://www.lemonade.com/blog/why-incumbents-wont-catch-up/

The Rise of Insurance Agents

Agentic AI continues its quiet march into insurance workflows.

This week CoverGo announced a suite of AI agents already live with Tier-1 insurers and brokers.

Their talented founder, Tomas Holub, says they’re focused on three areas insurers spend a huge amount of time on – document processing, customer support and quoting.

The idea is simple: extract data from messy claims documents, answer policy questions instantly and generate quotes automatically. Not just co-pilots but systems actually executing tasks.

Elsewhere Dyna.Ai, the Singapore-based AI-as-a-Service firm, closed an eight-figure Series A to accelerate deployment of its agentic platform across financial services.

Another signal that the race to build vertical AI workers is heating up.

And an interesting one at the other end of the scale. AIG has begun deploying an internal orchestration layer to coordinate multiple AI agents across underwriting and operational workflows.

Different players.

Same direction of travel.

AI is steadily moving from tools to teams.

Unfiltered with Matt & Nige

Now for the really important stuff.

We have a brand name: Unfiltered with Matt & Nige.

Yet still very little idea where it’s heading.

What I do know is that I’m loving catching up with Nigel Walsh each week and talking about everything under the sun.

Family chat.
Travel chat.
Fitness chat.
And the occasional bit of insurance and innovation.

It genuinely feels like a weekly call between two mates that just happens to be recorded and shared with the world.

Have a listen:

https://unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com/podcasthttps://open.substack.com/pub/unfilteredoptimism/p/unfiltered-with-matt-and-nige

Better still, get involved.

Once we find our rhythm we’ll start inviting people on. If you’d like to join us, or there’s someone you’d love to hear from, let us know.

And subscribe. That’d definitely help too.

Specialty gets Bigger

Big move in the specialty world.

Zurich has agreed to acquire Beazley in an £8.1bn ($10.8bn) all-cash deal, bringing together two highly complementary specialty businesses and creating a much bigger global platform in the process.

Expect this to strengthen Zurich’s position significantly across cyber, specialty liability and complex risk lines.

Staying in the specialty lane – Lloyd’s coverholder Testudo has secured additional underwriting support from Atrium and QBE for its generative AI liability product.

Given how quickly companies are deploying AI systems, and the legal uncertainty that comes with them, this feels like a line of coverage that’s going to grow very quickly.

Nassau’s Two Very Different Bets

Always interesting seeing where insurers place their startup bets.

This week Nassau Financial invested in two companies through its Reimagine programme.

First up is Quorus – a tech-driven asset manager helping advisors deliver personalised portfolios at scale. The second is Kadance, a genomics-based health platform helping individuals access personalised health insights – starting with cancer risk and pharmacogenomics.

Two very different companies.

But both sitting right at the intersection of insurance, data and personalised financial outcomes.

Fixing the Messy World of Life Distribution

Anyone who’s spent time around life insurance distribution will know how fragmented it is.

Emails. PDFs. Spreadsheets. Underwriting notes living in someone’s head.

Modern Life thinks AI can clean that up.

Michael Konialian and his team has launched a platform embedding AI across quoting, underwriting, planning and operations. Essentially creating a workflow engine designed specifically for life advisors.

Nice.

The aim isn’t to replace the advisor. It’s to remove the admin overhead that slows it all down. If it works, it could modernise one of the most operationally complex parts of the industry.

European Fintechs Head Back to America

The US is back on the radar for European fintechs.

Revolut has officially applied for a US banking licence, while Starling Bank has been exploring a similar move since mid-2025.

It’s a notable shift.

Monzo abandoned its US expansion back in 2021 after it became clear regulators weren’t keen on approving a local licence. But the political and regulatory environment has changed under Trump. And with that, the door may finally be opening.

Right, on that note, I gotta wrap up.

It’s Insurtech Insights the week after next. We’re hosting a Sønr client dinner on Wed 18th – invites will be landing on Monday. It’ll be good to see a few friendly faces there. If you are in town and read this, let me know.

Our Managing Partner, Matt Ferguson, is up on stage so be sure to attend that one.

Looks like a pretty good, pretty senior claims crew.

Should make for a great conversation.

That’s me done. I’m planning a big old US trip at the end of the month.

Keen to check-in with a few clients across New York, Hartford and Montreal. And to drop in to InsurtechNY Spring Conference and the Insurtech America Symposium 2026.

Again, shout if you’re about and fancy a catch up.

Until next time. Big love.

Matt

Make smarter decisions with AI-driven market intelligence.

Sønr helps (re)insurers around the world explore market trends, track competitor activity, and scout and assess best-in-class tech companies.