NashTech AI-native insurance executive briefing

The NashTech AI-native insurance executive briefing, delivered in collaboration with Who2Global, focused on the transition from simple generative AI to agentic AI, exploring how this shift will redefine insurance, search and consumer trust. The event combined high-level strategic vision with practical implementation frameworks for the insurance industry.

Ben Harvey, NashTech Insurance Client Director and Mark Hankin, NashTech Insurance Technical Director, provided an overview of current market conditions, noting the increasing speed of both insurance and technology cycles, which means flexibility and good governance are paramount. They noted that whilst the industry is entering a soft market, insurers do so with strong balance sheets, with further capital freed up by Solvency II, which gives organisations greater capacity to invest. They finished by summarising the benefits available from technology, from parametric insurance policies through to increased internal capacity and better consumer experience.

Attendees responded with several key interests, including ‘moving fast without breaking things’, plus initiatives such as fraud tracking, faster reporting and improving the customer journey through claims processing efficiencies.

Chris Weston from NashTech’s Advisory team shifted the focus to the boardroom, addressing the significant gap between the 74% of insurers running pilots and only 7% that have scaled them. He highlighted the ‘blast radius’ of mistakes and errors, noting that if computers are making autonomous decisions, the resulting liabilities and reputational risks reach the board level almost instantly. Chris stressed that for a proposal to be ‘board-ready’, it must include a named human accountable for every material automated decision to manage this risk appetite and ensure regulatory standing.

The presentation by CDL’s CEO, Nigel Phillips, was delivered with irrepressible enthusiasm and deep industry knowledge, as he declared that the era of traditional ‘prompt and response’ AI is already being replaced by autonomous agents. Nigel argued that “search is losing the click" as AI begins to provide answers directly and he envisioned a future where consumers use personal agents to manage their entire "protection estate". He emphasised that these agents do not just advise but perform the work, such as reformatting documents or continuously monitoring policy coverage for gaps.

NashTech’s Senior Technical Advisor, Thomas Pointer, provided a practical roadmap for implementation, detailing how NashTech had helped an Australian insurance platform turn AI ambition into executable outcomes through a four-phase approach: discovery, foundations, adoption and maturity. He identified high-impact use cases such as Smart PDS comparison, renewal automation and advice document validation, which can lead to a 50% reduction in time across core servicing activities.

The approach was to offer a safe playground to experiment with AI inside their environment, with two different tracks: AI-first pilots to be trained with the support of BPO teams for smaller use cases and NashTech integrating AI into mission-critical processes. His presentation advocated for a platform-led approach to keep sensitive data within the business's own environment.

The animated conversations during and after the event were a sure sign that the audience had their assumptions challenged and many gave great feedback on the speakers.

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