Beyond Boundaries Series

Welcome back to Beyond Boundaries Series by Sønr.

This one is for the startups, vendors and tech providers trying to sell into insurance.

Because having great technology is one thing.

Getting insurers to understand it, trust it and actually buy it?

Very different game.

In this episode, Matt Connolly speaks with Meredith Barnes-Cook from Datos Insights, recorded at InsurTech America Symposium.

Meredith brings a proper “both sides of the table” view.

She has worked inside a major carrier.

She has worked in and around technology, operations and transformation.

She has been inside an AI startup.

And now, through Datos Insights, she works across carriers, MGAs, brokers, technology providers and startups.

So the conversation gets into the bit that is often missed.

Not the shiny demo.

Not the big AI promise.

The reality of selling into insurance.

The complexity.

The relationships.

The references.

The change management.

And the fact that insurance does not buy technology for technology’s sake.

It buys solutions to problems that matter.

In this episode, Meredith and Matt explore:

• What startups often misunderstand about insurance buyers• Why tier-one carriers are harder to navigate than they look• Why smaller logos can still build serious credibility• Why informal reference conversations matter so much• Why AI transformation is really a people conversation• Why vendors need to act like strategic partners, not just providers

A practical and very human conversation on what it really takes to build trust, sell well and drive change in insurance.

Read the full article on the Sønr website here!

Listen to the episode here on Substack, or follow the Beyond Boundaries Series by Sønr on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for more episodes on the go.

- Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dr8wqjCC

- Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/dVAxcG6E

Subscribe now for more Beyond Boundaries Series episodes.

A risk recommendation in a PDF can be useful.

But seeing the potential loss play out in your own environment?

That is a bit harder to ignore.

In this episode of the Beyond Boundaries Series by Sønr, Matt Ferguson, Managing Partner at Sønr, speaks with Matthew Day, Global Head of Risk Engineering & Loss Prevention at Generali Global Corporate & Commercial (GC&C), live from ITC Europe in Barcelona.

The conversation explores Generali GC&C’s MetaRELP project and how immersive technology is being used to support risk engineering, loss prevention and client resilience.

And the use cases are very practical.

Augmented reality to help clients visualise potential losses inside their own environments.

Virtual reality to support the training and development of risk engineers across Generali GC&C’s global team.

Because risk engineering has always been about helping clients prevent losses before they happen.

Traditionally, that means visiting a site, identifying hazards, issuing recommendations and sharing them in a written report.

The challenge is that a recommendation in a PDF does not always make the potential loss feel real.

MetaRELP changes that.

Clients can wear the glasses inside their own environments and see how a potential loss could occur.

The recommendation becomes more visible.

More tangible.

And, hopefully, more likely to be acted on.

The business case is clear too.

As Matthew explains, one recommendation can save millions of euros.

So recommendation completion is not only valuable for Generali GC&C.

It matters for the broker.

It matters for the client.

And it matters for resilience.

The second part of the project focuses on training.

Risk engineers need experience across different occupancies, hazards and scenarios.

But not every engineer can see every type of risk early in their career.

Virtual reality creates another route.

A way to build experience.

A way to support learning.

And a way to scale expertise across a global team.

In this episode, we cover:

* How Generali GC&C is using augmented reality in risk engineering

* Why visualising potential losses can improve client awareness

* How MetaRELP is helping bring recommendations to life

* Why recommendation completion matters for insurers, brokers and clients

* How virtual reality can support risk engineer training

* What it looks like when immersive technology moves from pilot to scale

Big picture: this is not technology replacing expertise.

It is technology helping expertise land better.

Helping clients understand risk more clearly.

Helping teams build capability for the future.

And helping loss prevention become more practical, visual and scalable.

Want to go deeper?

Read the full article on the Sønr website here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-how-generali-global-corporate-commercial-is-scaling-immersive-technology-across-risk-engineering/

Explore the full Beyond Boundaries 2025 report here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

📧 Want to get involved? Reach out at [email protected]

Some Beyond Boundaries conversations happen in a studio. Some happen on a video call.

And some are at the end of a very busy few days in Barcelona, just before heading to the airport.

In this episode of the Beyond Boundaries Series, Matt Connolly, CEO & Founder of Sønr, speaks with Ian Carpenter, Portfolio Director for ITC Europe & ITC London, just after the close of ITC Europe.

It was short.It was slightly rushed.But it captured the energy of the event nicely.

650 people.32 countries.

Three days of meetings, demos, roundtables, workshops and conversations.

A new city.A new venue.

And, from our side, one of the strongest European insurance innovation events we have been to in a while.

Ian talks about what made this year’s event work, including the move to Barcelona, the value of closed-door conversations, and the Challenge Lab format, which brought early-stage insurtechs together to respond to a live industry challenge in partnership with Generali.

For Sønr, ITC Europe was another chance to do what Beyond Boundaries is built for.

Getting into the rooms.Following the signal.Speaking to the people building what comes next.

In this episode, we cover:

* What made ITC Europe in Barcelona stand out

* Why roundtables and workshops are creating better conversations

* How the Challenge Lab format worked

* What comes next for ITC Europe

* Why events still matter when they are built around real connection

Want to go deeper?

Read the full article on the Sønr website:

https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-inside-itc-europe-2026-with-ian-carpenter/

Explore the Beyond Boundaries 2025 report here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

Somewhere in the heart of insurance land, with the Lloyd’s building just behind us, Matt Ferguson sat down with Tom Graham, Head of Innovation & Partnership at Chaucer.

And the conversation went straight into one of the big questions behind Beyond Boundaries:

What does innovation actually look like when it becomes part of the business?

Not the shiny version.

Not the “look at our new ideas” version.

The practical version.

The underwriting version.

The version where you have to understand the risk, build the product, work with the right partners, navigate distribution, and accept that there is rarely a perfect answer when you are dealing with something new.

Tom brings more than 25 years of underwriting experience to the conversation, which makes his perspective especially useful. He is not talking about innovation as something separate from the market. He is talking about it as part of how Chaucer thinks about emerging risks, changing client needs and the future of insurance products.

In the episode, Tom and Matt discuss how Chaucer has embedded innovation within the underwriting function, why the team works closely with other parts of the business, and why good innovation starts with a real problem.

Not a “funky solution” looking for somewhere to land.

They also get into one of the harder bits of insurance innovation: distribution.

Because building a new product is one thing.

Getting it into the market, at the right time, with the right partners, and with clients who are actually ready to buy it, is another thing entirely.

And then there is AI.

Tom gives a grounded view on where AI and data can help insurers work smarter, model better and improve processes, while also reminding us that underwriting judgement still matters, especially when a risk has never really existed before.

Because if something is genuinely new, the data will not always have the answer waiting neatly in the corner.

That is what makes this conversation interesting.

It is not innovation as theatre.

It is innovation as capability.

A permanent, practical part of how insurers respond to a changing world.

In this episode, we cover:

* How Chaucer has structured innovation inside underwriting

* Why curiosity and commercial discipline both matter

* Why the best ideas start with real customer problems

* How partnerships help bring new products to life

* Why distribution is often the hardest part of innovation

* What Tom is watching across AI, data, climate, supply chains, transition risk and market structure

Want to go deeper?

Read the full article on the Sønr website: https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-from-reinsurance-to-reinvention-chaucers-innovation-playbook/

Explore the Beyond Boundaries 2025 report here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

Some innovation stories start with a big concept.

This one started with the metaverse.

Which, to be fair, has had its fair share of hype.

But the interesting part of this Beyond Boundaries episode is what happened next.

In this episode of the Beyond Boundaries Series by Sønr, Matt Ferguson, Managing Partner at Sønr, speaks with Adrián Díaz de Ilarraza, Head of Mid Corporate, Generali Global Corporate & Commercial (GC&C) Iberia & LatAm, live from ITC Europe in Barcelona.

The conversation follows Generali GC&C’s journey from early metaverse thinking to a practical innovation project using virtual and augmented reality in risk engineering.

And the use cases are very clear.

Virtual reality to train risk engineers.

Augmented reality to help clients visualise potential losses inside their own environments.

Because risk engineering has always been about helping clients prevent losses before they happen.

But traditional approaches have limits.

A risk engineer visits a site.

They identify hazards.

They prepare a report.

The client receives a PDF.

And sometimes, that PDF ends up sitting in a folder.

Useful, yes.

But not always felt.

That is where augmented reality becomes interesting.

Instead of only explaining how a claim could happen, Generali GC&C can show it in the client’s own environment.

The risk becomes visible.

The recommendation becomes more tangible.

And prevention becomes easier to understand and act on.

The same logic applies to training.

Senior risk engineers hold deep knowledge, but training junior engineers across different sites, locations and risk environments takes time and resource.

Virtual reality creates another route.

A way to bring risk scenarios into a training environment.

A way to make learning more consistent.

And a way to scale expertise without removing the people who make that expertise valuable.

In this episode, we cover:

* How Generali GC&C moved from metaverse concept to working risk engineering solution

* Why VR and AR are being used for two very practical use cases

* How immersive technology can support risk engineer training

* How augmented reality can help clients better understand potential losses

* Why collaboration across internal teams, innovation funding and external partners matters

* What it takes to move from experimentation to a broader global project

Big picture: this is innovation doing what it should do.

Not replacing expertise.

Not chasing novelty.

Not building a shiny tool for the sake of it.

But making risk easier to see, understand and prevent.

Want to go deeper?

Read the full article on the Sønr website here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-transforming-loss-prevention-from-metaverse-concept-to-reality/

Explore the full Beyond Boundaries 2025 report here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

📧 Want to get involved? Reach out at [email protected]

Claims is one of the places where AI feels very real.

Not in a vague, shiny, “the future is coming” way.

In a practical way.

The admin.

The repeated tasks.

The information gathering.

The unstructured data sitting across the business.

The legacy systems that still need to be worked around.

In this episode of the Beyond Boundaries Series by Sønr, Matt Ferguson, Managing Partner at Sønr, speaks with Remko Voorzaat, Director of Claims Operations & Management at MSIG Europe, live from ITC Europe in Barcelona.

The conversation explores what it actually takes to prepare claims operations for an AI-driven future.

And Remko’s view is refreshingly grounded.

This is not about automating for the sake of it.

It is about removing the work that slows claims teams down, unlocking better use of data, and giving people more time to focus on the areas where human judgement, expertise and client support matter most.

Because for established insurers, the challenge is not just choosing the next tool.

It is working with legacy systems.

Improving the foundations.

Moving fast enough to keep up with change.

And building something flexible enough to adapt as the technology continues to evolve.

One of the strongest ideas in the conversation is orchestration.

The future may not be one giant platform that does everything.

It may be more specific tools, connected properly, with an orchestration layer helping the whole claims operation work better.

In this episode, we cover:

* How MSIG Europe is thinking about AI in claims

* Why legacy systems and data challenges still matter

* How AI can remove tedious, low-value work

* Why unstructured data holds significant potential

* What orchestration could mean for claims operations

* How claims knowledge can support underwriting, risk engineering and loss prevention

This is a practical conversation about AI as an operating question.

How do you help people do better work?

How do you free up capacity?

And how do you build claims operations that can keep moving as the technology changes?

Want to go deeper?

Read the full article on the Sønr website here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-msig-europe-preparing-claims-for-an-ai-driven-future/

Explore the full Beyond Boundaries 2025 report here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

📧 Want to get involved? Reach out at [email protected]

Insurance innovation is easy to talk about.

Much harder to turn into something real.

In this episode of the Beyond Boundaries Series by Sønr, Matt Ferguson, Managing Partner at Sønr, speaks with Iryna Chekanava, Senior Innovation Underwriter at Chaucer, about what it actually takes to move from opportunity to execution.

Iryna’s role sits at the intersection of emerging risk, partnerships and product creation.

Which means the question is not just whether a startup, insurtech or idea is interesting.

It is whether it can become something useful.

Something relevant to a real customer problem.

Something with a market.

Something that can be underwritten.

And, ultimately, something that can become an insurance product.

In the conversation, Iryna shares how Chaucer thinks about future profit pools, what the team looks for in potential partners, and why useful data, technology, market access and strong teams all matter.

She also talks about the realities that can slow innovation down.

Insurance timelines.

Regulation.

Value-chain complexity.

The need for underwriting expertise at the right moment.

And the simple truth that a pitch deck alone is not enough.

The episode also looks at where Chaucer is exploring new areas of risk, including AI liability, carbon credits, trade secrets and energy transition.

Big picture: insurance innovation is maturing.

Less noise.

Less theatre.

More focus on execution, commercial relevance and solving real customer problems.

Or, in Iryna’s words, less talking and more doing.

In this episode, we cover:

* What Chaucer looks for in an innovation partner

* Why product creation sits at the heart of innovation

* How partnerships can help test future profit pools

* Why startups need to understand insurance timelines

* Where emerging risks such as AI liability and energy transition fit in

* Why the next phase of innovation is about execution

Want to read more?

Read the full article on the Sønr website here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-partnerships-product-progress-chaucers-innovation-playbook/

Explore the full Beyond Boundaries 2025 report here:https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

📧 Want to learn more about Beyond Boundaries? Reach out at [email protected]

AI in claims is often framed as an automation story.

But Daniella de Lint takes a more thoughtful view.

In this Beyond Boundaries episode, Matt Ferguson, Managing Partner at Sønr, speaks with Daniella de Lint, Chief Claims Officer at MSIG Europe, live from ITC Europe in Barcelona.

The conversation explores how MSIG Europe is thinking about agentic AI, claims transformation and the role of human expertise in specialty insurance.

Because while there is a clear opportunity to reduce friction in claims, from first notification of loss to document handling, policy checks and straight-through processing, the human element still matters.

Especially in complex claims.

The sensitive ones.The relationship-led ones.The ones that require judgement, empathy and context.

Daniella also raises an important leadership challenge.

If AI removes more of the repetitive work, claims teams may be left with a higher concentration of complex and emotionally demanding cases.

That means the AI conversation cannot just be about efficiency.

It also needs to be about skills, workforce planning, mental health and how people are supported as the nature of work changes.

A thoughtful conversation about agentic AI, claims and the future of human expertise in insurance.

Not replacing people.

Helping them focus on where they matter most.

📖 Read more on the Sønr website: https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-msig-europe-balancing-agentic-ai-with-human-expertise/

📘 Explore the full Beyond Boundaries report → https://sonr.global/beyond-boundaries-2025/

📧 Want to learn more about Beyond Boundaries? Reach out at [email protected]