In this episode, Matthew Grant and Robin Merttens hit the 400-episode mark and ask a slightly uncomfortable question: after all these conversations, are we still human or just very convincing AI? 

What follows is a sharp, unscripted reflection on how the industry has evolved from early insurtech scepticism to today’s surge of enthusiasm around generative AI. But beneath the milestone moment is a more interesting story, how insurance has shifted from resisting technology to almost over-embracing it, and what happens next when the tools are no longer the problem. 

Drawing on years at the centre of the market’s innovation community, Matthew and Robin explore the move from experimentation to execution, why “grown-up AI” is now the real challenge and where genuine commercial value is starting to emerge.  

In this conversation, Matthew and Robin share: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant or Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Martha Dreiling, Co-founder and President of Reserv, to explore how AI is actually transforming claims, and why the biggest breakthroughs are happening in places most people overlook. 

With a background spanning FinTech, InsurTech and risk analytics, Martha brings a practical perspective on how data and technology can improve decision-making, not just automate existing processes. At Reserv, she’s helping build a claims model that combines operational efficiency with quality, while challenging long-standing assumptions about how claims should be handled and paid for. 

In this conversation, Martha shares: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

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In this episode, Matthew Grant is joined by Richard Louden, Partner (Indirect Tax Financial Services) at KPMG, and Candy Staples, Director (Innovation Reliefs and Incentives), to explore a topic that many insurance and InsurTech businesses underestimate until it becomes expensive: tax. 

While tax is often viewed as a back-office concern for finance teams, it can have a significant strategic impact on how insurance businesses operate, scale and ultimately exit. From the complexities of VAT and Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) to the opportunities created by R&D tax incentives and the Patent Box regime, the conversation highlights both the risks of getting tax wrong and the upside of approaching it proactively. 

Richard brings more than two decades of experience advising insurers and intermediaries on indirect tax. He explains why VAT behaves differently in insurance compared with most industries, and why misunderstandings around exemptions, commissions and international services regularly create costly problems for growing businesses. 

Candy focuses on the more positive side of the equation: how innovation incentives can help companies recover the cost of developing new technology. For InsurTech firms investing heavily in product development, these incentives can represent a meaningful source of funding and cash flow if captured correctly. 

At the heart of the discussion is a simple message: tax is not just about compliance. Managed properly, it can influence profitability, operational efficiency and investment decisions across the insurance value chain. 

In this conversation, Richard and Candy share: 

KPMG are also hosting post-ITI drinks in London with Insurtech UK to navigate the headwinds of today's economic and regulatory challenges facing insurers and insurtechs alike over cocktails, food and conversation. Click here to register your interest: https://insurtechuk.org/events/0319-one-last-stop-from-headwinds-to-happy-hour/ 

Additionally KPMG Actuarial have released a white paper on Smarter Pricing, Smarter Insurance. How integrated data, AI and governance transform underwriting and growth. Download to read here: https://m.marketing.kpmg.uk/webApp/Smarter_pricing_Smarter_insurance_whitepaper 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. 

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In this episode, Robin Merttens moderates a panel with Tessa Wardle of QBE, Emily Stanford of Gallagher and Jonathan Spry of Envelop Risk, recorded live at the InsTech London event Some lead, others follow: Smart underwriting and broking strategies for 2026. 

As algorithmic underwriting and portfolio solutions reshape the London Market, insurers, brokers and reinsurers are rethinking how risk is placed, followed and managed at scale. Facilities are multiplying, digital trading models are emerging and data is becoming the foundation of increasingly automated underwriting decisions. 

Drawing on perspectives from underwriting, broking and reinsurance, the panel explores what portfolio underwriting really looks like in practice today. They discuss how facilities are evolving, why broker strategies are changing and what it takes to run sustainable portfolio capacity in a market that is becoming more digital and more data-driven.  

At the centre of the discussion is a growing tension between ambition and infrastructure. The market wants faster placement, smarter capital allocation and more algorithmic decision-making, yet many firms are still wrestling with fragmented data, legacy systems and inconsistent standards. 

In this conversation, Tessa, Emily and Jonathan share: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

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In this episode, Matthew Grant sits down with Nicola Turner and Alex Ley, co-founders of Scrub AI, to explore one of the most pressing strategic questions facing insurers today: Build vs Buy in the age of generative AI. 

Five years into building an AI-driven data cleansing platform for carriers and brokers, Nicola and Alex have seen the market shift from scepticism to urgency. Boardrooms are now asking how AI is being embedded into underwriting workflows, and whether those capabilities should be developed internally or sourced from specialists. 

Drawing on their experience building deterministic AI models for exposure data and catastrophe modelling, they offer a grounded perspective on what works, what breaks and where the real risks sit. 

At the heart of the discussion is a simple truth: getting to 80% is easy. Getting the final 20% right is where strategy, domain expertise and long-term thinking matter most. 

In this conversation, Nicola and Alex share: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. 

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In this episode, Robin Merttens sits down with Frank Perkins, CEO and Co-founder of inari, to explore what it really takes to build and scale a modern MGA in 2026. 

From founding an insurance business himself to leading a technology company serving specialist MGAs across Europe, Frank brings a rare dual perspective. He understands both the pressure of getting premium through the door and the responsibility of building systems that underwriters actually want to use. 

As private equity capital accelerates into the sector and niche, digital-first MGAs proliferate across continental Europe, the conversation turns to speed, integration and the quiet evolution of the underwriting workbench. 

In this conversation, Frank shares: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

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In this episode, we bring you a live panel from InsTech’s May event at CodeNode, exploring how automation is reshaping claims in the Lloyd’s and London market — and why the belief that specialty is too complex to automate no longer stands. 

Moderated by Matthew Grant, CEO of InsTech, the panel features Simon White, Chief Claims Officer at Apollo, Aidan O’Neill, Founder and CEO of DOCOsoft, and Zoe Woods, Claims Improvement Manager at Lloyd’s. 

Specialty claims have long been viewed as too bespoke, too nuanced and too reliant on human judgement for automation to play a meaningful role. But as underwriting becomes algorithmic and distribution turns digital, claims can no longer lag behind. 

This conversation moves beyond theory to evidence. Automation is already embedded in live workflows across the market. The firms adopting early are seeing measurable operational gains. 

In this conversation, they share: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. 

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What actually makes automated and enhanced underwriting work in practice? 

In this episode, three early movers in automated underwriting share hard-earned lessons from building digital underwriting propositions that have survived real market cycles. Rather than theory or hype, this conversation digs into where technology genuinely creates advantage, where it does not, and how underwriting judgement remains central even in highly algorithmic models. 

Drawing on experience across cyber, US property and digital facilities, the panel explores why complexity, not commoditisation, is often where automation delivers the greatest edge. From AI-driven cyber underwriting to high-cat surplus lines property and digitally distributed specialty products, each speaker explains how they chose their focus and what they learned along the way. 

Key themes include the role of data discipline in sustaining AI-led underwriting, why platform design matters more than speed to market, and how underwriters’ roles are shifting from generalists to specialists embedded in algorithmic decision making. The discussion also tackles unstructured data, submission quality and why “no data, no deal” may become a defining principle of future underwriting models. 

What you’ll learn in this episode: 

Featuring perspectives from Marek Shafer of Vave, Tom Squires of AEGIS London and Jonathan Spry of Envelop Risk, moderated by Matthew Grant of InsTech. 

You can also watch the video version of this panel here. 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Matthew Grant on LinkedIn. 

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What happens when AI meets the backbone of the insurance industry - policy administration systems? In this episode, Liselotte Munk, CEO of Fadata, joins Robin Merttens to unpack how artificial intelligence is reshaping the software layer of insurance. 

With candid insights into Fadata’s AI strategy, Liselotte reveals how the company is using AI to accelerate software development and reduce implementation costs while improving quality. She tackles the big question: will AI make policy admin systems obsolete? Her answer offers a pragmatic view on cost, complexity, compliance and collaboration. 

In this conversation, Liselotte shares: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

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In this episode, Robin Merttens is joined by Tobi Schneider, Sector Engagement Lead for Financial Services & FinTech at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, to unpack one of the most ambitious research initiatives currently shaping the future of AI risk in insurance. Backed by UKRI and developed in collaboration with AXA Group and three leading universities, the project aims to build a foundational blueprint for how insurers can understand, audit and underwrite emerging AI risks. 

Tobi shares why the shift from traditional to generative and agentic AI has outpaced current risk frameworks, leaving insurers exposed to risks that are poorly defined, difficult to monitor and impossible to price using historic loss data. He explains how his team is exploring dynamic underwriting models, parametric solutions and novel assurance techniques like LLM-based judges and automated red teaming, all with the goal of enabling safer, more accountable AI adoption. 

Ahead of the Agentic AI Half Day event, hosted in collaboration with AI Risk, Tobi Schneider and Lukasz Szpruch wrote an article The New Frontier: Managing and insuring generative and agentic AI risks, further exploring this topic.  

In this conversation, Tobi shares: 

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn. 

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