Hasani Jess, Group CTO at Aventum, joins James and Ian to talk about what it really takes to build technology that works in the real world.

This isn’t a conversation about buzzwords. It’s about engineering empathy into systems, designing platforms that simplify complexity, and leading people through the messy reality of change.

In his role as the architect of Atomx – Aventum’s proprietary tech suite – Hasani is spearheading one of the largest tech transformations in the London insurance market. In this episode, he opens up about what makes great technology actually useful, why most AI implementations fail, and how to bring people with you when everything is changing.

From early beginnings with a typewriter in Hackney to running a 140-person tech team, Hasani shares deep insight into culture, leadership, and the power of integrity when building at scale.

Listen as we discuss…

(02:11) Early career and falling in love with tech

(08:42) What he walked into at Aventum – and what excited him

(10:48) Building Atomx from scratch – and why it had to be end-to-end

(14:00) Modernising underwriting without alienating people

(17:12) How to do change management well 

(18:07) The real opportunity: distribution, not just efficiency

(21:00) Turning submission data into portfolio insight

(23:00) Why email is still the MVP - and how they made it work

(25:11) Apple-inspired design for a complex world

(27:06) What UX errors reveal - and how to fix them

(28:08) The AI hype cycle - and why chatbots aren’t the answer

(30:00) Real AI impact comes from workflow integration

(33:04) How to future-proof your architecture

(36:00) What great looks like in 5 years: tripling growth, scaling clients

(39:27) Leading people through tech change with empathy

(44:00) Culture non-negotiables: trust, integrity, and representation

(47:07) Why they deliberately hired non-insurance people

(48:17) Visual transformation: why wireframes beat Word docs

(52:00) Final reflections on self-awareness and what he’d tell his day-one self

(55:00) Hasani’s dream lunch guest and where they’d go

KEY INSIGHTS

Good tech isn’t built in isolation – it’s built with empathy

Most transformation fails because people weren’t brought with it

If you want people to change, start by earning their trust

Efficiency isn’t the end goal – growth is

AI only works when it’s part of the workflow, not stuck on top of it
GUEST

Hasani Jess, Group CTO, Aventum

Follow Hasani on LinkedIn