SpEp Will Ross, CEO Federato: Respecting the Problem of Insurance

Today’s podcast is a rare encounter with someone looking to revolutionise the insurance industry from its core. We are at one of those generational moments when a big tech question is right at the top of the board agenda in almost every industry sector in the world. That question is AI. Insurance is no different. As AI moves from the experimentation phase to the delivery phase, insurance businesses are going to be faced with a key dilemma – should they try to run AI as a new tech layer on top of their current core IT systems or should they take the plunge and use the opportunity to install a whole new system that has been designed and built with AI at its heart? Will Ross is the co-Founder and CEO of Federato and he is betting that enough companies will choose the latter path. Will is an AI native with post-graduate degrees from Stanford University and has been building Federato over the past six years. He is also a very special type of entrepreneur. He discovered insurance when working on wildfire models, but he saw an even bigger business opportunity across the core of insurance and co-founded Federato while still working on his Stanford studies. Federato has built substantial scale and has raised $180mn to date, with the latest round of $100mn lead by Goldman Sachs. This is clearly a firm that means business and is intent on taking a permanent seat at the Insurance IT table. Will is charismatic and fun to talk to and is probably the best-placed guest I have had on the show to date to really examine what the successful embedding of AI into insurance underwriting will mean for the sector as a whole. Some of what we discussed was highly reassuring, but some of his insights were surprising and challenging to conventional wisdom. Much of the industry is at a crossroads over the AI revolution and the next steps are going to be key. Senior decision-makers looking for guidance on their next move would be well advised to listen to Will set out his clear vision in this enlightening interview. LINKS: For more information visit www.federato.ai