Juan Mazzini is the global head of Celent, an analyst and advisory firm focused on financial services that has been a particularly strong advocate for insurance innovation. Many of the insurance innovation concepts that first surfaced at Celent’s “Creative Disruption” event a decade ago seem to be finally finding traction. This conversation, recorded at Insuretech Connect in Las Vegas, explores the current state of innovation, powered by AI and industry imagination.

Today’s Thought: We don’t talk anymore

Host: Craig Weber

Krishma Narayanan leads insurance delivery for Cognizant, and her sizable team executes a variety of insurance programs with passion and precision. In this conversation, she brings clarity and experience to a top-of-mind topic for many insurers: the emergence of Global Capability Centers, or GCCs. Done right, GCCs will propel the industry's evolution.

Today’s Thought: That digital honeypot doesn’t love you

Host: Craig Weber

John McVay is a leader in Cognizant's Moment practice, which is focused on delivering amazing experiences. Our conversation gives John a chance to highlight key themes from his experience work with insurers, and lay down a marker for the focused effort that will propel insurance experiences forward. Plus our Thought for Today: Empathy Can Be Engineered.

Host: Craig Weber

Welcome to the future, where empathy can be engineered. If you’re an insurer thinkingabout AI, focus first on things like speed and convenience for customers and channel partners. But  you also want to build the skills to help build emotional connections via AI and GenAI. “Emotion AI” is on the near horizon, more compelling with each generation of tool improvement.

Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#ExperienceEngineering

#empathy

#EmotionAI

#GenAI

#GenAI

It's true--I caught the vibe as part of Cognizant's Vibe Coding Week. I'm now a proponent of the approach. No-code makes the software engineering and app building processes feel radically different, and accessible to people across the enterprise.Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#vibecoding

#nocode

#SoftwareDevelopment

#GenAI

Are you in a relationship with an avatar? I hate to break it to you. But that digital honeypot doesn’t love you. She’s engineered for clicks and faux engagement. She might drain your wallet.Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#GenAI

#avatar

Everybody needs an occasional brain break. AI makes it fun. But every inference query spins up an electric meter in a data center somewhere. And there are billions of those queries, many of them aimed at creating memes and other silliness.Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#GreenIT

#GenAI

Chad Hersh is a leader in the insurance vertical forAWS, and an expert in insurance platforms. In this episode, we explore how GenAI today is changing the trajectory of insurer legacy modernization efforts, with even more exciting possibilities emerging at an amazing pace.Starting Thought: The Pursuit of Savvy

Surajit Datta leads the financial services and fintech delivery organization at Cognizant. He has a passion for setting younger staff on a career path that fosters their growth while delivering value for Cognizant’s customers. Optimizing for a combination of technical skills, business acumen, and domain-specific knowledge is key.

Craig's Starting Thought: Feeling confused and out of sorts? We're all suffering from Full Brain Syndrome.

The insurance industry needs to provide real value and communicate honestly. There’s always a reckoning for astroturfing in a relationship, and our industry will only get the recognition it deserves if it crafts and communicates its value effectively.

Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#Trust

The insurance industry is full of well-intentioned and smart characters. Maybe we’re a little quirky, and easy to make fun of. But sometimes an insult is a show of affection...

Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#actuaries

Matt Keane is Vice President of Data Science, Analytics, AI & Shared Platforms at Aflac. As a longtime “data science and innovation guy,” in our conversation he explains how he thinks about AI data readiness and the creation of business value. As he prepares Aflac’s data for future AI use cases, he's bullish on treating data like an asset and the potential for AI to create "more human" service experiences.

Starting Thought: The Last Mile Problem With Knowledge

Robert Reiss is founder and CEO of The CEO Forum Group. He has a weekly radio show with 600k listeners, runs in-person and virtual CEO events, and has interviewed more than 1,200 CEOs. (!) In this episode we mine those conversations for insights into how the C-suite thinks about strategy, what makes senior leaders effective, and how creative sparks drive breakthrough thinking.

Starting Thought: The Crowd Likes AI

Deepak Kumar leads insurance delivery for Cognizant. His current passion and focus? Converting all the early energy and action around GenAI into tangible business benefits. In this episode he shares insights based on Cognizant’s extensive GenAI capabilities and client work. Spoiler alert: the best of those POCs are moving toward production and business value.

Starting Thought: You Learned It Waiting Tables

Let’s explore the "last mile" issue of GenAI, which is how human insights are often necessary additions to the pretty good output from AI tools. As we like to say, good enough is the starting point handed out for free to everyone. Conquering AI’s last mile problem is the challenge of our age.

Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#GenAI

There’s a feeling of inevitability around AI. Some dread, for sure. But also a sense that AI is taking root in powerful, and mostly positive ways.

Insurtech podcast

Insurance podcast

#insurtech

#InsuranceTechnology

#AI

#AIinsurance

#InsuranceInnovation

#AISurvey

Mahesh Natarajan is a creative IT consultant who has helped blue-chip retirement plan administrators and insurers hone their technology strategies. In this episode, he explores the pursuit of exponential advantages in the retirement industry.

Starting Thought: An Uncomfortable Game of DOGEball

Jeff Goldberg is a long-time industry thought leader,analyst, and consultant who has advised insurers extensively on core systems strategy. In this episode, he proposes a modernized approach to modernization that captures the best of both buy and build.

Starting Thought: That Feeling of Urgency

Host: Craig Weber

Mike Fitzgerald is an insurance data and analytics expert who works in the insurance vertical at SAS. In this episode, he shares how insurers are ramping up their data transformations in support of hybrid human/AI business models.

Starting Thought: What You Do Matters

Host: Craig Weber

Mykola Hayvanovitch is helping shape the future of AI as the global leader of Generative AI for Cognizant. In this episode, he discusses the current state of agentic AI in insurance.

Host: Craig Weber