Listen : Watch : Read #18
Originally Posted: April 13, 2025 here
🎙️Listen 🎙️
Two of my favourites, Sabine VanderLinden in her Scouting for Growth series along with Alex Schmelkin, founder of Sixfold talk about whats makes Sixfold standout and why they are winning in Insurance.
A quick snippet [2mins] below and listen to the full episode here
📺 Watch 📺
Life's too serious sometimes! I've been following Ross Pomerantz for a while - his genre of workplace comedy is brilliant! His take on AI Agents is just comedy genius! Laughter cures all!
📚 Read 📚
This caught my attention and many others this week from Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify and his note on X, talking about Reflexive AI. I love what these guys are doing and how they continue to lead the way. HIs 6 summary bullets were solid gold on how organizations are or will be thinking about AI from this point forward. One of the most eye opening pieces I have read this year, eg one of his points - before asking for more headcount, explain why AI cant do it! Original link below! Fast Company had a good read here too. How will the Insurance world implement something similar?
I'm not sure I've heard of it described like this before - Britains Strangest Success!, but as John Gapper of the Financial Times says - Lloyds Remains the Queen Bee in a hive of activity while others have escaped to Canary Wharf (I even think those folks are coming back to the City!). For me it's the home of Global Insurance, Richard Rogers iconic Lloyds building to me is the homing beacon for Insurers and all those that operate in and around from Willis, to Aon to Chubb to Convex - and lets face it - every other insurer!
But if there is one thing Insurers manage day in day out, it's change! be it people, the changing world around us or technology. As John highlights, the amazing work with Ki is just one example, and all other will (have to) follow, pun intended!. Thankful indeed!
Like you, my feed is awash with AI action dolls, then Zoe Kleinman from the BBC digs in here around the concerns. I had to read that twice, the concerns! Turns out the focus is on energy usage, as well as then privacy and much more.
"We have a joke in my house that every time we create one of these AI memes, it kills a tree," says Lance Ulanoff f, US editor of TechRadar
While Zoe talks about worthier causes of the tech, my one observation is that it's made it AI accessible and easy for everyone to try out, and this is worth it's weight ten fold, inspiring curiosity and encouraging people to play - be it with ChatGPT directly or one of the many apps that have sprung up so quickly! Damien Davis still has my favourite one, a video nonetheless!
To be fair, even Sam Altman, declared their GPU's were melting! Congrats, you have just trained/inspired millions of people through fun and play! Reminds of Charlie Curson and Lego workshops!
Another monumental case for Insurance in the UK (and beyond) re the Car Finance Commissions case comes to the UK Supreme Court. I'm not sure the industry has recovered from PPI yet, and here we are again! I'm watching this one closely!
Finally, my old friend Simon Torrance has a good piece on The Agentic AI Stack for Enterprises: A new Framework for the AI-Human Workforce Revolution, a good read and Simon continues to highlight material shifts and changes for enterprises to see the opportunity (remember the 7T opportunity for Embedded Insurance). Well thought through and structured, grab a coffee and enjoy!
And back to one of last weeks topics, Paul Carroll at Insurance Thought Leadership has a good piece on How to Understand Trump's Tarrif's for Insurance
👀 Quick bites 👀
This is not a quick read, but important all the same. Third Draft of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice published, written by independent experts
Love this quick summary from Susan Lindner - The Neuroscience of Storytelling: Why It’s a Must-Have Leadership Skill
My old buddy Chris Gray at INSHUR talks to ComputerWeekly.com on Balancing act: Managing business needs alongside digital transformation and innovation
And thats It! See you next week!