Listen : Watch : Read #28
🎙️Listen 🎙️
Tune in to some of my fav people - Bryan Falchuk checks in with Debra Brackeen of CSAA Insurance Group, a AAA Insurer on all things innovation and AI. From proactive AI Driven Innovation to being super targeted AI Implementation for Business Value to how we augment the workforce, not just displace it! Importantly, the importance of service (not forgetting where they have come from) and a Human Touch in a digital world!
Next up, my old friend Adrian Copland, COO over at Ledgebrook - huge Kudos to you, Gage Caligaris, FCAS and the entire team on your most recent raise! $65m, series C here, The discussion with Nick Hoadley on the Insurance Coffee Houses covers everything from their remote-first, no-bonus culture and his journey from consulting through AXA XL to building (many times over) operations in Poland and much more!
There's nothing more reward than seeing your friends thrive so huge kudos Adrian
📺 Watch 📺
Probably one of the most important roles there is right now, CTO - Paul Butler of Hiscox (we did the same degree!) sits down with Mark Thomas from Beyond the Desk Podcast to hear from Paul, from Banking at Barclays to Insurance with Bionic and now Hiscox and how he is modernising Hiscox with new Technology and the challenge ahead, 5 years in! From capabilities to products and a long term view, not a short term project view and Gnarly Vendors!
A move from single to multi cloud, with some great acknowledgement to the work Sandeep Kottekudiyil & Mark Tomlinson are doing at Google to chipping away at legacy technology and core transformation. And a parting nod to my old colleagues Jonathan Smart book - sooner, safer, happier.
Sam Altman, OpenAI is back in the news this week (when is he not). My friend Simon Taylor sums it up best - the Talent War is real, offering $100m bonuses to the OpenAI teams! and went after Meta, full send (as my kids would say) - calling them out in more ways than one!
The focus on money vs the work, the history and success of innovation and ultimately, being the more valuable in the long term. Mission first. A short clip below [1 min 30] - full interview here if you want
📚 Read 📚
There's not many things that scare me out there, this though is one of them and the ongoing situation in the Middle East. This a good summary from Bryony Garlick in Insurance Business Magazine - of course, so much has changed already since this was published on the insurance risks ahead from Energy to Shipping and much more.
My friend Douglas Kim put together a great event recently - The Agentic Future Summit in New York, and followed up with a piece on - Agentic AI Is Not Just Automation. It Is a New Architecture for Work - which struck a chord with me. A nice comparison to the era of Henry Ford and the automotive revolution (I think I used the same analogy with my wife recently when discussing the impact on this generation) to where we are now. 6 Key takeaways - including the need to understand the processes in a much finer level of details and the need for unified control systems! Ahem, hello ServiceNow!
Waymo is at it again, sharing their safety data to mitigate concerns and misconceptions! with over 71m miles through March 2025. I've always been a huge fan, so will just let the numbers do the talking!. Huge kudos Tilia Gode and entire team! Full report below.
Full report available below
A worrying one for motorists world over - the cat and mouse battle between new technology on cars and technology being used to steal them has reached a 15 year high, with the majority of cars stolen now headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to then be moved on. With almost 130,000 cars stolen last year costing $867m, policing hasn't kept pace and the industry in collaboration with auto manufacturers need to do more.
“It’s like a game of tennis,” Gibson said. “Criminals come out with a new bit of kit, manufacturers will get round it, sometimes by buying it on the dark web and reverse-engineering it. But five minutes later, once they’ve stopped it, they’ve come out with a new bit of kit.”
Interestingly, “Five years ago, it was Range Rovers, BMW X5s, high-end Mercedes. In the last two or three years, we’ve started to see Hyundais, Kias and Toyotas.” and car parts!
My old gadget partner in crime Paul Lee and team over at Deloitte released their latest consumer trends report here, 50 pages packed with insights - everything from 47% of the UK population now having tried Generative AI tools, almost doubled in the last two years 76% of it for personal use, as opposed to just 45% in work! Device usage has plateaued (theres nothing new to be fair! - or is there, see below!), the average age of smartphones is increasing! now 18 months!. Check out below for more insight!
👀 Quick bites 👀
'I stole my car back after police could not help' - theres a lot to be said for AirTags everywhere!
I adore my Meta Ray-Bans, but these new Oakley smart glasses are making me jealous - Luxottica Ray Ban, Oakley get in on the Meta Smart Glasses Race!
10 Lessons from the World's Most Optimised Human (And the 3 I'm Actually Implementing) - my friend Dan Murray🧠 met with Bryan Johnson
And thats It! See you next week!