News and Insights
Stop saying AI: Lessons from ITC Las Vegas 2025 – FINN Partners
November 18, 2025
Billed as the world’s largest gathering for insurance innovators, InsureTech Connect (aka ITC Vegas) this year drew 9,000 attendees to Las Vegas to talk about the future of the industry.
Over three days, one topic dominated every stage, every slide, every panel, every promise, every conversation: AI. And unlike the odds over at the blackjack table, AI was hyped as a sure bet.
“AI will do everything faster, cheaper and better.”
“AI will change how we underwrite, assess risk and serve customers.”
“AI will automate insurance.”
Presenters sang from the same AI hymnbook, touting end-to-end automation, unbounded scale, zero risk. AI was savior, miracle worker, moneymaker. And it definitely wasn’t going to take over for people; it was only going to help people become better. Was there no problem in the insurance industry that AI couldn’t solve?
At FINN, we left InsureTech Connect both inspired and unsettled. Inspired by the pace of innovation. Unsettled by the sameness of the story. (If everyone is saying the same thing, is anyone really saying anything at all?)
We were also unsettled by the narrow scope of the conversations. Better risk assessment, faster claims, fewer redundancies are the table stakes of transformation.
But success in the age of AI requires more than tools and algorithms. Beneath all this high-gloss technological optimism, something crucial was missing: a unique brand perspective and a human point of view.
1. Reality check: AI tools can’t overcome organizational complexity. Brands need top-to-bottom transformation assistance.
Like roulette balls, we’ve been around this tech-transformation wheel before. All brands want smarter models, frictionless workflows and predictive precision. But AI isn’t just a new tool. It requires an entirely different way of working, and that is incredibly difficult work.
And there’s this: In chasing the same solutions-based technological nirvana, many brands risk losing their distinctiveness. As one BCG study noted, while insurers are leading in AI adoption, few are delivering differentiated value at scale. And as an SAS headline bluntly observed that “Insurance has five problems — and AI isn’t one.”
Building smarter tools isn’t the problem. The real challenge is solving the messy human and systems problems facing the insurance industry. Things like data chaos, legacy workflows and misaligned incentives.
2. Reality check: AI doesn’t care about your insurance customers, but your customers do care how you make them feel.
Nearly every booth and breakout session focused on AI’s capabilities. But few conversations centered on what might happen to the human experience during the AI transformation process.
I didn’t hear the word “empathy” once. That’s a danger. When we stop talking about people, we stop talking about insurance.
AI may predict behavior, but it can’t replicate trust. Customers still want to feel seen, supported and understood. A recent Risk & Insurance article underscored that the winning strategy in insurance is a human-first model, one where technology supports people instead of replacing them.
And the stakes are rising. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority warned that hyper-personalized AI models could render certain customers effectively “uninsurable.”
3. Reality check: The case for AI needs to start with the real-world human problems it’s aspiring to solve.
Amid thousands of conversations about AI intelligence at ITC Vegas, very few conversations centered on how the AI story can be applied to solve customers’ and employees’ real-world problems. Without this human point of view, “intelligent” solutions are anything but.
When every company claims that “AI will transform everything,” the audience tunes out. Real brand differentiation comes from clarity — articulating why technology matters, what actually changes and who benefits.
Which customer problems are being solved by a gleeful “automate everything” solution? The real question isn’t “How many models can we deploy?” It’s “How do those models make life simpler, faster and more human?”
So let’s stop saying AI and start saying something meaningful.
What do insurance brands really need?
What should brands take away from ITC Vegas?
- They should stop positioning AI as if it’s the lone differentiator that everyone wants.
- They should start focusing on confidence, empathy, clarity, trust.
Because the future of insurance won’t be defined by who has the most algorithms. It will be defined by who uses them to make people feel most secure.
Stop saying AI. Start saying something human.
Curious about FINN’s Insurance Practice? Connect with us.
POSTED BY: Aidan McCann
