From 20 to 23 May 2025, ITC Europe 2025, one of the largest insurance events, turned the Taets Art & Event Park into a live laboratory for the industry’s next chapter. On site, we witnessed a vibrant community of innovative thinkers who shared their ideas on the use of AI in insurance, automated underwriting, improved customer experiences, and other initiatives that can change the industry forever. With a wealth of new perspectives, we share the key insights we brought home from ITC Europe 2025.
Shaping Insurance 2.0: From Niche to Scale
Among many panel discussions, one in particular grabbed our attention. “Shaping Insurance 2.0” gathered founders of European Insurtechs, namely Silvia Signoretti from Swiss Insuretech Hub, Jens Hartwig from Laka, Karan Mehta from Blueberry Life, Ambra Zhang from Juniper, Fabien Cazes from NEAT Protect, to discuss how they’re using the Managing General Agent (MGA) model to disrupt traditional models and craft products that are flexible, community-driven, and precisely engineered for the complexities of modern risks.
Each speaker began in a narrowly defined vertical. They highlighted such cases as e-bike theft cover, life insurance for diabetics, and multi-vertical embedded products, arguing that depth builds superior underwriting data and customer intimacy. Once product market fit is proven, they expand into adjacent risks or geographies.
All agreed that capacity partnerships with reinsurers and primary insurers are “make-or-break.” Early-stage MGAs must win trust without large volumes and persuade carriers that differentiated data and proactive risk controls will limit adverse selection. As portfolios grow, incumbents welcome access to segments they under-serve.
The virtue of the MGA structure lies in allowing startups to own pricing, user experience, and claims, while carriers supply regulated capital. Founders see this alignment as a low-risk sandbox that accelerates innovation on both sides.
Speakers also discussed customer experience, specifically how it is being framed as the new foundation for trust. Automation plays a huge role here as it handles routine underwriting and settlements. Human agents intervene in case of complex or non-standard moments to provide expertise. Automation and minimum human intervention makes underwriting much faster and convenient for end clients. At the same time, the speed of other processes was also addressed: digital onboarding in five minutes, instant quotes, and 24-hour claim payouts replaced paperwork-heavy processes that once took months.
Finally, the panel inspired startups to grow. They suggested, first of all, dominating a niche and then broadening product lines or regions once data, distribution, and carrier confidence are in place.
AI in Underwriting: Proactive Risk Management
AI is a hot topic for the insurance industry, and many discussions were focused on that. This is no surprise considering the recent findings from Deloitte, which uncovered that 76% of the surveyed insurance companies say they have already implemented gen AI in one or more business functions.
Across multiple discussions, a key focus of AI in insurance was the underwriting process, specifically:
- Moving beyond reliance on historical data: AI enables underwriters to integrate real-time telematics, IoT feeds, social signals, and satellite imagery, as well as leverage ML models to adjust risk scores dynamically. Thus, they receive nuanced pricing that reflects present exposures, market shifts, and individual behaviors.
- Achieving automation: Automated AI underwriting has NLP that ingests applications, computer vision that reads documents, and decision engines that render instant risk classifications. With it, companies achieve faster turnarounds, where human reviewers intervene only when confidence in results is low.
- Enabling proactive loss prevention: AI-driven underwriting links sensor analytics, weather forecasts, and supply-chain data to anticipate hazards upfront. Models surface high-risk clients by triggering tailored mitigation advice.
Reimagining Customer Experience: Personalization with Data Analytics and the Role of Predictive Technology
Another focus of attention during the event was predictive technology. This interest reflects Accenture findings that 64% of equity analysts identify technology modernization, including AI and advanced analytics, as a top cost transformation lever for insurers. However, while predictive analytics cannot eliminate claims entirely, it can significantly minimize their frequency and severity by predicting hazards in near real-time.
This can be done thanks to sensor-enhanced vehicles and wearables that feed ML algorithms and flag abnormal patterns. Insurers can collect this information through data integrations with telematics devices, wearable APIs, smart-building sensors, and third-party weather or geospatial feeds, streaming it into encrypted cloud platforms. Once ingested, advanced analytics transform raw observations into real-time risk scores and send alerts for intervention.
Personalization presents another improvement for modern insurance as Accenture’s research indicates that 69% of consumers are willing to share significant data on their health, exercise, and driving habits in exchange for lower prices.
Insurtechs should not neglect this fact and can start providing better experiences for customers today. They can blend telematics and cues like weather or travel plans for carriers to craft policies, pricing, and engagement that feel bespoke. Dashboards display individualized risk scores, chatbots suggest coverage adjustments the moment life events occur, and loyalty perks adjust dynamically based on driving style or gym visits. This continuous dialogue turns annual renewals into long-term trust-building relationships where customers feel understood, and insurers remain relevant.
Conclusion
This year’s ITC Europe event showed: what we once considered the future of insurance is already here. Insurtechs must embrace AI, real-time data analytics, automation, and new business models to grow, strengthen their market positions, and win new customers. We, at SPD Technology, welcome advancements and thrive to implement modern technologies for Insurtechs to power the industry. So, if you need to innovate your company, we would be glad to future-proof your business platforms with the latest developments and ensure your sustained competitive edge.