Backchat: November 2025

Ready, set, bake!

The Insurance Times team is nothing if not competitive, so the publication’s editorial bods were rubbing their hands together when insurer Zurich’s media relations team challenged them to a Great British Bake Off style contest last month (October 2025) at north London’s cookery event space Jenius Social. 

After splitting into mixed teams, budding bakers were tasked with a mystery mission – provided with pre-weighed ingredients for chocolate brownies, oat and raisin cookies and vanilla cupcakes, the chefs had to rise to the challenge of producing the treats with no recipe to work from. The bakes would then be judged by Jenius Social’s resident head chef.

The victorious team on the night consisted of Insurance Times staffers Katie Scott and James Cowen, alongside Zurich’s Tracy Dickerson and Sarah Cordey. The aptly named ‘Best Team Ever’ pipped second place to the post after a meringue whipping head-to-head decider, where Scott was able to secure the trophy on behalf of her team.

Capsule collection

On 6 November 2025, insurer Aviva sealed a unique time capsule that aims to be a one-of-a-kind archive of the colleagues, workplaces and communities that make up today’s insurance industry.

This project, which was led by the business’ Commercial Lines Women’s Network, saw the time capsule travel up and down the UK, collecting additions from staff across Aviva’s regional offices. Following this tour, the time capsule was exhibited at the insurer’s headquarters in Norwich before being locked in Aviva’s archives – the insurer plans to crack the capsule open again in 2075.

Wendy Travers, branch manager at Aviva, said: “It’s been incredible to learn the stories of the inspirational colleagues we work with and see the project bringing teams together. I’m pleased that we can add the capsule to the rich industry history already stored in our archives.”

Guernsey great read

Nick Wild, the former chairman of the Guernsey International Insurance Association (GIIA), has penned a brand new book describing the development of Guernsey’s international insurance industry. 

The tome, entitled History of the development of international insurance business in Guernsey 1975 – 2025, starts by detailing the growth and development of the insurance industry in Guernsey, which includes the creation of cover for the island’s agriculture, horticulture, quarrying and shipping sectors.

As well as summing up where the Guernsey insurance marketplace is today, Wild additionally takes a deep dive into how the GIIA and Guernsey Financial Services Commission (GFSC) have also contributed to the market’s evolution.

Guernsey Finance chief executive Rupert Pleasant said about the new book: “Wild has been instrumental in the successful development of Guernsey’s international insurance industry for more than four decades, which gives him a unique insight into how the industry has shaped itself since the 1970s and 80s, when Guernsey took its first steps to becoming an international finance centre.”

AI achievements

(Re)insurance broker McGill and Partners has taken its work around artificial intelligence (AI) to the next level by last month (October 2025) becoming a Google Earth AI partner and collaborating with Bellwether, a group of geospatial experts from X – this is an innovation lab run by Google’s parent company Alphabet.

The partnership enables McGill and Partners to use Google Earth AI models combined with a reasoning engine to provide predictive analysis of property damage before a storm strikes.

Catherine Tillyard, partner at McGill and Partners and head of the broker’s catastrophe modelling team, explained: ”We use complex scientific and engineering models that help us understand where hazards will occur, how frequent, how severe they’ll be, what properties and what assets are in harm’s way.

”Currently, a lot of insurers have to wait for that information. They’re looking for data, they’re looking for information and now they can have it at their fingertips to make decisions in real-time. We have found that technology is a huge enabler to help us solve these complex challenges.”