High Five: Catch up on the biggest exclusive stories this week

Verlingue chairman and chief executive Benjamin Verlingue led this week’s exclusives, telling Insurance Times that his firm’s three-year Better Future 2028 strategy was rooted in a bold, entrepreneurial vision to double the size of the business.

The fourth-generation leader planned to build on the legacy of his forebears while shaping a modern broking business with European reach – with UK chief executive Mike Latham revealing plans to integrate employee benefits and insurance broking in a move to attract larger clients.

• Benjamin Verlingue: Fourth generation leader emphasises ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ underpinning UK and European operations

Meanwhile, brokers’ slow adoption of artificial intelligence came under scrutiny at Insurance Times’ latest TechTalk Live roundtable, where guests debated how AI was reshaping liability, underwriting and workflows.

Jason Cohen, executive director at Specialist Risk Group’s Hamilton Leigh, described brokers as “logical latecomers” to AI compared with insurers – in part due to traditional attitudes among senior market players.

• Brokers are ‘logical latecomers’ to AI use as ‘old guard’ believe in certain way of doing tasks

Hyperexponential chief customer officer Tom Chamberlain and chief product officer Noel Sequeira told Insurance Times this week that AI adoption was surging across the industry – with the vast majority of underwriters now embracing AI-enhanced workflows.

Speaking at the insurtech’s Hx Live 2025 conference, the pair outlined how data democracy was enabling smarter, faster decisions by removing the traditional bottlenecks that came with legacy reporting systems.

• Noel Sequeira and Tom Chamberlain: How data democracy is reshaping the insurance industry for the better

Elsewhere, exclusive insight from Insurance Times’ eTrading webinar – held in association with Aviva – revealed growing broker frustration around inflexible underwriting journeys, limited product customisation and the need for better hybrid trading options.

Brokers also flagged the “double keying” of data and poor alignment between insurer extranets and software house platforms as key inefficiencies holding back digital service.

• Brokers push for greater delegated authority as demand for bespoke and hybrid eTrading grows

Finally, insurers were warned that the rise in AI-driven automation was not a technology problem, but a people one.

In an exclusive deep dive, Insurance Times analysed adoption barriers and enablers across the commercial lines sector, revealing that insurers must move beyond short-term pilots and instead embed AI within their core business models.

• Richard Hartley: Digitising risk with agentic AI can expand the insurance industry