Federato Customer Council: Building community to shape the future of insurance

The insurance industry runs on relationships. Everyone says that. But many vendor conferences don't actually reflect it. They take place on stages, not in conversations, and feedback gets collected after the fact. The Federato Customer Council was built differently.

Last week, we gathered a group of our customers at the Boulders Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, for a two-day event designed around a simple idea: they talk, we listen. The event brought together the people who are shaping the future of insurance for peer discussions, industry insights and shared experiences that strengthen partnership and foster long-term collaboration. 

The resort sits in the Sonoran Desert. It’s the kind of landscape that has a way of giving people perspective, and it felt like the right place to have the conversations we'd been hoping to have, without the noise and distractions of a conference room or expo center. Just the people navigating some of the hardest problems in insurance, together.

What came out of those two days surprised us and challenged us. It also confirmed that the path we're navigating together is the right way forward.

Real challenges deserve real talk, and a lot of listening

Our customers are navigating real complexity in their businesses and operations, and the path to AI transformation isn’t always easy. Federato is navigating this complexity alongside them. Building the AI-native platform that spans the full policy lifecycle is an ongoing process, and we need to hear directly from the people implementing it. The most honest conversations tend to happen when everyone in the room has something real at stake, and there's space to ask hard questions and share perspectives.

We kicked things off with CEO Will Ross sharing Federato's vision for the future, an honest account of where we're headed and why. 

A customer panel on "Preparing for the Next Era of Risk and Decisioning" gave attendees a firsthand view of critical, unfiltered perspectives from peers. Three customers talking honestly about what's working, what isn't, and how they're thinking about what comes next.

We also presented Federato’s product roadmap to give customers an early look at what we're building, and customers got to talk with the product team directly. 

The breakout sessions in the afternoon were the real center of gravity. Customers split into small groups to go deep on specific areas they'd chosen in advance. Sessions covered the full range of where Federato is today and where it's going, from how teams are using Content Management to find and act on policy documents, to real-time portfolio oversight in Control Tower, to the full underwriting journey through Product Studio and core submission workflows.

Some sessions looked at what's next, and a chance to share perspectives while the product is still being shaped, not after the fact. Others dug into AI across the policy lifecycle: where the platform stands today, where it's going, and what customers still need. There were also sessions on billing and payments, regulatory changes in AI, Federato's evolving service model, and how we're improving delivery and ongoing support for our customers.

These were true working sessions. Customers came with questions and frustrations, and left with new ideas, answers, and the sense that they'd been heard. 

What we heard from customers

Here are just a few highlights from the feedback we’ve received from customers who attended.

One attendee described what it felt like to be in the room with peers rather than an industry audience: "This is the perfect group of people. We're not guarded and protecting trade secrets like we can be at large conferences. We're really talking to each other about the challenges of our industry, and sharing ideas about what we're doing."

One customer said they wished they could have attended every breakout session, and another said the event made them wish for more time. We'll take that into account when we start planning for next year. 

Some of the most meaningful feedback came from customers who arrived with real doubts. One said they could now see the vision clearly enough to go back to their team and fight for it. Being able to voice concerns directly to the people building the platform, and to hear honestly where we're headed, really made a difference. 

One attendee put it simply: "You can tell a lot about a company by the kind of people you do business with. You are doing business with the kind of people I would want to be friends with."

What’s next

By the end of the event, many said it felt less like a vendor event and more like a community in the making. People exchanged contacts, made plans to stay in touch, and reflected on what it means to be working toward the same destination. We left with a clearer view of where we're going, and more confidence that we're figuring it out together. 

The Customer Council brought together people who are serious about what they do, honest about what's hard, and willing to work through it together. That's the community we want to build. And it's the standard we intend to meet.

We'll see everyone next year.