Will Ross, CEO of Federato: Why Layering AI on Legacy Systems is Holding Insurance Back

This week, host Alex Bond sits down with Will Ross, co-founder and CEO of Federato — the AI-native core platform transforming the full insurance policy lifecycle, from underwriting to claims and billing.

Will and his Stanford AI research co-founder built Federato on a simple but bold premise: AI should support high-value human decision-making, not just cut costs. And they're putting that conviction to the test.

In this episode, Alex and Will discuss:

Why legacy "old core" insurance systems can't be fixed by bolting AI on top and what a genuinely AI-native alternative looks like.

The results that speak for themselves: one client saw a 2.2x increase in quote volume, an 89% reduction in time to quote, and improved high-appetite risk selection from 1 in 10 to 6 in 10, all within 90 days.

Why Federato raised $100 million in Series D funding from Goldman Sachs even though they didn't need the capital.

How the conversation around AI in insurance has evolved from cost-cutting to genuinely transforming outcomes.

Why Will believes in being radically honest with clients about the scale of change required and why that's built trust rather than lost it.

This is a conversation about what it really takes to modernise insurance from the inside out and why incremental change isn't going to cut it.

Listen to the Full Episode