Introduction

What happens when you build an MGA from scratch with today’s AI capabilities, rather than trying to layer them onto legacy technology?

In this episode, Robin Merttens speaks with Theo Butt, CEO of Kinetic Insurance Services, Andy Roberts, CTO of Kinetic Insurance Services and Guillaume Bonnissent, CEO of Quotech, about Convex’s new hybrid carrier-MGA platform, the technology being built behind it and what an AI-native underwriting operation could look like in practice.

Theo explains why Convex created Kinetic to extend into lines of business that are complementary to its existing underwriting appetite. The model is designed to give entrepreneurial underwriters some of the advantages of building their own MGA, while providing access to cornerstone capacity, technology, operations, claims and compliance infrastructure. The aim is simple: allow underwriters to spend more time building profitable portfolios and less time building the machinery around them.

Andy takes us inside Kinetic’s technology strategy. Starting with a greenfield environment has given the team an opportunity to design around agentic AI from day one, with the ambition of automating as much non-revenue-generating work as possible. That could mean workflows running from the moment an email arrives through to quote generation, while keeping the underwriter in control of the decisions that require human judgement.

But building an AI-native insurance business is not simply about automation. Andy explains why explainability, auditability and human oversight have to be designed into agentic workflows from the beginning, rather than added later. Every action needs to be traceable, with controls over what agents can do and clear visibility into how and why work has been completed.

Guillaume explores what could come next. As large language models become the interface through which employees access information and complete tasks, he believes underwriters could increasingly start their day in their company’s LLM rather than moving between email, underwriting systems and other applications. The technology to do this already exists, he argues, making adoption, governance and cost control increasingly important challenges.

The conversation also looks at one of the biggest advantages and risks of building on the technological frontier. Kinetic does not have the legacy infrastructure that can make deploying AI at scale difficult, but the pace of change means today’s new technology can quickly become tomorrow’s legacy. Building for flexibility and continuous change may therefore be just as important as choosing the right technology today.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Why Convex chose a hybrid carrier-MGA model for Kinetic
How the model aims to give entrepreneurial underwriters more time to focus on underwriting
Why Convex intends to provide cornerstone capacity to Kinetic’s underwriting cells
How Kinetic is building agentic AI into its workflows from the outset
Why explainability, auditability and human oversight are critical when deploying AI in a regulated market
How automation could change the roles of underwriting and operations teams
Why flexible technology matters when new underwriting teams need to be launched quickly
How large language models could change the way underwriters access their systems and information
Why AI adoption may now be a bigger challenge than technological capability
How legacy infrastructure can make deploying agentic AI at scale more difficult
Why the accelerating pace of technological change is forcing insurers to rethink what it means to future-proof their architecture

If you like what you’re hearing, please leave us a review on whichever platform you use or contact Robin Merttens on LinkedIn.

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Theo Butt & Andy Roberts: Kinetic Insurance Services and Guillaume Bonnissent: Quotech: Building an AI-native MGA from scratch: inside Kinetic Insurance Services (419)

InsTech - insurance & innovation

Theo Butt & Andy Roberts: Kinetic Insurance Services and Guillaume Bonnissent: Quotech: Building an AI-native MGA from scratch: inside Kinetic Insurance Services (419)