Innovation, AI and customer experience at the Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards 2025

The Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards event 2025 in Zurich brought together innovators from the insurance industry: From the strategists of the big players to thought leaders from start-ups and technology companies. The focus was on the big questions of our time: How can the industry remain innovative, human and relevant in an uncertain world?

“Innovation is not an individual battle, but a joint project,” said Silvia Signoretti, President and co-founder of the Swiss InsurTech Hub, at the opening. Together with Brijesh Luthra and Sharan Kaur, she outlined the vision of an open ecosystem in which insurers, technology partners and start-ups work together to actively shape change.

The hub was founded five years ago and now includes over 120 InsurTechs. Only around half of them are from Switzerland. “We have long been a global network,” says Signoretti. “Our goal is to ensure that innovation is not a coincidence, but a shared experience.”

Strategy in times of global uncertainty

In his keynote speech, Paolo Mantero, Group Chief Strategy Officer of the Zurich Insurance Group, showed how insurers can prepare for an unpredictable world. He spoke about geopolitical tensions, energy shortages, the risks of a possible “AI bubble” and the need to make companies more resilient.

“If someone claims to know exactly where the world is heading, they either have a very good crystal ball or they are lying,” said Mantero. His recipe: diversification, resilience and focus. Diversification across markets, products and currencies; resilience through technological independence and cyber security; and focus on the areas where real opportunities arise, such as energy, infrastructure and intellectual property.

Top executives on the future of the industry

A highlight of the morning was the executive panel chaired by Roberta Profeta Head Partnerships SIH. She discussed with three industry leaders: Marc Scheidegger, GZ Global Chief Claims Officer at Swiss Re, Pierre-Olivier Bouée, Head of FS Europe at Capgemini and Claudio Gienal, CTO Europe & Health at AXA.

The discussion revolved around the question of how insurers position themselves in an environment characterized by technological upheaval and social expectations.m “Innovation must not be an end in itself,” Bouée emphasized. “It must always pay off in terms of customer benefit.”

Claudio Gienal spoke about the need to have the courage to experiment: “We have to allow mistakes, otherwise everything remains theory.” And Marc Scheidegger added from a claims handling perspective: “Technology can bring efficiency, but trust is built through contact with people. We must never lose that.”

Moderator Profeta summarized: “The winners of the future are those who credibly combine technology, purpose and humanity.”

Innovation as a system, not a coincidence

The subsequent panel discussion, moderated by Gregor Kaelin, Head of Financial Services at Google Cloud, focused on the question of how established insurers can integrate innovation into their structures.

Joséphine Chamoullaud, CEO of Smile Insurance, called innovation “two sides of the same coin: creativity on the one hand, measurable benefits on the other”. Joel Agard, Global Head of Innovation at Zurich Insurance, described innovation as “dancing on two highs”: “On the one hand, we have to explore new things, on the other hand, we have to improve what already exists and create both at the same time.”

Ruth Amalé, CEO of the House of InsureTech Switzerland (HITS), a subsidiary of the Generali Group, added:
“Innovation is not the idea, but the system that makes ideas repeatable.” She reported on successes with AI-supported chatbots, but also on projects that had to be discontinued: “You have to learn to kill your zombies.”

From process to emotion – inspiration from other industries

Georgina Sala Gasol, Global Lead Digital Experience at Nespresso, offered a completely different view of innovation. She spoke about how the company combines data, design and emotions to create a holistic customer experience “We measure everything – but hardly anyone measures how customers feel,” she said. Her project Moments That Matter links data with emotions: Instead of just optimizing transactions, it creates “emotional clusters” that improve the customer experience on an emotional level.

One example: When a coffee machine breaks down, it’s not about technology, but about the loss of a ritual. “We don’t repair a machine, we restore the morning.” Her message to insurers: “Design is not what you see, but what you feel. People forget what you said, but they remember how you made them feel.”

Moments that count – customer experiences in everyday insurance life

In the last panel of the afternoon, Pia Bodner, CEO at Allianz Partners Switzerland, Sanjay Singh, Head of Claims, Products and Health Services at CSS and moderator Raphael Toitzsch, MD & Partne Boston Consulting Group discussed customer experiences in everyday insurance life.

Bodner described the work of her teams who help in medical emergencies abroad: “We coordinate worldwide and bring people back safely. These are the moments that really count.” Singh emphasized the importance of human empathy despite automation: “We process 25 million claims a year, many of them automatically. But in the crucial moments, it’s people who are needed, not machines.”

Both agreed: artificial intelligence can improve processes, but the emotional value of a real connection remains irreplaceable. “Perhaps the next stage will not be human touch at all, but physical AI.” However, compassion remains human, said Börner.

Technology meets humanity

The Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit & Awards showed that the future of the industry is neither purely digital nor purely human, but a symbiosis of both. Technology creates efficiency, data provides insights, but only emotions generate trust.

Or, as Silvia Signoretti summed up at the end: “Moments matter, and the moment is now.”

You will find the article about the winners of the evening on thebrokernews on Monday, November 17, 2025.

Binci Heeb

Read also: Swiss InsurTech Hub Summit and Awards 2024: A celebration of innovation