Aventum Set to Develop AI Underwriting Assistant Following Group Wide Innovation Challenge

Aventum, the fast growing International (Re)Insurance Group, has announced that following its inaugural Bear Cave Innovation Challenge, it is investing in the development of an innovative AI Underwriting Assistant, the brainchild of Lee Ellis a specialist underwriter in the Rokstone iFarm division.

The Bear Cave Innovation Challenge, a Dragon’s Den style competition, encouraged every member of staff across the Aventum Group to pitch ideas for how to drive revenue growth, boost efficiency, improve the workplace, or achieve sustainability advantage. The Bear Cave initiative, alongside others, are part of a strategy at Aventum to drive a culture of innovation across the group, surfacing and encouraging innovation from every employee regardless of their job role.

The fiercely fought challenge saw incredibly enthusiastic employees from across the business suggest 30 different stellar innovations to drive the business forward with the winner being awarded VIP tickets to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. There were a number of ideas on environmental and AI initiatives aimed at improving claims efficiencies and even an AI based Nat Cat modelling solution that has the potential to revolutionise the market.

However, Lee’s pitch for an AI underwriting assistant capable of triaging submissions and identifying risk appetite was unanimously selected by a panel of Judges as the winner. Lee will now receive the investment and support required to bring his idea to reality. Aventum’s Innovation Lab, a fully funded and resourced division with 12 full time members of staff, dedicated to innovation across the group, has already begun work on the prototype which uses large language models.

Speaking about the Bear Cave Challenge, David Bearman, CEO of Aventum commented: “This perfectly highlights what can be achieved when you harness the collective genius of a talented team, and no team is more talented than ours.

“The Bear Cave Challenge was a great opportunity to build on our culture of innovation and empowerment. We were inundated with incredible ideas from team members worldwide across every part of the Group. Congratulations to Lee, his idea was incredible and certainly pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, something we collectively strive for. Currently in proof-of-concept stage, watch this space for updates on the development of this exciting new technology.”