EPISODE · Jan 9, 2025 · 1H 3M
Denise Garth: Key Trends and Strategies for 2025 Shaping The Future of Insurance
from Scouting for Growth · host Sabine VdL
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Denise Garth, a globally recognized InsurTech thought leader and Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco. In our talk today, we dive into the top trends shaping insurance and InsurTech as we head toward 2025—from next-gen technology enablers to constantly evolving customer expectations. Denise will share her insights on where the industry is headed, how to stay ahead, and why a collaborative mindset is crucial. KEY TAKEAWAYS What was happening in the resilience market in 2024, from both economic and risk standpoints, has had a huge operational impact on insurance companies. As a result, as we go into 2025, the reaction of loss ratios increasing, unprofitability, high interest rates, all the economic factors are forcing us to step back and see it as a wake-up call. We’re in the midst of business model and technology driven change. We’re finally realising our decades old operational models and technology foundations no longer meet the challenges and opportunities of this fast-changing risk, technology, and customer demographics world. It’s a race to the future because there’s a growing protection gap that we must address in a different way. We’ve been on a technology ride for 10-15 years , especially in InsurTech, but the last few months have been mind blowing with the pace of change and what the technology, like GenAI and IoT can do. They can help us do risk assessments better, give better customer experience and optimise the whole operation. Cloud computing is expanding the capabilities. We’ve got to fundamentally rethink the technology and business architecture of our solutions to optimise and take advantage of not just cloud computing but all the other technologies that are going to leverage cloud. BEST MOMENTS ‘We must think about how to underwrite and assess risks differently, more importantly how do we minimise the risk. We can’t keep growing the risk and the insurance costs, people can’t afford it.’ ‘Data is the lifeblood of this industry, and we’re coming to realise that we’ve got to democratise and demonetise data because everybody needs to have it.’ ‘MGAs and full-stack insurers are trying to think how insurance is going to be done, but also, what constitutes the insurance policy.’ ‘48% of part-time workers don’t have access to life or health insurance, they want a simple way of buying insurance, and they also want the risk about themselves by having Protection as a Service based on usage.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Denise Garth is an internationally recognized InsurTech thought leader and innovator, serving as Majesco's Chief Strategy Officer. With a passion for transforming the insurance industry, Denise leads global strategy, marketing, industry relations, and innovation—helping companies navigate disruption and harness new technologies to capture growth. Her accolades are numerous, including being named among the 30 Most Powerful Women in Business: The Titans of Industry (2024) by International Business Times, an InsurTech Top 50 Influencer, and one of the Top 50 Women in SaaS. Bringing a blend of deep insurance expertise and visionary thinking, Denise’s work focuses on how today’s industry challenges can spark tomorrow’s opportunities. She has served in leadership positions around the world, developing go-to-market strategies, guiding operational transformation, and fostering collaboration across multiple continents—from Europe to Asia-Pacific. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]
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What this episode covers
On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL sits down with Denise Garth, globally recognised InsurTech thought leader and Chief Strategy Officer at Majesco, to decode what’s really happening beneath the surface of insurance as the industry accelerates toward 2025. This isn’t a trend list. It’s a wake-up call. 2024 was the stress test Denise frames 2024 as the year the system showed its cracks. Rising loss ratios, persistent unprofitability, high interest rates, and compounding economic pressure didn’t just hurt margins—they exposed how fragile many insurance operating models have become. Her message is blunt: the industry can’t “optimize its way out” of this moment. What we’re seeing is not a cycle. It’s a signal. Old models, new realities Insurance is now in the middle of simultaneous business-model and technology disruption. Decades-old operating assumptions no longer hold in a world shaped by: faster-moving and more volatile risks radically shifting customer demographics expectations set by digital-native experiences and a widening global protection gap Denise describes it as a race to the future—because standing still isn’t neutral anymore, it’s falling behind. Technology finally caught up to ambition The industry has been “on a tech journey” for more than a decade, especially through InsurTech. But the last few months, Denise says, have been different. The pace of change has become mind-blowing. Technologies like Generative AI, IoT, and advanced analytics are no longer experimental toys. They’re starting to materially improve: risk assessment and underwriting customer experience end-to-end operational efficiency But only if insurers rethink how they deploy them. Cloud isn’t just infrastructure—it’s the foundation One of Denise’s strongest points: cloud computing isn’t just about hosting systems more cheaply. It’s about fundamentally redesigning technology and business architecture to unlock what AI, data, and ecosystem models can actually do. Without that rethink, even the best technology will be constrained by yesterday’s foundations. From insuring risk to reducing it Perhaps the most provocative insight: the industry must shift from endlessly pricing risk to actively minimising it. Insurance costs can’t keep rising indefinitely—people simply won’t be able to afford protection. That means underwriting differently, using data proactively, and designing products that help customers lower their risk, not just transfer it. This is where ideas like Protection-as-a-Service and usage-based models come into play—especially for underserved segments like part-time workers, nearly half of whom still lack access to life or health insurance. Data must be shared to matter Denise calls data the lifeblood of insurance—but also challenges the industry to democratise and demonetise it. If data is locked away, monetised excessively, or siloed, it can’t drive better outcomes. Everyone in the value chain needs access to insight if insurance is going to scale relevance, not just premiums. Why this episode matters For executives, insurers, and InsurTech leaders, this conversation delivers clear signals: 2024 exposed structural weaknesses, not temporary issues business and technology transformation must happen together GenAI and IoT are now operational levers, not experiments cloud enables new architectures, not just cost savings the future lies in reducing risk, not just pricing it collaboration is no longer optional—it’s existential As Denise makes clear: the industry’s challenges aren’t a reason to retreat. They’re an invitation to rebuild insurance for a world that’s already changed.
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Denise Garth: Key Trends and Strategies for 2025 Shaping The Future of Insurance
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