Shaped around you: Meet the Engagement team at Artificial

We sat down with Elizabeth Wooliston, Chief of Markets, Greg Penman, Engagement Manager, and Rose Pyke, Senior Business Analyst, to hear how they work with brokers and carriers and what they enjoy about the job.

Listening first

Our clients tend to arrive in one of two places. Some come to us knowing exactly what they want built. Others know something has to change but haven't yet pinned down what that looks like. In both cases the team start by understanding the business before there is any mention of technology.

"We act as consultant partners to them, mapping out their ideal future state and then applying technology solutions to it," explains Elizabeth.

Each member of the team covers a different part of that early work. Greg is the main point of contact for our partners, and he makes sure the scope of a project matches what they need. Rose goes deeper into the detail, unpicking how a partner's current processes work and where the dependencies sit, so our delivery and engineering teams start with a clear picture. For a client, that means far fewer surprises once the implementation is underway.

Turning a familiar story on its head

Elizabeth has spent 30 years in insurance and has watched plenty of digital transformation projects struggle, at small firms and large ones. More often than not, the tools don't get used, and the project arrives late and over budget.

The Engagement team set out to do the opposite. "We want high adoption, we want affordability and we want to move at pace," she says. In practice, that means getting something into underwriters' and brokers' hands quickly, then improving it alongside the people using it everyday.

Moving that way depends on a product that can adapt, because every partner trades differently. Greg sees the flexibility of our underwriting and placement technology as one of the most valuable things we offer. "We can shape the product around the customer's needs," he points out. "We don't have to make the customer bend to our solution."

Before shaping anything, our Engagement team takes the time to understand each partner's priorities and what success would look like for them. The end result is then measured against goals our partners care about, commercially and operationally.

A market ready to move

The London and specialty market has talked about modernisation for a long time. What feels different now, according to the team, is that brokers and carriers are ready to act on it. Greg sees the Engagement team as being at the centre of that shift, helping shape how our partners use technology to modernise the market.

Elizabeth calls it a perfect storm. "The market is ready to adopt technology at pace, and Artificial is ready to deliver it."

That readiness doesn't depend on a client having all the answers. Some partners come to us with a firm view of what they want from technology in the future, while others are only just starting those conversations internally. Elizabeth's invitation is the same for both. "We'd encourage you to come and speak to us."

A career built on trust

For anyone thinking about a career in insurtech, it's worth knowing that the way the team work with clients carries through to how they work with each other. At Artificial, employees are given real responsibility early, and trusted to get on with it.

Greg explained that he felt that from his first day. "Nobody eased me in gently to the role at all, and I mean this as a compliment," he admits. From the start, he was working directly with customers and running his own areas of the business, and he credits that with giving him the push to properly own his role.

New ideas get the same treatment. Rose describes a growth and optimisation mindset across the company, where people are always looking for ways to do things better. "You're encouraged to suggest new ideas and you're trusted to then follow through and make those changes," she adds.

When Elizabeth joined, she was told the team here were highly capable with low ego, and she's found that to be true of everyone she has met since. She explains that the team "have a relentless pursuit of excellence, which I just love working around." For our clients, those are the people on the other end of the very first call.

Want to talk to us about what you're planning? Get in touch. If this sounds like a team you'd like to be part of, take a look at our careers page.