KIERAN IVERS AT TRANSFORMATION SUMMIT 2026

Who owns the risk when the knowledge walks out the door?

Our very own Kieran Ivers put that to a packed room at last week’s InsTech.ie Transformation Summit. Because in an industry where the average decision-maker is edging towards 60, decades of judgement are about to leave the business with them.

There’s no doubt that the industry is making huge progress - both as a sector of national importance, and with its adoption of digital intelligence. But most AI deployments today reach for the obvious - systems of record, SOPs, handbooks, policy documents. All of which are already written down.

So Kieran, Head of Insurance at Brightbeam, focused on the judgement that actually runs an insurance business. The intuitive understanding of being able to decode a problem. Which sits with the people who've learned, over 30 years, when a claim is fine and when to look twice.

Brightbeam’s mission in the sector is to help get all this knowledge out of senior insurance leaders’ heads - and into systems that can use it.

Of course, there's something faintly uncomfortable about racing to encode a lifetime of expertise, just as the experts head for the door. But the alternative is losing it for good.

Excellent, then, to see practitioners already on it. On stage with our CEO Brian Hanly was Laya healthcare's Blake Rizk, who laid out a model worth stealing: governance set early, a central AI hub that owns the technology, business units empowered to use it, partners brought in for the skills gaps. It's what AI looks like when it becomes part of the operating model.

It’s a conversation that started the day before, when Enterprise Ireland introduced us to visiting delegates from the US and Canada - a valuable chance to share our collective thinking. Our thanks to the Enterprise Ireland team for making that happen.

And thanks also to everyone who stopped by our Gold Partner stand and shared what they're building. As well, of course, to Gary Leyden, Dr Lollie Mancey and the team for a summit worth its standing-room-only billing.

The InsTech.ie Transformation Summit has gone from 80 people two years ago, to 250 last year, to 500-plus last week. The appetite for this is real, and it's distinctively Irish.