Unfiltered with Matt & Nige Podcast

A weekly podcast about what’s really going on in insurance, and the people trying to keep up with it.
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It’s hosted by Matt Connolly (CEO of Sønr) and Nigel Walsh (Global Head of Insurance at ServiceNow). Between them, they’ve spent years in and around the industry, so this isn’t theory. It’s what they’re seeing, hearing, and questioning in real time. Some weeks it’s just the two of them figuring things out out loud. Other weeks they’re joined by smart people from across insurance and tech. Founders, operators, investors, and the occasional curveball. The conversation moves between big ideas and day-to-day reality. Innovation, leadership, where the market is heading, and also family life, training, travel, and everything else that sits around the job. It’s thoughtful, honest, sometimes a bit direct, and never overcomplicated. If you work in insurance, or anywhere near it, you’ll probably feel right at home. New episodes every week. unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

  1. 10h ago

    What a Time to Be Alive

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 24 🎙️ What a time to be alive. Matt has been in the Dolomites.Nigel has been mowing the lawn.Everyone, especially Nigel, is talking about AI.Mostly that it’s about to end life as we know it. Or 10% of it at least. As always we put a positive, unfiltered spin on things. This week we get into: * The US, China, Europe and sovereign AI * Anthropic, Dario, Sam, Elon and the calls to slow things down * CrowdStrike and why cyber probably cannot afford to slow down * Bending Spoons buying Miro * Sir Tom Jones, Ed Sheeran and insurance getting the blame We also talk about numb bums. Blame Ryanair. A whole bunch of good stuff in this one. Enjoy. Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    What a Time to Be Alive

  2. Sep 7

    The ITC Vegas One

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 23 🎙️ Our first guest. And what a guest to start with. This week, Matt and Nigel are joined by Bill Harris from ITC Vegas. As we’re just weeks away from the world’s biggest coming together of insurance innovation folk, from all around the world, who better to invite onto the show. We get into Vegas, questionable after-hours stories, and why the biggest insurance innovation event in the world still feels like a homecoming. Nigel was there from the start. In fact, just before the start. Matt one year later. ITC Vegas has played an important part in both their journeys and it definitely feels more like three friends catching up than anything more. 100% unfiltered. As always. Specifically, you’ll hear: * The origin story of ITC Vegas * Why Vegas makes sense as the home of the event * How ITC became the “world’s largest gathering of insurance innovation” * Why the event still works as a meeting point for a distributed industry * The neighbourhood concept * How AI is being used to improve connections, matchmaking and sponsor insight * Why human connection probably matters more, not less, in an AI-shaped world * Billy Idol, Salt-N-Pepa, Goo Goo Dolls and the concert stories * What happens behind the scenes when things go wrong Also, Nigel’s got a new t-shirt.That alone is worth watching for. A whole bunch of good stuff in this one. Enjoy. Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    The ITC Vegas One

  3. Sep 1

    ClaudeForce, and AI is the new UI

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 22 🎙️ Happy birthday to us.Well, by the time this is published it will be. Nigel Walsh’s birthday’s on 31st Aug.Matt’s the day after.Basically twins. This week we get into why the SaaS apocalypse might have been a bit OTT. Salesforce and Anthropic launched ClaudeForce.Salesforce stock jumped.And suddenly the conversation shifted from “AI kills software” to “AI probably needs software to be useful. Funny that. This week on Unfiltered, we get into: * Salesforce, Anthropic and ClaudeForce * AI as the new user experience * Headless applications, context engines and personalised software * Claude, Gemini Transcribe, WhisperFlow and the rise of conversational interfaces * Dharmesh Shah building an AI-native solo CRM * a16z moving into hardware infrastructure * Robots, Nvidia, Hugging Face and the physical layer of AI * Grok’s low-cost model and why more people may start experimenting with it * Corgi launching an admitted carrier * Meta, child safety and the cost of social media harm A whole bunch of good stuff in this one. Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    ClaudeForce, and AI is the new UI

  4. Aug 24

    Data Centres, Prevention, and the 99%

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 21 🎙️ Speed kills. That’s what Nige was pushing this week. AI is moving fast. In some instances, very fast. But people still need time to understand it. Businesses need time to adapt. Regulators need time to govern it. And customers, well these guys, still need time to trust it. So what do we get into this week? We talked about data centres, political pushback, the infrastructure needed to make AI work. We also get into prevention, a topic we seem to keep coming back to. Matt had been in a couple of client sessions this week with big insurers exploring business models of the future and it’s definitely part of the upcoming playbook. There was also plenty of random and unfiltered. From Lewis Moody to Sandra Bullock to Adrian Mole. All whilst Nigel was in the kitchen of the Airbnb in Lucca. Enjoy. Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    Data Centres, Prevention, and the 99%

  5. Aug 17

    Grok, Data Centres, and Climate Risk

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 20 🎙️ This week we’ve been to New York, Boston, London and…Rutland 🤷 And, as for the chat, it definitely feels like AI in no longer the headline (with a few exceptions) and fast becoming the norm. That said, Grok is back in the frontier model race- 4.6 just landed for half the price of rival frontier models, distribution through X, Teslas, Starlink, and Optimus, now of course, SpaceX-funded. Meta is also releasing models and yet OpenAI, Microsoft, Gemini and Claude are still the names that come up most in enterprise conversations. For now at least. And somewhere in the middle of all that, we’re also now starting to ask less “which model is best?” and more “what are we actually optimising for?” This week on Unfiltered, we get into: * Grok’s latest model and why it is suddenly competitive again * OpenAI exec exits, circular funding and whether the whole AI economy is propping itself up * Meta’s model releases and why Meta and Grok still rarely show up in enterprise conversations * Using lower-level frontier models when the job does not need the most expensive option * Accelerant being purchased by Thoma Bravo * ITC Vegas, market momentum and why the industry still feels positive * Whoop, Medicare and the quantified-self moving further into healthcare * Wildfires, flash floods and what climate risk means for prevention * Insurers moving from payout to prevention, and whether they have permission to play there * OpenAI’s next phase and whether it becomes more B2B, B2C, or both A whole bunch of good stuff in this one. Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    Grok, Data Centres, and Climate Risk

  6. Aug 11

    Voice Agents, Data Centres, and AI Exclusions

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 19 🎙️ Back from holiday. Back on the pod. Back into AI everything. Normal service resumed. Even with all the noise, funding, model launches, infrastructure spend, agent experiments and slightly terrifying headlines, it still feels like we’re at the 1% when it comes to AI. This week on Unfiltered, we get into: * The Leo / Situational Awareness hedge fund story and whether it signals a bubble or a blip * OpenAI’s view on how jobs expand when people can 3x or 10x themselves * Autonomous tractors, personalised farming and the very real “fixing phase” of AI * OpenAI voice agents moving into claims, with BBVA, SoftBank and IAG examples * Guidewire, contact centres and where frontier models move next * Hyperscaler earnings, AI CapEx and the question of when the return actually arrives * Wildfires, business interruption and what happens when there is no physical damage * Data centres, no-damage business interruption and the new protection gaps opening up * AI exclusions, Armilla.ai, Testudo and the rise of a net new AI insurance market * The EU AI Act, rogue agents, governance and why trust is becoming the whole game A whole bunch of good stuff in this one. Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    Voice Agents, Data Centres, and AI Exclusions

  7. Jul 27

    Beyond the Pilot

    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige | Episode 18 🎙️ When everything is AI, nothing is AI.Ah, these guys and their wisdom. This episode get into: Beyond the pilot.Beyond the press release.Beyond the shiny rollout.Beyond vibe coding. TLDR: AI is becoming the default. The real work now is proving value, deciding what to build, what to buy, and working out which companies can actually move fast enough to make it useful. This week on Unfiltered, we get into: Brown & Brown rolling out AI tools across the organisationGuardian Life and its seven-year modernisation programme with HCLAXA training 70,000 people on Microsoft CopilotOpenAI, Hugging Face and why the AI security conversation is getting very realAI exclusions, kill switches and the new risk market forming around AICorgi’s latest valuation, trucking launch and the Lemonade comparisonBuild vs buy, Salesforce replacements and where vibe coding does and does not make senseWhy Horizon 3 thinking seems to be coming back into insurance conversationsAI native vs engineering first And naturally we talk Whoop, the Tour de France, and not being able to shut off whilst on holiday. Enjoy. And please do subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    Beyond the Pilot

  8. Jul 20

    From LLMs to Claims, The Customer Interface Is Moving

    Another good episode this week. We started in a dangerously good mood. Sunshine.No collars.Hyrox recovery.Dad bod chat.And Matt telling a story about Bondi Beach that probably should have stayed offline. Then we got into the insurance innovation stuff. AI advice.LLM regulation.Liability.Embedded insurance.Claims automation.Virtual agents.Bank assurance.And the slightly uncomfortable question of who owns the customer when the interface changes. TLDR: if consumers are using AI to make real financial decisions, the advice vs guidance question gets a lot more serious. And if AI becomes the interface, then distribution, service, claims and customer ownership all start to move. This week on Unfiltered, Matt and Nigel get into: * Travelers launching its own LLM and what insurer-specific AI might look like * The Mills Review and the question of whether LLMs should be regulated when people are using them for financial advice * Advice vs guidance, finfluencers, and why confidence without evidence is risky * Why evidence-backed AI matters, and why that sits right at the heart of Sønr 2.0 * Governance as an accelerator, not a brake * Frontier models, SLMs, internal data, sovereignty and token maxing * First Direct moving away from packaged insurance, and what that says about bank assurance and embedded insurance * Aviva, AXA Switzerland and others testing insurance inside ChatGPT * NN Group paying some claims in six minutes, and whether that should still be news * Claims, empathy, friction, brand experience, and why not all friction is bad * The next five years of insurance innovation, CVC cycles, AI funding and why this moment feels different Subscribe for more Unfiltered every week 🎙️ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

    From LLMs to Claims, The Customer Interface Is Moving
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About

It’s hosted by Matt Connolly (CEO of Sønr) and Nigel Walsh (Global Head of Insurance at ServiceNow). Between them, they’ve spent years in and around the industry, so this isn’t theory. It’s what they’re seeing, hearing, and questioning in real time. Some weeks it’s just the two of them figuring things out out loud. Other weeks they’re joined by smart people from across insurance and tech. Founders, operators, investors, and the occasional curveball. The conversation moves between big ideas and day-to-day reality. Innovation, leadership, where the market is heading, and also family life, training, travel, and everything else that sits around the job. It’s thoughtful, honest, sometimes a bit direct, and never overcomplicated. If you work in insurance, or anywhere near it, you’ll probably feel right at home. New episodes every week. unfilteredwithmattnige.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    A weekly podcast about what’s really going on in insurance, and the people trying to keep up with it.
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Unfiltered with Matt & Nige
  • Show Website
    Unfiltered with Matt & Nige Podcast