Revealed: Which firms won at the Tech and Innovation Awards 2024?

On 19 September 2024, Insurance Times returned to the Royal Lancaster London hotel, nestled on the edge of Hyde Park, for the 2024 Tech and Innovation Awards.

Insurers, brokers, MGAs and ecosystem suppliers across UK general insurance gathered under one roof to recognise and celebrate the firms that are successfully tapping into technology to drive internal and external benefits for both end customers and staff by innovating current processes and products.

There was an undoubted atmosphere of excitement as attendees waited to find out which companies would take home the coveted trophies for this year.

Hosted by comedian and author Mark Watson, the awards evening featured prizes across 15 categories that celebrated the initiatives, teams and individuals at the forefront of emerging technologies and their implementation in UKGI.

Kicking off the proceedings was Insurance Times’ editor, Katie Scott.

In her opening remarks, Scott noted that the award event was about “recognising the partnerships, projects and achievements that pair blue sky thinking with evolving technology to create a new breed of innovative best practice that works alongside employees’ expertise to really deliver for customers”.

She continued: “We acknowledge the excellent work being done in areas such as artificial intelligence, counter fraud, data analytics and risk management, as well as celebrate collaborations and projects that have had an impact to improve internal and external operations and relationships.”

The Technology Champion of the Year 2024, one of the night’s most prestigious awards, was won by Nik Ellis, managing director at automotive expert witness service provider Laird Assessors and director at Swiftcase, which provides a business workflow management technology platform.

Ellis was shortlisted alongside four other candidates, including Melissa Collett, chief executive at Insurtech UK, Onda chief underwriting officer Alex Jomaa, Janthana Kaenprakhamroy – chief executive at Tapoly – and Paul McComish, head of business intelligence and data engineering at Allianz.

The Technology Champion of the Year award was sponsored by SSP Broker, with the trophy being presented by the firm’s managing director, Martyn Mathews.

Double winners

Quotemehappy.com Connect stood out during the awards evening, securing two major wins.

It received the Best Use of Technology for Customer Experience award, followed by a second victory in the Risk Management Technology of the Year category. Cyber insurance specialist Coalition received a highly commended recognition in this category.

MGA C-Quence impressed the judges to win the Best Use of AI – Broker/Insurer/MGA accolade, which was sponsored by Open GI. The firm also earned a highly commended recognition in the Technology Innovation of the Year category.

Verisk, meanwhile, demonstrated its technology prowess with a win in the Technology Innovation of the Year – Claims Support Service Provider category.

Additionally, Verisk’s subsidiary – Morning Data – received the Technology Innovation of the Year – Service Provider prize. Artificial earned a highly commended prize here too.

Celebrating success

Home insurance insurtech Uinsure won Technology Innovation of the Year, sponsored by Open GI, triumphing over Allianz, Atec Group and C-Quence.

In the Technology Partner of the Year category, Go-Insur emerged victorious, beating other finalists Broker Insights, Concirrus, DXC, Ignite and IS2, which took home a highly commended prize.

The Data Analytics Excellence Award, sponsored by Dun and Bradstreet, went to Insurance DataLab.

Scrub AI won the Insurance Startup Award, defeating finalists Insurance DataLab, Onda and Peppercorn AI.

Laka, meanwhile, took home the Insurer/MGA Innovation of the Year award, edging out tough competition from C-Quence, Ki and Tapoly.

Allianz secured gold in the Best Use of Technology for Customer Experience – Claims category, defeated shortlisted finalists Admiral and CoreLogic, FloodFlash, RDT and SBS.

DWF Law won the Counter Fraud Innovation of the Year award, distinguishing itself from the rest of the shortlist, which included Allianz Personal and Shift Technology with First Central.

Allianz Personal, Clearspeed and Allied Universal took home the prize for Technology Collaboration of the Year, while Concirrus picked up a trophy in the Best Use of AI – Service provider category, narrowly beating highly commended Peppercorn AI.

Congratulations to all of 2024’s winners.