Scout InsurTech Spotlight with Jean Finnegan

Jean Finnegan is Vice President of innovation at Nationwide, where she focuses on advancing innovation and strategic partnerships across the insurance industry. Jean was interviewed by Chris Luiz, CEO and Co-Founder at Scout InsurTech.

Jean, how is innovating in today’s P&C environment different from your prior work, and what does your current remit look like across personal lines, commercial lines, and agribusiness?

“My background has been in financial services for about thirty years, always focused on product development and innovation. Early in my career, I worked on things like online banking platforms in the 1990s. That was such an interesting time because technology wasn’t quite keeping pace with what customers wanted, so there was this constant push and pull. Another example was E-Trade, which at the time felt like a very cool startup. That one took a long time to incubate, and it really taught me the importance of patience in the product development process.

I’ve been at Nationwide for seventeen years now, and about a year ago, I stepped into this role leading innovation across personal lines, commercial lines, and the agribusiness group. What’s similar to my past work is that it’s still about helping consumers make important financial decisions, mitigating risks, and responding to changing expectations. The big difference is the environment. In financial services, I wasn’t spending much time thinking about climate change, but in P&C, you can’t avoid it. That has been a new and really interesting area to dig into. I wouldn’t say climate change itself is fun, but understanding how it impacts the industry and what we should be doing in response has been a fascinating challenge.

The way I see my role here is as an internal catalyst. My business partners are the ones managing the day-to-day, and that’s a huge job. I think of them as my clients. My job is to look around the corner, to scan for what’s coming next, and to help set us up to be ready for it.”

How do you balance improving the existing insurance value chain with pursuing net-new capabilities, especially with generative AI?

“The first thing I always look at is the business context. Where is the unit in its cycle? Some are in remediation mode, where the focus is squarely on getting back to profitability. Others are in growth mode, and there the focus is on expanding share and creating new opportunities. That context drives everything.

If a unit is in remediation, efficiency is the name of the game. For example, we’ve been working on making the claims process easier for associates. One project uses AI to take twenty or more log notes and condense them into a single summary. That kind of work saves time and reduces friction, and in remediation mode, that is exactly what matters.

If the business is in growth mode, the questions are different. Then we ask, how can we engage customers differently? How can our mobile app help homeowners better understand risk or weigh the trade-offs around investing in their homes? That’s where we push forward on capabilities that can create new value.

Of course, we can’t have a conversation these days without talking about generative AI. At scale today, our focus is really on internal processes and making them more efficient. That’s where AI is delivering real value right now. We also have strong governance in place to make sure we’re managing data risk, keeping humans in the loop, and staying aligned with regulators.

At the same time, we are testing consumer-facing applications in smaller pilots. One example is in personal lines, where we are using AI to see if we can turn colder leads into warmer ones for our distribution partners. That’s still early, but it shows where things are headed.

I think we’re in a transition period with AI. It feels a lot like how people talked about digital fifteen years ago. At first, everything was a ‘digital project.’ Then, over time, digital just became part of how we worked. I see AI going the same way. Soon it won’t be ‘my AI project.’ It will just be the mindset that runs across everything we do.”

What advice would you give founders on working effectively with a large insurer?

“I love this question because I spend a lot of time with founders, trying to help them navigate how to work with a company like Nationwide. There are a handful of things I tell them that can make a big difference.

The first is culture. You have to make sure there’s a fit. Nationwide is a people-first company. If a partner comes in with a completely different philosophy, it’s going to clash and it won’t work. Culture alignment really matters.

The second is strategic alignment. And here I always push people to go deeper than the surface level. Sure, you can look up our mission and vision online, but what does it really mean in practice? For us, it means focusing on customer segments like the ‘protectors.’ These are people who don’t just want insurance to cover a bad day; they want to avoid the bad day altogether. They are into predict-and-prevent behaviors. If you understand that level of our strategy, you can talk to us about how you fit in and how you can help. If you stay at 50,000 feet, you’re going to miss the connection.

Another big one is the financials. If you are asking a large insurer to invest in your solution, you need to be able to show us what we can expect to get out of it. Having a solid grasp of the economics is critical.

Technology is another area where startups can stumble. Large insurers have legacy systems. That’s just the reality. If your product can’t integrate easily, it’s going to be a challenge. Founders need to do the work to understand compatibility and ease of integration.

Then there’s regulatory and compliance. This is one of those things that makes insurance different. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a great idea from a founder, only to have to say, ‘That’s actually not legal in insurance.’ You have to know the rules of the space you’re entering.

Founders also need to know who the real decision makers are. If you’re selling an HR solution, for example, is the buyer really HR, or is it the business unit that works with HR? Understanding who actually makes the call is essential.

Timelines are another reality. Working with a large insurer can take patience. Some things move quickly, others don’t. Founders need to be prepared for that.

And finally, I always tell founders not to fall too in love with their thing, whatever it is. Whether it’s software or a product, you have to think beyond it. How does it fit into the larger value chain? How will it get delivered, marketed, and supported? If you can’t speak to that, you’re missing an important piece of the conversation.

So, culture, strategy, financials, technology, compliance, decision makers, timelines, and thinking beyond your product. Those are the things I try to coach founders on.”

What are the top three things a startup should be prepared to do or prove before approaching an enterprise like Nationwide?

“The first is to understand our mission and vision and be able to show exactly how you fit. That bigger-picture alignment is essential.

The second is to know where you are entering the organization. We are a very large company, and if you are in the wrong room talking to the wrong people, you are wasting everyone’s time.

And the third is to lean into collaboration. Show us how you measure impact, how you think about scalability, and how you co-create and work iteratively. Those are the things that signal to me that you are ready to work within a large enterprise system.”

Over the next 12 to 18 months, what innovations or themes in P&C are you most excited about, and why?

“I spend a lot of time thinking about climate resilience. I know it sounds strange to say I’m excited about it, because the stakes are so high, but it really is a fascinating area. The industry is shifting from repair and replace to predict and prevent. Customers are starting to lean into that too. They don’t want the bad day, and we don’t want it for them either. So how can we work together to avoid it? That’s a powerful question.

I also think parametric insurance is fascinating. The idea that coverage could be triggered by a specific event, like hail of a certain size hitting your property, and you automatically get a new roof, is a totally different way of thinking about protection.

And then there’s embedded insurance, which I think could really change the customer experience. If you buy a car and the insurance is already included, it’s no longer an extra step; it’s just part of the package.

Both parametric and embedded models are important for the future because affordability is becoming a real issue. We need new approaches to make sure people can continue to access coverage. I think these models, along with the predict-and-prevent shift, are going to be central to how the industry evolves.”

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