Describe your day job
As CEO, I have a responsibility to employees, customers, and shareholders equally. That means starting on the inside of the company and ensuring we operate in the right direction, in the right manner and our purpose is clearly understood by everyone. Our North Star is to be the No. 1 autonomous quality assurance platform in the world, representing the foundation for software quality in the modern enterprise.
That’s what we need to focus on internally, and it’s my job to ensure we stay committed to that goal.
At the same time, we need to deliver for our customers in enterprise scalability and assurance of service and enable them to deliver more applications at a higher quality quicker and at a lower cost than they have done with traditional tools. Plus, we need to innovate to stay ahead of the curve.
If we do this, then we can look to grow our customer base and in turn our revenues in a sensible manageable way.
That comes full circle, allowing us to invest more in our people and product to further enhance our customer deliverables. It’s a perfect circle if you get it right.
Being a CEO is a lonely job, but it’s very rewarding too.
You have a sales/technical background and have only recently entered the insurance industry. What prompted this decision and how/why did you become interested in the space?
The insurance industry I believe has lagged behind in digital maturity and is undergoing a rapid need to change traditional business models and customer experience.
At the same time, regulatory compliance continues to suck up time, energy, and resources. ESG initiatives are at the front of mind; there is a lack of employees entering the industry, cybersecurity is increasing in significance, and climate change amongst other things means claims management is a source of concern.
So, there is a definite need for technological advancement, and that’s what makes the sector itself interesting. You couple that with what Virtuoso can offer, and it really made the choice compelling.
What are Virtuoso’s key aims and objectives – the elevator pitch please
Wow, there are a few so here goes I will try and keep it high level. This is about 45 seconds, so I hope we are heading for the higher floors!
Today you have an expanding set of applications to serve customers, partners, and employees. Customer portals, broker portals, market portals, policy portals, risk portals… And on… You need to add new features, fix bugs, migrate data, upgrade operating systems, and test all of these for user experience.
It’s like painting the Forth Bridge – you never finish. But at the same time, you are adding more and more applications to the mix. This means it’s a losing battle.
The advent of AI has given us the ability to test in a far more efficient way, saving customers time and money and improving quality — that’s where we come in. We have a platform that can run tests autonomously, look for errors, and self-heal. All with minimal need for developers. So you get better quality software, quicker, and at a lower cost.
Which trends are impacting your sector the most, and why?
AI, of course. Testing has been around for decades, and in the early days, testers would manually execute test cases to identify bugs and issues. Then came automated testing where repetitive tasks could be automated, and companies could run scripts or use recorders (where you ‘record’ a user journey and then play it back again and again).
These have their place but are slow, require strong technical skills, and are very hard to maintain. AI is a game changer here, rapidly identifying patterns, predicting outcomes, and making optimal changes — all being done with little or no technical skills and almost self-maintained. Testing is more accurate, quicker, and more thorough, meaning better quality all around.
At the same time, AI can help us fix issues through self-healing technology again producing better quality experiences.
What changes do you think we’ll be seeing across the industry, as a result of innovations driven by companies like Virtuoso
My perspective is that AI, in general, will drive super users: humans architecting the direction of applications and using the huge power of AI to effect the changes needed. The real brains will be in the person driving AI. A bit like a coach, with the magic happening on the field via the autonomous AI capabilities in the software.
What can we expect from Virtuoso over the next 12 to 18 months?
I recently held a town hall for all the staff at Virtuoso where I talked of the challenges the SaaS industry has faced over the last few years and quoted from the Harvard Business Review about how companies like Virtuoso needed to be less ‘Unicorn and more Camel’ where we focus on a long-term strategy of growth in a manageable way. We won’t overstretch — we will build upon our platform today staying true to our belief that autonomous testing is the way forward and building for the scale we see in the insurance sector. That, in turn, will enable us to invest in our roadmap to bring more value to our customers and partners and grow. I envisage more expansion into America and Asia and healthy growth.
What inspires you as a leader in Insurtech today?
The sector plays a key part in a huge market today with an almost limitless customer base and incredible complexity. There are increasing challenges presented, and I believe we can significantly help our customers and partners to deliver better, safer, easier, quicker, cost-effective solutions on their digital journey. As we grow, we can continue to innovate and add further value in a way that does not carry many of the ethical concerns AI has presented us with.
We are in the business of making our customer’s customers happy. That in itself is inspiring.
Join Virtuoso in London at Insurtech Insights Europe, 2024
Join James Bent, VP Solutions, Engineering – Virtuoso, as he takes to the Tech Stage at Insurtech Insights Europe, 2024, to discuss ‘Claiming Excellence: Transforming Insurance QA with AI Test Automation on Thursday March 21st at 12:15pm. Check here for more agenda information.
