Introduction
Most carriers can say how many AI pilots they are running. Far fewer can say where every automated decision in the business sits. That gap is the subject of this episode.
Josh Hollander is joined by Karl Canty and Paul Laurent of Artefact, the global data and AI consultancy, for a working conversation about the four frameworks converging on US insurance: the NAIC model bulletin, California's ADMT rules, Colorado's algorithm governance regime, and New York's DFS circular letter. Paul argues that this combination has made US insurance the most completely defined AI governance environment anywhere, and that the scope reaches well past the AI programs carriers are proud of. Rules engines, credit scores, telematics feeds, and vendor models are all inside it.
Karl's argument is that carriers moving on this for the first time are not first movers, they are late, and that the inventory work the rules force on you is the same work that makes your own data usable for growth.
Guest Bio
Karl Canty is Partner and US Insurance Lead at Artefact, where he is building the firm's North American insurance practice. He has spent about twenty-five years in insurance data, technology, and operations, including advisory roles at PwC and EY, a data and AI leadership role at EXL, and a partnership at Capco. He writes for Digital Insurance on where AI actually pays for carriers.
Paul Laurent is Head of AI Risk and Data Trust at Artefact, running the firm's AI governance advisory practice across North America. He describes himself as a technical lawyer: criminal prosecutions early on, a master's in computer science, then a decade at Oracle translating regulatory obligations into working architecture, followed by identity, data security, privacy, and now AI. He has contributed to NIST framework work across cybersecurity, privacy, and AI risk management.
Key Topics
-The four timelines - New York in force since July 2024, an NAIC pilot ending in an AI systems evaluation, California live with enforcement from January 2027, and Colorado already amended toward California's standard.
-Scope is wider than AI - California's rules reach deterministic tools and legacy rules engines, which pulls decades-old underwriting and claims infrastructure into the conversation.
-The vendor chain is not a place to put the risk - The NAIC treats external consumer data and information systems, including credit scores and telematics, as the carrier's responsibility. -Compliance cannot be delegated to a third-party vendor.
-Human in the loop rarely survives the test - California wrote three bright-line conditions for human review. In Paul's assessments, more than eighty percent of processes carriers describe as human-reviewed do not meet them.
-Nobody can produce the inventory - The first question in every engagement is where the business makes significant decisions with automation. Paul gets the same answer every time: we have some, we don't know where all of it is, and there is probably shadow.
-CalPrivacy is already staffed and fining - Roughly 150 complaints actioned, capacity for a hundred at a time, and eight-figure fines appearing.
-Where the work turns into growth - Karl's case for entity resolution, a real AI roadmap, and a durable enterprise AI competency coming out of the same assessment that satisfies the regulators.
-The pause happening right now - Paul's most governance-mature client has stopped agentic AI development until these questions are answered, and the conversation inside carriers has moved from the CIO to the chief data officer.
Notable Quotes
"The most completely defined spot on the global AI governance workspace right now is the US insurance industry."
"The vendor chain for NAIC is explicit. You cannot delegate compliance responsibility to a third-party vendor."
"I don't think that companies who are moving right now for the first time are first movers. I think you're already late."
"If you could tech your way out of this problem, it would have happened already."
Resources
Guests:
Artefact: https://www.artefact.com/
Karl Canty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlcanty/
Paul Laurent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paullaurent/
Host & Organization:
Joshua R. Hollander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuarhollander/
Horton International (USA): https://www.horton-usa.com/
Insurtech Leadership Podcast (LinkedIn Showcase): https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/insurtech-leadership-show
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