Insurers are investing heavily in AI, yet many are still struggling to realise meaningful returns
Simone Zanetti with the Insurance Institute of South Africa team following AI Bootcamp training delivered by the Zanetti AI Institute.
Image: Zanetti AI Institute / IISA, supplied
Simone Zanetti, founder of the Zanetti AI Institute and creator of the Zanetti AI Framework, will deliver a keynote address at the African Insurance Exchange 2026, taking place at the Sun City Convention Centre from 26 to 28 July 2026.
His keynote, Beyond the hype: leadership, judgement and competitive advantage in the age of AI, will examine why insurance organisations are increasing investment in AI tools, platforms and large language model licences without always seeing the productivity gains or business returns expected from that spend.
Zanetti has trained more than 500 executives in the insurance industry across South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia.
His work focuses on helping non-technical leaders and professional teams use AI in structured, accountable and commercially useful ways.
That matters in a sector where AI is already affecting underwriting, claims, fraud detection, customer service, compliance and internal productivity.
Among the organisations leading this shift is the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA), which has trained its staff on the Zanetti AI Framework.
By investing early in structured AI capability, IISA is positioning itself at the forefront of professional development in the industry, equipping its team to engage with AI in a way that is practical, governed and aligned with the future needs of insurance professionals.
Recent global insurance research points to a sharp gap between ambition and execution.
One 2026 industry report found that 82% of insurers believe AI will define the future of the sector, yet only 14% have fully integrated it into operations.
Legacy system integration and fragmented data remain major barriers to progress.
Zanetti said the industry is entering a stage where AI value will depend less on access to technology and more on the way people are trained to use it.
“Large enterprises are paying for AI access every day, often across thousands of users,” said Zanetti. “The licence cost is only justified if people know how to use these systems properly. When staff use AI badly, casually or only for low-value tasks, the business is carrying the cost without getting the return. The real issue is whether people can use AI to improve judgement, speed, quality, and consistency in daily work. In large organisations, using AI without real mastery and control can create a false sense of confidence that may result in serious errors, poor decisions, and significant organisational risk.”
He said insurance leaders need to separate visible AI activity from genuine organisational capability.
“A chatbot or document assistant can create the appearance of progress. But the test is harder than that. Can AI improve underwriting decisions? Can it reduce claims friction without creating unfair outcomes? Can it support compliance, training and customer service in a way that can be checked and defended? In insurance, AI has to be useful, explainable and governed.”
The Zanetti AI Framework, developed by Zanetti, is positioned as a vendor-independent operating model for enterprise AI.
Its architecture centres on protocol, activation and control, with an assurance layer covering observability, validation and auditable.
The framework is designed to help organisations move from ad hoc prompting to more reliable AI use across business functions, including workflows, decision support and AI agents.
The African Insurance Exchange is one of the continent’s major insurance gatherings, bringing together senior industry figures, regulators, intermediaries, reinsurers, service providers and technology leaders.
The 2026 conference theme, Insurance Renaissance: rebirth, reinvention, redefinition, places AI within the wider debate about the future shape of the sector.
South Africa’s regulatory environment is also moving quickly.
In late 2025, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and Prudential Authority published South Africa’s first broad report on AI use in the financial sector, based on more than 2,100 survey responses across banking, insurance, investments, payments and lending.
The report signalled clear expectations around board oversight, consumer disclosure, data protection and fairness where AI affects financial decisions.
Zanetti’s keynote will argue that African insurers have an opportunity to build AI capability on stronger foundations than many early adopters elsewhere.
That includes training non-technical professionals, defining clear rules for AI use, measuring productivity gains and ensuring that AI-supported decisions can be reviewed, explained and trusted.
The keynote will be delivered during AIE2026 at the Sun City Convention Centre, North West Province, from 26 to 28 July 2026.
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