Chicago Data Night 2026 Turning AI Investment into Insurance Innovation

On January 21, the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence partnered with the Data Science Institute along with Drive Capital, and ChiData to co-host Chicago Data Night, featuring Gaston Messineo, Partner and Financial Services Strategy & Execution Leader at EY-Parthenon. Messineo was joined by Jared Kwait, Senior Director at EY-Parthenon FS Strategy & Execution to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping the insurance industry.

The event brought together roughly 70 engaged attendees from across the industry, academia, and technology to examine how insurers are translating AI investments into tangible business outcomes.

Messineo’s talk, From Hype to Measurable Impact: How Insurers Are Realizing Value with AI, drew on current research and real-world client engagements to outline how leading insurers are moving from experimentation to scaled execution. 

An EY-Partheon survey of nearly 200 insurance companies, the EY-Partheon 2025 GenAI in Insurance Survey, provided context for how widely AI is already being adopted and where challenges remain, with 99% of insurers already investing or planning to invest in AI, with underwriting, claims, and distribution showing the highest near-term cost savings.

The conversation emphasized how insurers are structuring AI transformation efforts to align AI strategy with operating models and workforce capabilities, particularly as generative AI reshapes decision-making across underwriting, claims, and customer engagement. During the Q&A, audience questions reflected this practical orientation. One exchange focused on whether AI investments are more often directed toward internal process improvements or human workforce reduction, prompting discussion about productivity, growth, and the continued role of humans in an increasingly agentic future. Another question explored the potential for vertical integration. Messineo and Kwait highlighted the strategic importance of deciding where to build capabilities internally, where to acquire them, and where partnerships can deliver value more efficiently. 

Rather than framing AI as a tool for efficiency gains alone, they emphasized a growth-oriented mindset, starting with clearly defined business outcomes and designing enterprise AI strategies around “clusters of value”: interconnected sets of use cases within the insurance value chain that, when deployed together, deliver transformative impact. They concluded with a blueprint for operationalizing AI, calling for enhanced enterprise capabilities in strategy, governance, and a dedicated “AI Vertical Solutions Factory”: a cross-functional team of product leaders, data engineers, and architects tasked with reimagining end-to-end processes and evolving AI from bolt-on to built-in solutions.

The evening concluded with networking, offering attendees the opportunity to connect around shared ideas and discuss how leaders are thinking about AI and its role in shaping the industry’s next phase.