AI, trust, and the future of insurance
Sep 2025
Dr. Nagita Mehr Seresht, Senior Director, AI Model R&D at NearmapOur senior director of AI model R&D shares her key takeaways from the 2025 Women in Insurance Summit — including how AI can complement people-powered decisioning.
Sep 2025
Dr. Nagita Mehr Seresht, Senior Director, AI Model R&D at Nearmap)
At the Women in Insurance Summit in Sydney, I joined a panel of industry leaders to talk about the role of AI in insurance. What struck me most was how practical the conversation was. Nobody in the room wanted abstract promises. The questions were about how AI is being used today, how quickly it can deliver value, and how we can use it in ways that keep people’s trust.
Why speed matters
When a disaster hits, insurers need to move quickly. Customers don’t want to wait weeks for answers. They want clarity when everything around them feels uncertain.
I shared how aerial imagery and AI-powered location insights can give insurers a view of the damage often within 24 to 48 hours. That speed means claims teams can focus on the hardest-hit areas and validate claims with evidence, often before residents are even allowed back.
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Los Angeles fire event, Jan 2025
One of my fellow panellists reflected on how much harder this process was during Australia’s Black Saturday bushfires more than a decade ago. Without this technology, it took enormous amounts of time and people to piece together the scale of the damage. The contrast shows how far the industry has come.
Keeping people in the loop
Another panelist raised an important point about governance and trust. Boards are asking more questions about how AI is developed, and how decisions are explained. I couldn’t agree more.
That’s why every AI detection we produce at Nearmap is linked back to the imagery and carries a confidence score. The claims team still makes the final call. For me, that’s the right balance: let AI process the scale and complexity, but leave the judgement with people.
Building confidence with AI
The panel also addressed the fear that many still feel around AI. It was reassuring to hear her say what I often tell my own teams: you don’t have to know everything. The best way to build confidence is to try and evaluate it for yourself
Experiment in safe environments. See where it works well and where it falls short. Leaders have a responsibility to show why it’s being used, encourage experimentation, and give people the space to grow their confidence.
Reflecting our diversity in leadership
Another part of the panel I valued was the discussion about leadership. The industry overall does well on gender balance, but when you look at senior technology roles, women are still underrepresented. Several of us spoke about the need to mentor, sponsor, and create pathways into roles like CIO or CTO.
The message was clear: if we want AI in insurance to reflect the diversity of our customers and the complexity of the world we live in, then leadership teams need to reflect that too.
Looking ahead
The panel left me with optimism. AI is already part of insurance, but it doesn’t replace the role of people. It gives us the tools to respond faster, to base decisions on clear evidence, and to focus our time where it makes the biggest difference.
As I said on stage: humans own the decisions. AI helps us make them with clarity.
About the author
Dr. Nagita Mehr Seresht is the Senior Director of AI Model R&D at Nearmap, with over 15 years of leadership experience in machine learning, computer vision, and scalable systems. She drives innovation and delivers advanced AI solutions, leading the development of models and algorithms that turn high-resolution aerial imagery into actionable intelligence, supporting insurers and the broader industry in making smarter, faster decisions.