Jason Pedone is CTO at Aspida.
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The push to adopt AI in insurance is accelerating, but many organizations are modernizing the wrong layer of their technology stack. As regulatory expectations evolve and AI use cases expand, insurers are under pressure to move fast. Too often, that urgency leads to decisions that create short-term momentum while weakening long-term resilience.
A common approach is to add AI capabilities on top of brittle, outdated legacy systems. In isolation, these efforts can look successful. Automation improves, workflows speed up, and early results are easy to point to. But legacy systems were not designed for rapid change. They are tightly coupled, hard to modify, and expensive to maintain. Adding AI on top of them increases complexity and cost, while making future change harder, not easier.
The issue is not whether insurers should adopt AI. They must. The issue is whether the infrastructure underneath can adapt as regulations shift, data requirements grow, and business needs change. When systems cannot evolve without breaking, every new initiative becomes slower and more expensive than it should be.
The case for modular systems in insurance AI
That’s why the debate around AI in insurance misses the point. Adoption is inevitable. What remains optional, and often overlooked, is whether the underlying infrastructure can adapt as compliance rules evolve, data sources expand, and use cases change. Without modular systems, even well-intentioned AI initiatives become slow and costly. With them, insurers can move faster without disrupting what already works.
Modular system design is less about a specific framework and more about discipline. Systems work best when they have clear responsibilities and clean boundaries, particularly around data ownership. When each part of the platform is focused on doing one job well, it becomes much easier to change that part without creating unintended consequences elsewhere.
In practice, this means insurers can update pricing logic, reporting requirements, or digital workflows independently, instead of treating every change as a core system event. That separation is what allows organizations to move faster while reducing risk, rather than trading one for the other.
This structure fundamentally changes the economics of modernization. Large, monolithic systems require expensive, high-risk transformation programs. Modular systems allow insurers to modernize incrementally, targeting the most constrained or costly areas first. Over time, this lowers operating costs, reduces technical debt, and shortens the gap between investment and impact.
The competitive implications are becoming clearer across financial services. Institutions that remain dependent on legacy infrastructure face higher costs, slower execution, and growing competitive disadvantage as AI adoption accelerates. Insurance is not immune to this dynamic.
Sustainable systems save money over time. They reduce maintenance overhead, limit the need for repeated large-scale upgrades, and allow organizations to respond to regulatory and market change without starting over. Just as importantly, they create a durable competitive advantage. Insurers that can adapt quickly and reliably will be able to introduce new capabilities faster and operate more efficiently.
Those that continue to rely on brittle, outdated systems will pay more to do less—and over time, they will lose ground. Fast adoption may create the illusion of progress, but only the right foundation creates lasting advantage.
About the author
Jason Pedone brings to the team a wealth of experience as an engaged and hands-on technical leader with a proven track record in platform development and establishing modern and flexible technology architecture.
Prior to joining Aspida, he served as the SVP and Head of Digital and Consumer Channels Engineering Division at Truist Financial, where he led 40 agile development teams responsible for the engineering and delivery of digital product portfolios supporting over 10 million customers.
As Chief Technology Officer, his expertise in aligning product, business, and technology will enable Aspida to further cement its position as a digital leader in the insurance industry.
