The financial services sector is famously risk-averse. It has to be. But right now, the industry is facing a disruption that feels less like a ripple and more like a tidal wave. Generative AI has arrived, and for many in the insurance and financial sectors, the pressure to adopt is overwhelming.
Everyone is talking about it. Every board is asking for it. But between the shiny demos and the ambitious promises, there is a stark reality: getting AI in financial services to actually work in a regulated, complex environment is hard, and often requires specialist AI consulting services to move beyond experimentation and into production.
We recently sat down with Philip Lobatto from Microsoft, Andrew Charge from First Central, and our own Chief Data & AI Officer, Jodie Ashwood, to talk about what is actually happening on the ground. No fluff, just the honest truth about where the industry stands, the shift from Copilots to AI Agents, and why so many businesses are struggling to move past the pilot phase.
It is a tale of two technologies colliding.
Philip Lobatto, Executive Advisor for Insurance at Microsoft, points out a crucial distinction. The insurance industry has used “classical AI” (machine learning, deep reasoning, predictive modelling) for decades. It is the backbone of risk calculation and pricing, especially in dynamic markets like the UK.
But since late 2022, Generative AI has entered the room. This is different. It brings natural language capabilities that open up entirely new ways to interact with data. Philip highlights that the “sweet spot” is where these two worlds intersect, combining the mathematical accuracy of machine learning with the conversational power of GenAI.
However, despite the excitement, success is not guaranteed. Philip shared a sobering statistic from an MIT study: 95% of GenAI pilots fail. They don’t fail because the technology is broken; they fail because companies try to avoid friction. They attempt to layer new tech over old cultures without making the hard decisions required to change how they operate.
Culture eats strategy (and technology) for breakfast.
This is especially true in insurance, a business built on precision. “There is a culture of accuracy,” Philip explains. “Generative AI is a probabilistic system, which is something different than an exact outcome.”
Andrew Charge, Digital Workspace Director at First Central, agrees that the hurdle is often mindset rather than software. He compares the current AI race to the moon landings, everyone is rushing to get there, but few are discussing the training required to survive the journey.
“It’s a mindset shift,” Andrew says. “It’s no longer technology pushing out updates… all of us need to get this journey.” He warns that simply dropping tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot onto a workforce without preparation is a recipe for disaster.
“If you can ride a bike, and I give you a Ferrari, it looks lovely. Sounds great. But you don’t know how to drive a car… It’s going to be great for your Instagram photos, but it’s not actually going to achieve anything.”
Andrew Charge, Digital Workspace Director at First Central
We are moving from chat to action
We are currently in what Philip calls ‘phase one’, the era of the Copilot. This is the human with an assistant. You ask a question, you get an answer. It is useful, but it requires constant human prompting.
Phase two is the era of Agents. This is where the technology shifts from passive to active. Instead of just answering questions, an army of AI agents will perform tasks for you, coached and overseen by humans.
Philip described an “orchestrator” model used by a health insurer in Asia. Imagine a conductor leading an orchestra of specialised agents, one medical agent, one compliance agent, one claims agent. They work together to process information, with the human stepping in only for oversight and final decisions. This agentic workflow is where the real efficiency gains lie, particularly when organisations adopt agentic AI models designed to operate across complex, regulated processes.
Claims, customer service, and underwriting are the big three.
For First Central, the strategy involves a pragmatic split between front-office and back-office functions. Andrew notes that while the front office focuses on customer value, the back office offers huge potential for efficiency that is often overlooked.
Philip shared several examples of this in action:
They refused to buy the hype.
Andrew shared a refreshing perspective on resisting pressure. When the buzz around AI peaked, he faced huge demand to buy Copilot licenses for everyone immediately. He said no.
“I didn’t think the business was ready,” Andrew admits. “I didn’t think we had the training in place… I think if I just bought them, they’d have sat there on my budget for the last year.”
Instead, First Central focused on creating space for learning. They recognised that their staff were already suffering from “meeting burnout” and simply adding a new tool wouldn’t help. By prioritising digital literacy and cultural readiness first, they ensured that when they did deploy the tech, it would actually be used effectively.
You need a structured, scalable approach.
Jodie Ashwood, our Chief Data & AI Officer, argues that organisations get stuck because they treat AI as a series of disconnected experiments. To scale, you need a structured ecosystem, an AI Factory.
This approach focuses on three core components:
Stop sprinkling AI and start strategising.
Philip’s advice is stark: “If you’re going to sprinkle AI across the company in every division, you will not move the needle.”
Success requires bold decisions. It requires leadership to identify specific, high-value areas where AI can transform the process, rather than just adding a slightly smarter spellchecker to everyone’s laptop.
For Andrew, it comes back to the human element. The technology is evolving daily, and the static learning models of the past, where you learned a system once every three years, are dead. Continuous learning is the new standard.
The potential for AI in financial services is undeniable. From agentic workflows that handle claims in minutes to hyper-personalised underwriting, the future looks efficient and intelligent.
But as our panellists made clear, you cannot buy digital transformation off the shelf. It takes more than licenses. It takes a willingness to tackle the unsexy work: fixing your data, training your people, and reshaping your culture to embrace friction rather than avoid it.
At Transparity, we believe in straightforward advice and steady hands. If you are ready to move beyond the hype and build an AI strategy that actually delivers, we are here to help you navigate the journey.
Charities are facing a unique set of challenges as they work to adapt to an increasingly digital world. Balancing limited budgets and fundraising obstacles to the new world of remote working and volunteers spread across the country and beyond. In addition to this, many not-for-profit organisations are working hard to serve communities and causes from a range of locations and with varying levels of digital access.
Many not-for-profit employees want to embrace the benefits of flexible or hybrid working, with 68% of charities planning to adopt it long-term. However, charities are faced with the challenges of hybrid working too, for team members, volunteers and the causes they serve.
There are two key challenges charities are contending with; keeping teams and volunteers connected and ensuring the people who need them aren’t excluded by technology. In this article we’ll explore how not-for-profits can get the best of both worlds and develop more inclusive services.
With team members, volunteers and donors in a range of locations, keeping everyone informed and connected is vital. From the day-to-day activities of team members to organising volunteer events and keeping donors engaged and up-to-date – the right tools are essential.
Microsoft Teams goes beyond basic chat features, offering all you need to stay connected with the people and teams you need most. Teams transforms your workflow straight out of the box with instant chats, video meetings, file collaboration, and channels to keep everything organised. Set up channels for specific priorities, projects and initiatives and invite both internal and external stakeholders to keep everything you need filed in the same place for easy access, updates and discussions. Check in and chat in the main channel feed and add Planner to the mix to assign tasks and manage upcoming events and deadlines.
Although Teams’ capabilities don’t end there, our Modern Communications experts can expand on the platform to include Teams-powered desk phones, Teams meeting rooms and even Teams-enabled contact centres. By bringing your communications under the roof of Teams, you can consolidate your licenses and reduce expenses. In fact, according to a Microsoft report, 64% of nonprofit CFOs have said that adopting the newer cloud technology methods would cut operational costs by about 20%.
Plus, you can be sure your communications are organised, secure and accessible to the right people from anywhere.
In an increasingly online world vulnerable people are at risk of being left behind. For not-for-profits serving these communities, digital inclusion is at the top of the priority list. According to the Charity Digital Skills Report 2021, more than half of charities are worried about excluding some people or groups.
While online support is a fantastic option for many not-for-profit organisations, for some there’s nothing like picking up the phone and speaking to someone. For charities serving vulnerable communities, call centres are a key part of how they remain available to the people they support and are a more accessible option.
Landline-based contact centres are limited by a fixed location and a significant lack of data insights, which can be used to improve service delivery. Teams-based contact centres offer the ability to answer calls from anywhere while tracking key data points like call volumes, response times and other insights. Armed with this information charities can see things like when call volumes peak and adjust the number of team members answering calls accordingly.
With any Teams-powered solution you can be sure that your communications and files are managed securely, both for internal teams and your community of volunteers and donors.
Putting these solutions to work is easy and hassle-free, with our Modern Communications managed services. We work in partnership with you and Anywhere365 to deliver the Teams-powered tools not-for-profits need to stay connected with their communities and ensure everyone is included.
Get started on your modern communications journey and find out all your need to know with advice tailored to your needs with a free expert consultation.
As Not-for-profits continue to recover from reduced donations, limited fundraising options and other disruptions from the pandemic, they’re now facing the challenges of the post-COVID world. Across industries, there is a growing trend of remote and hybrid working with 73% of workers wanting flexible working options to continue.
The not-for-profit sector is no exception to this change, according to The Charity Digital Skills Report 2021, 68% of respondents are planning to adopt hybrid working long-term. During the pandemic, the priority for charities was to continue to serve their mission statement and adapt to the challenges of lockdowns and fundraising. Now, a new era of hybrid working is changing the way not-for-profits work and bringing with it a new set of challenges.
Not-for-profit organisations looking to benefit from the flexibility of hybrid working need to ensure their technology and digital infrastructure is optimised to support secure and productive remote working.
Hybrid and remote working offer not-for-profits and charities the opportunity to create a more flexible and inclusive working environment while reducing costs and gaining access to a wider pool of talent.
By embracing remote working options, not-for-profits can remove barriers, better support their staff and better serve their mission. Not only does it widen the geographical pool of talent, but it also enables more flexible working conditions which are essential to many working parents and people with disabilities for example.
It’s not just greater inclusivity, not-for-profits can reduce overheads and make precious funds go further too. By moving to remote or hybrid working charities can reduce the costs associated with maintaining a large office space while making the most of the investment in technology they made early in the pandemic. Microsoft offers special pricing for not-for-profits and cloud technologies like Microsoft 365 and Teams subscriptions are based on the number of licenses you need, so you only ever pay for what you’re using without the need for large up-front investment.
A key aspect of remote working that may have gone overlooked is optimising your setup so that teams are not just adapting to working from home but thriving. There are two important elements to this – keeping your data secure and keeping teams connected.
Microsoft 365 and Teams not only keep your team and volunteers connected and collaborative, but make securing access to your documents easy. Not-for-profit teams can interact effortlessly with instant messaging, video calling and virtual meetings in Microsoft Teams while collaborating in real-time on files in M365. Collaborate with teams and volunteers from anywhere to keep them engaged and supported as they carry out their important work.
Plus, features like Endpoint Manager allow you to centrally patch and update devices from anywhere while Multifactor Authentication makes sure only authorised personnel can access documents, safeguarding any sensitive data.
With these tools, your team can operate a remote call centre, support volunteers, and even deliver services from anywhere on a range of devices.
We offer six Microsoft funded modern work workshops providing in-depth guidance from our modern work experts. Explore Microsoft’s modern work stack, explore the potential and get personalised advice tailored to your organisation’s needs. From useful features to keeping your infrastructure secure, our workshops will give you the knowledge and actionable next steps you need to optimise your remote working setup.
Our Microsoft funded workshops include:
We’re a Microsoft Gold Partner and hold multiple Advanced Specialisations, including:
We partnered with not-for-profit YMCA Bournemouth to modernise and transform their IT systems and migrate their on-premises systems to the cloud in order to boost their productivity and cut costs. To limit disruption and ensure they could continue their valuable work, we opted for a phased deployment, taking their transformation a step at a time.
Since the project was completed YMCA Bournemouth have seen significant cost savings. In fact, they estimate that their annual costs have dropped by 32%, or approximately £30,000. They’ve also seen a vast improvement in response times across the organisation, allowing them to deliver the life-changing work they do better.
“Transparity’s expertise – coupled with collaborative and innovative IT solutions – are paving the way for transforming our IT infrastructure. We will benefit immensely from a more coherent platform on which to build our most significant IT projects, which will enable us to make better, more intelligent use of our data. Transparity’s staff are approachable and very knowledgeable; their support framework enables them to rapidly escalate issues as necessary. Transparity have played a vital role in Transforming our IT infrastructure.”
Jonathan Chadd, Building & Services Development Manager at YMCA Bournemouth
Remote and hybrid working in not-for-profits and charities is here to stay and is set to elevate both the working experience for staff and their ability to impact their mission. While the benefits of hybrid working transform the industry, it’s key to ensure the technology is optimised to facilitate staff productivity and the security of your data.
For the not-for-profit sector, making a secure digital transition is especially challenging. Not only do not-for-profit organisations and charities rely on funding, but they also manage a lot administration and governance when tracking and engaging a large number of donors.
A government survey reveals that over a quarter (26%) of charities have experienced a cyber breach in the last 6 months. With the rise in remote working, this figure is unsurprising.
Not-for-Profit organisations are now reconsidering their IT governance to deliver digital projects more efficiently and resolve cybersecurity issues. If this is a concern, here’s how we can help:
Securing endpoints is critical for effective hybrid working. Where employees are working remotely via unsecured personal devices, data is at risk. This is a huge compliance issue, as confidential information can be more easily accessed by malicious outsiders. Ultimately, this could land not for profit organisations with a costly GDPR violation penalty – or worse yet, a six-figure ransom payment to hackers for the safe return of encrypted data.
Transparity recently worked with Enham Trust, a disability charity based in Hampshire, to improve data handling and information sharing across the organisation. As well as migrating to Microsoft 365 to achieve greater productivity in the Cloud, the charity gained access to Endpoint Manager, giving them the power to manage and authorise remote devices with zero-touch provisioning. This reduces the likelihood of cyberattacks, as Multi-Factor Authentication is required on mobile devices to prove a user’s identity before they can access files and applications. These solutions create a more secure, modern and flexible working environment, increasing efficiency and eliminating reliance on legacy infrastructure.
We offer six Microsoft funded security workshops providing in-depth guidance from our security experts. Explore Microsoft’s extensive security toolset, analyse current threats and create a strategic security plan to protect and govern your corporate data. Get actionable next steps to improve your security posture and put your questions to our experts so you walk away with the insights you need.
Our security workshops are:
We’re a Microsoft Gold Partner and hold multiple Advanced Specialisations, including:
To learn more about how funded Microsoft solutions can improve cybersecurity and IT governance in your organisation, register for a 3-day workshop with Transparity’s expert consultants or contact us.
