Jubilee Wins 2026 InsurTech Forum AI Challenge

Jubilee Insurance emerged as the overall winner of the 2026 Execution Advantage AI Challenge, an innovation competition held during InsurTech Forum Nairobi (ITFN) that showcased how artificial intelligence can be applied in real-world insurance operations.

The challenge, organised by InsurTech Forum Nairobi in partnership with BimaLab, ZEP Reinsurance and M-TIBA, brought together insurers, underwriters, claims specialists, risk and compliance professionals, innovators and technology developers from across Africa to develop AI-driven solutions for the insurance sector.

Held under the theme, “Execution is Strategy: Can Your AI Stand Up to an Audit?”, the competition focused on AI systems capable of functioning in live insurance environments rather than controlled pilot projects. Participants were evaluated on innovation, technical capability, transparency, explainability, accountability and human oversight as insurers increasingly move from experimentation to large-scale AI deployment.

Teams competed across four focus areas: AI governance and oversight, adaptive policy management, continuous underwriting and risk monitoring, and end-to-end claims automation.

Jubilee Insurance claimed the top prize, followed by Baza Analytics in second place and The Monarch Insurance in third. According to the organisers, the winning solutions demonstrated how AI can be implemented responsibly while delivering measurable business value.

Ayisi Makatiani, CEO and Co-Founder of Caava Group, said the competition highlighted Africa’s growing ability to develop trustworthy AI solutions for the insurance industry.

“The insurance industry is entering a new era where competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how effectively organisations deploy AI. Success will not be determined simply by access to technology, but by the ability to implement it in a way that is trusted, explainable and accountable,” said Makatiani.

Participants were encouraged to build auditable AI agents capable of detecting bias and errors, adapting insurance coverage to evolving customer needs, proactively identifying emerging risks and automating claims processes while providing clear explanations for every decision.

Shadrack Kiratu, Director of Operations at M-TIBA, said the challenge reflected the direction the insurance industry is taking as AI adoption accelerates.

“AI is creating significant opportunities for insurers to improve efficiency, strengthen risk management and deliver better customer experiences. As adoption accelerates, the industry must focus on deploying it responsibly and at scale. The solutions presented here showed that the future belongs to AI that is not only innovative but capable of operating within real insurance environments,” said Kiratu.

Speaking during the event, Henok Eyob, Managing Director at Boston Consulting Group, emphasised the importance of treating AI as a business transformation initiative rather than purely a technology project.

“The single most reliable predictor of transformation success is whether businesses treat AI as a business priority and not a tech program and use it to track outcomes,” said Henok Eyob.

The AI Challenge formed part of the two-day InsurTech Forum Nairobi 2026, held on 18 and 19 June, providing a platform for insurers, technology firms and innovators to collaborate on practical AI solutions aimed at addressing some of the insurance sector’s most pressing operational and regulatory challenges.