EP 62 – Can an Insurance Company Be Built From Scratch Using Only AI? – Onur Gungor – CEO at Allegory

Listen

Michael Waitze worked in Global Finance for more than 20 years, employed by firms like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, primarily in Tokyo.  Michael lived and worked in Tokyo from February 1990 until December 2011.  Michael always maintained a particular focus on how technology could be used to make businesses more efficient and to drive P/L growth. Michael is a leader in the digital media space, building one of the biggest and fastest-growing podcast listener bases in the region.  His AsiaTechPodcast.com show has listeners in more than 130 countries and his company, Michael Waitze Media produces some of Asia’s most popular podcasts.

Guest
Onur Gongor

Onur Gungor is the founder and CEO of Allegory. He is an accomplished actuary, mathematician, and product leader with 15 years of experience across European and North American P&C insurance markets. His expertise spans actuarial science, AI/ML, and enterprise software, where he previously helped found an insurer in Canada, scaled teams from 1 to 100s, and led development of consumer-facing insurance products serving 6M+ customers. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

The insurance industry is undergoing a profound transformation driven by artificial intelligence. Instead of layering AI onto existing processes, a new approach is emerging—one that rebuilds insurance from the ground up using AI as the foundation.InsurTech Amplified welcomed ⁠Onur Gungor⁠, the Founder and CEO of ⁠Allegory⁠, who is reimagining the insurance industry by building it from first principles—with artificial intelligence at the core.

This involves modeling every aspect of the value chain, from underwriting and pricing to claims handling and customer service, as interconnected workflows that can be managed by intelligent agents. These agents don’t just automate tasks—they coordinate, learn, and support human decision-makers by providing real-time data, context, and summaries. This fusion of actuarial thinking and AI results in systems that are faster, more efficient, and capable of scaling into underserved regions and emerging markets.

However, even with advanced automation, there are essential roles that only humans can fill. Empathy, intuition, and ethical judgment remain core to meaningful customer interactions, especially in moments of crisis or distress. While AI can process massive amounts of data and generate new solutions rapidly, it still requires human oversight to guide, interpret, and ensure that outcomes align with values. The future of insurance is not about replacing people with machines but empowering them with tools that make their work more impactful, accurate, and compassionate.

Related Podcasts

Episode 80
X