Scouting for Growth

Reggie Townsend: Making Responsible AI Irresistible

Responsible AI has a design problem. Too often, it is treated as a compliance exercise, a policy document, or a late-stage control, when it should be the operating system that enables organizations to innovate with confidence.

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden welcomes back Reggie Townsend, Vice President of AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact at SAS, to explore one compelling idea: making responsible AI irresistible. Drawing on decades of experience helping enterprises embed trustworthy AI into their operations, Reggie explains why governance must evolve from abstract principles to practical systems people actually use.

As organizations race to deploy generative and agentic AI, the conversation has shifted. Responsible AI is no longer just about avoiding harm—it is about creating the conditions for innovation, resilience, and long-term competitive advantage. Boards are asking tougher questions. Regulators are raising expectations. Employees increasingly need guidance they can apply in real-world decisions, not just policies they acknowledge once a year.

This conversation is essential listening for CEOs, board directors, Chief Risk Officers, compliance leaders, AI product teams, and founders navigating the transition from responsible AI intentions to responsible AI execution.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

One of the biggest insights I took from this conversation is that responsible AI is fundamentally a design challenge. We have spent years writing principles and policies, yet many organizations still struggle to translate those aspirations into everyday decisions. Reggie reminded me that if governance feels complicated, disconnected, or burdensome, people will naturally work around it. Our challenge as leaders is to make responsible behavior the easiest path rather than the hardest one.

I was also struck by how governance is becoming inseparable from business strategy. As generative and agentic AI systems begin making increasingly autonomous decisions, governance can no longer be treated as a legal or compliance function operating at the edge of the organization. It has to become part of product design, procurement, operations, and executive decision-making. Trust is no longer something we communicate after deployment; it is something we engineer from the beginning.

Another important theme was the preservation of human agency. While AI can dramatically enhance productivity and decision-making, Reggie reminds us that organizations must remain intentional about where humans stay accountable. The future is unlikely to be defined by replacing people with AI, but by designing systems where humans and intelligent machines complement one another in transparent and meaningful ways.

However, perhaps my greatest takeaway is that responsible AI should become a competitive advantage rather than a regulatory obligation. Organizations that embed governance in their innovation will move with greater confidence because customers, regulators, employees, and investors will increasingly reward trust.

Making responsible AI irresistible is ultimately about making good governance so practical, intuitive and valuable that people actively choose to adopt it—and that may prove to be one of the most important leadership capabilities of the next decade.

 

BEST MOMENTS

"Responsible AI isn't about slowing innovation. It's about creating the confidence to innovate at scale." – Reggie Townsend

"If responsible AI feels like extra work, we've designed it wrong. We have to make it irresistible." – Reggie Townsend

"Governance shouldn't be something you visit once a year. It should be embedded into every decision, every workflow, and every system we build." – Reggie Townsend

"The question isn't whether AI will make decisions. It's whether we've designed those decisions to preserve human agency." – Reggie Townsend

"Trust isn't something you add after deployment. It's something you architect from the very beginning." – Reggie Townsend

"We're moving from governing models to governing systems of intelligence—and that's an entirely different challenge." – Reggie Townsend

"The organizations that thrive won't be the ones that adopt AI the fastest. They'll be the ones that build trust the fastest." – Reggie Townsend

"Responsible AI is no longer just an ethics conversation. It's becoming a leadership conversation, an operational conversation, and ultimately a competitive advantage." – Sabine VanderLinden

"As AI becomes more autonomous, our responsibility as leaders becomes even more intentional." – Sabine VanderLinden

"The future belongs to organizations that can turn responsible AI from a policy into a practice." – Sabine VanderLinden

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Reggie Townsend is Vice President of AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact at SAS, where he leads SAS’ global AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact organization. His remit includes the company’s Data & AI Ethics Practice, AI & Society initiatives, AI Governance Advisory, Standards, Regulations & Risk Intelligence programs, and Accessible & Adaptive AI efforts. He drives SAS’ work on trustworthy, human-centric innovation across products, policies, and partnerships. 

Reggie is recognized as one of the clearest voices in responsible and trustworthy AI. He has served as a member of the White House National AI Advisory Committee, sits on the board of EqualAI, and works at the intersection of responsible innovation, enterprise governance, social impact, and emerging AI regulation. In this conversation, he explores how organizations can turn AI governance from a source of friction into a driver of adoption, accountability, and growth. 

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Dale Diamond: When a $25K Claim Becomes a $7M Verdict or More

A small claim is no longer a small claim. It can be the first signal of a verdict that changes everything.

Dale Diamond, J.D., Vice President of Claims at NAMICO, joins Sabine VanderLinden to unpack one of the most urgent realities facing mutual insurers today: nuclear verdicts are not random events. They are often predictable. And if they are predictable, they can be prevented.

With more than 30 years of experience across appellate law, bad-faith defense, complex professional liability claims, underwriting, and claims leadership, Dale brings a rare three-dimensional view of what is changing within US insurance. He has seen the courtroom. He has seen the underwriting file. He has seen the claim review where one missed signal can turn a $25,000 auto liability claim into a $7 million jury verdict. 

The uncomfortable truth? The old claims playbook was built for a world that no longer exists.

This conversation is for mutual insurance CEOs, claims leaders, underwriters, reinsurers, and transformation executives navigating social inflation, plaintiff sophistication, AI-enabled litigation, climate volatility, and the new protection gap.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

One of my biggest takeaways from this conversation is that claims are no longer simply an operational function; they have become one of the most important strategic differentiators in insurance. Dale made it clear that the difference between a well-managed claim and a nuclear verdict often comes down to the decisions made in the first few months. Early collaboration, honest assessment, and having the courage to settle the right cases before positions harden can dramatically change outcomes.

I was also fascinated by how artificial intelligence is reshaping both sides of litigation. While insurers are embracing AI to analyze documents, accelerate investigations, and support claims professionals, plaintiff firms are using the same technologies to generate stronger complaints, organize evidence faster, and pursue increasingly sophisticated litigation strategies. AI isn't creating the problem—it is accelerating it for everyone.

Another insight that stayed with me is the importance of trust. Whether we are talking about policyholders, mutual insurers, or regulators, insurance remains a promise business. Technology should never replace empathy or transparency. Instead, it should free experienced claims professionals to focus on judgment, negotiation, and building stronger customer relationships.

Finally, Dale reinforced something I believe will define the future of insurance leadership: the best organizations won't simply automate existing processes. They'll redesign work around people. As routine activities become increasingly automated, the most valuable professionals will be those who combine technical expertise with communication skills, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence. That combination will become one of the industry's greatest competitive advantages.

 

BEST MOMENTS

"Insurance wasn't my first career choice… I always thought I'd be much more useful before all the problems happened, to prevent them rather than defend them afterwards." – Dale Diamond

"All the departments have to work together. If one gear breaks, the whole machine stops working." – Dale Diamond

"You don't just want to sell all the business you can—you want to make sure it's profitable business." – Dale Diamond

"Claims today are about much more than processing files. They're about protecting the customer, protecting the insurer, and making strategic decisions early." – Sabine VanderLinden

"The most dangerous cases are the ones with clear liability but disputed damages." – Dale Diamond

"Insurance is selling a promise." – Dale Diamond

"Technology should augment human judgment—not replace it." – Sabine VanderLinden

"As AI takes away the routine work, claims professionals will spend more time making decisions, building relationships and analysing complex situations." – Dale Diamond

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Dale Diamond, J.D., is Vice President of Claims at NAMICO, the insurance arm of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. With more than three decades of experience across appellate law, insurance coverage, bad-faith defense, professional liability, EPLI and D&O underwriting, and complex claims leadership, Dale brings a deeply cross-functional perspective to the challenges facing mutual insurers.

His work focuses on helping NAMIC members navigate nuclear verdicts, social inflation, bad-faith exposure, litigation funding, claims modernization, and the operational realities of defending mutual carriers in a more volatile claims environment. In this conversation, Dale helps decode the new survival playbook for mutual insurers in 2026: earlier intervention, better data, stronger talent, verified property intelligence, and sharper leadership discipline.

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Willem Paling: From Messy Middles to Autonomous Agents and the Race for Trust at Scale

While the insurance sector has long flirted with artificial intelligence, a vast majority of firms find themselves paralyzed in perpetual pilot phases. In this installment of Scouting for Growth, I sit down with Willem Paling, Executive Manager of AI and Analytics at IAG, to decode the transition from mere experimentation to the realization of operational AI at scale.

Reflecting on IAG’s aggressive deployment—launching more models in the past year than in the previous six years combined—Willem highlights that success in insurance will be anchored in trust architecture and governance rather than in model complexity alone. We unpack the friction of deploying in a regulated environment, moving beyond the "messy middle" of claims workflows toward a future of autonomous agents that enhance decision-making while ensuring human accountability remains paramount.

Our dialogue ventures into the frontiers of agentic commerce, machine-readable products, and the looming challenges of AI-driven fraud. As we look toward 2030, the vision of an AI-native insurer emerges, revealing why the winners will be those who weaponize their data foundations and human-AI collaboration today to dominate the industry's next era.

 

Key Takeaways

What stood out to me most from my conversation with Willem is that the AI race in insurance is no longer about access to models. Frontier models are becoming increasingly available to everyone. The real differentiator is the ability to operationalize AI safely, consistently, and at scale. Trust architecture, governance, monitoring, explainability, and human oversight are becoming strategic assets rather than compliance requirements.

I was particularly struck by Willem’s observation that the industry must stop treating AI as a series of experiments and start treating it as a core operating capability. The organizations creating value today are those that have embedded AI into business workflows, assigned clear ownership, and built repeatable deployment mechanisms that move beyond proof-of-concept thinking.

Another important lesson is that the greatest near-term value lies in the “messy middle” of insurance operations. By automating document-heavy, repetitive, and semi-structured tasks, AI can free highly skilled professionals to focus on judgment, customer relationships, negotiation, and exception handling—the areas where human expertise remains essential.

Our discussion also reinforced how dramatically the distribution of products may change as AI agents increasingly influence product discovery and purchasing decisions. Insurers must prepare for a world in which products must be machine-readable, API-enabled, and easily consumable by AI systems, not just by human buyers.

Finally, Willem highlighted an often-overlooked challenge: AI is not only helping insurers but also empowering bad actors. AI-generated fraud, synthetic identities, deepfakes, and manipulated evidence will require stronger trust mechanisms, verification systems, and provenance controls. The insurers that thrive by 2030 will be those that invest today in trustworthy AI foundations while redesigning their organizations around human-AI collaboration.

 

Best Moments

“This is what the messy middle actually looks like. Not the hype, not the holdouts—the insurer that stopped experimenting and started shipping.” – Sabine VanderLinden

“We stopped doing experiments, and we focused on delivery.” – Willem Paling

“The frontier is no longer just model capability. It’s whether you can industrialize AI with trust.” – Willem Paling

“Trust architecture isn’t separate from value creation. Trust is what turns AI from an impressive model into something that improves insurance at scale.” – Willem Paling

“We’re talking about expert judgment, decision-making, critical thinking, and empathy.” – Sabine VanderLinden

“The goal is not to preserve every task in the old role. It’s to preserve and elevate the expertise inside the role.” – Willem Paling

“The most underestimated risk is AI on the other side—AI attacking the evidence layer of insurance.” – Willem Paling

“The winning insurer in 2030 will be AI-native in how it operates, not just AI-enabled in a few functions.” – Willem Paling

“The companies who win the agentic frontier aren’t the ones with the biggest models. They are the ones who earn autonomy instead of declaring it.” – Sabine VanderLinden

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Willem Paling is the Executive Manager of AI and Analytics at IAG, Insurance Australia Group, Australia’s largest general insurer, operating brands including NRMA Insurance, CGU, WFI, and Swann Insurance. He leads the strategy and industrialization of AI across the organization, including production-grade systems in claims, underwriting, customer service, responsible AI governance, and human-AI teaming. 

His work focuses on moving AI from experimentation into trusted execution. Willem has helped shape IAG’s responsible AI commitments, supported the Australian Responsible AI Index, and contributed to the AI 2030 Horizons perspective following the ITC 2025 executive summit. His mission connects frontier capability with the governance, explainability, and operating discipline required to deploy AI safely in an industry built on customer promises.

Read the latest report: The State of AI in Insurance

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Patrick Van Deven: The Frontier Firm's moat isn't data — it's the layer that governs it.

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden sits down with Patrick Van Deven to unpack one of the biggest hidden blockers to becoming a true AI-native enterprise: legacy data infrastructure.

As organizations rush toward the “Frontier Firm” vision championed by Microsoft — intelligence on tap, human-agent collaboration, and AI-powered workflows — Patrick argues that most regulated industries are still running on fragmented data pipelines built decades ago. Beneath the excitement around agentic AI lies a critical operational reality: data remains horizontally distributed across systems such as SAP, Salesforce, Guidewire, and legacy warehouses, stitched together by opaque code that no one fully understands anymore.

Patrick explains why the future of AI in regulated industries depends less on flashy copilots and more on deterministic, governed, audit-ready data transformation. Drawing from his 35 years in enterprise software and his leadership at Volspeed, he outlines how AI is now reshaping data engineering itself — automating the “plumbing” layer while generating the metadata and lineage AI systems need to operate responsibly.

Together, Sabine and Patrick explore why re-architecting does not require a dangerous core system replacement, how organizations can solve tractable business problems in months rather than years, and why the next generation of enterprise leaders must bridge business expertise and data intelligence. This conversation is a practical roadmap for any executive navigating AI transformation inside complex, regulated environments.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

What stood out most to me in this conversation with Patrick was the reality that the “Frontier Firm” conversation is no longer about experimentation. It is about operational readiness. Every organization I speak to wants intelligence on tap, agentic workflows, and AI-enabled productivity, yet many are still constrained by fragmented legacy systems and undocumented data logic buried deep inside their infrastructure. Patrick made it very clear: if we do not solve the data foundation problem, we simply accelerate complexity and risk.

One insight that resonated deeply was the idea that data engineering is entering the same transformation that software engineering experienced with generative AI. The real opportunity is not just automation, but abstraction — enabling smaller teams to solve historically impossible integration problems while creating governed, machine-readable metadata that AI systems can actually trust and consume responsibly.

I was also struck by Patrick’s perspective on talent. Rather than replacing expertise, AI elevates the importance of subject matter experts who understand the business context behind the data. The future belongs to professionals who can bridge operational understanding with technical fluency and collaborate effectively with AI-enabled systems.

Most importantly, this conversation reinforced that becoming a Frontier Firm does not require ripping out every core system overnight. The no-regret move is to start solving tractable, high-value data problems now — especially those tied to governance, lineage, regulatory reporting, and customer intelligence. Organizations that modernize their deterministic data layer today will be the ones capable of building scalable, trustworthy AI tomorrow.

 

BEST MOMENTS

“You can bolt all the AI you want on top of that. It will not make you a frontier firm. It will just make your regulatory problems arrive faster.” — Sabine VanderLinden

“AI is coming to data engineering just like it came to software engineering.” — Patrick Van Deven

“The board looks at AI at the end of the value chain of data. But how did that data come to be?” — Patrick Van Deven

“There is no world where a company would run on one system.” — Patrick Van Deven

“Treat the AI agent like an employee. Onboard it, brief it, give it a personality.” — Sabine VanderLinden

“The dragon in the basement has finally reached the boardroom.” — Patrick Van Deven

“No data lineage. No agent bosses. No governed transformation. No intelligence on tap.” — Sabine VanderLinden

“This is a new era for subject matter experts.” — Patrick Van Deven

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Patrick Van Deven is the CEO of Vaultspeed and a veteran enterprise software leader with more than 35 years of experience in software engineering, predictive analytics, data infrastructure, and venture investing.

Patrick began his career as a software engineer, building and selling his first commercial application at just 22 years old. He later spent 15 years at SAS Institute, where he helped build data and predictive analytics applications for enterprise environments. He then transitioned into venture capital as an Operating Partner and General Partner at Fortino Capital, investing in software and AI startups across Europe.

In 2025, Patrick stepped back into an operational leadership role as CEO of Vaultspeed, driven by his belief that automating deterministic, governed data transformation is one of the most critical “no-regret moves” organizations can make in the age of AI. Today, Vaultspeed works with major global enterprises, including organizations operating across highly regulated industries such as insurance, banking, and financial services.

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures

Brad Wetherall: AI Search, Agentic AI, and How Corporations Must Adapt to Digital Discovery

In this episode of Scouting for Growth, Sabine VanderLinden is joined by Brad Wetherall, former Director of Operations at Google and current COO of Esquire Digital, to unpack the transformative impact of AI on search engines and digital visibility. 

The conversation explores how search is moving beyond traditional search engine optimization (SEO) to an era where AI agents, neural networks, and zero-click searches are redefining how brands are discovered, trusted, and chosen online. 

Brad Wetherall outlines the emergence of "agentic AI" and the rise of the "frontier firm," where human expertise and AI collaborate to generate both authority and visibility in this new digital ecosystem. This episode offers actionable strategies for corporations, regulated industries, and innovators aiming to future-proof their digital presence and leverage the next chapter of AI-led search.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The traditional SEO playbook is now outdated. The critical question is no longer “How do I rank number one on Google?” but “What does AI say about my company?” 

AI-generated summaries and answer engines sit at the top of results, often preventing users from ever clicking on links. To succeed, businesses—especially in highly regulated industries—must ensure their information is not just human-readable but also machine-readable, authoritative, and genuinely original. Websites should be built with both humans and AI in mind, making content easily digestible for AI agents. Content creation has become an interplay of art and science: AI values unique human perspective, expertise, and experience—simply generating generic, regurgitated answers will not suffice and may even have negative consequences, as Google’s recent algorithm updates penalize unoriginal, AI-generated spam.

Building trust, authority, and relevance is now an ongoing process. It’s essential to invest in structured content, active reputation management, robust Google Business profiles, and credible third-party validation through PR. AI agents are becoming the intermediaries of trust, filtering which brands and content make it into these AI overviews. Organizations must become agent bosses, orchestrating both human and machine intelligence, and focusing on verifiable outcomes, not just website traffic. The early adopters who build their authority and distinct voice now will lead in this new landscape and avoid the scramble of playing catch-up.

 

BEST MOMENTS

"The question is no longer how do I rank, but rather, what does AI say about my company?" — Sabine VanderLinden

"AI is fundamentally changing the rules of digital discovery. We're seeing a once-in-a-generation shift equivalent to the disruption caused by the Internet itself." — Brad Wetherall

"There is no easy button. There’s no shortcut. It’s not just about buying backlinks anymore—AI search requires a different blueprint." — Brad Wetherall

"AI wants to know who you are. The authoritativeness and trust in your company or as an individual now matter more than ever." — Brad Wetherall

"Clicks were always a flawed metric. Now, what matters is how many customers you get—not just traffic but outcome." — Brad Wetherall

"The companies that do this well—who invest in website optimization, unique content, reputation, and public relations—will win the race. It’s hard work, but it’s how you’ll stand out in an AI-driven world." — Brad Wetherall

 

ABOUT THE GUEST

Brad Wetherall is the Chief Operating Officer at Esquire Digital and the best-selling author of AI and the Future of Search. He spent over a decade at Google, leading operations and shaping products like Google Business Profile, Google Shopping, Google Wallet, and Google Domains—helping over 100 million businesses to be discovered online. 

Now at Esquire Digital, Brad applies his deep expertise to help companies adapt to the ever-evolving landscape of AI-driven search and digital visibility. His work focuses on demystifying the complex world of AI search and equipping organizations with the tools and strategies they need to remain competitive and authoritative as the digital economy transforms.

 

ABOUT THE HOST

Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet.

If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights.

And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at hello@alchemycrew.ventures