As margins tighten, extreme weather risks escalate, and AI reshapes every facet of P&C insurance, Guidewire’s Insurtech Vanguards pitch competitions continue to spotlight the kind of insurtech innovations that grow increasingly critical to carriers seeking to streamline operations and achieve sustainable growth.
Yet despite its high profile within the industry, the 2025 season of our InsurPitch competitions delivered a new twist. For the first time ever, top contenders from the year’s regional competitions gathered to go head-to-head in our inaugural Pitch Off: Battle of the Best to prove whose value proposition is Best of Insurtech 2025. Held October 28 in the Spotlight Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas during Guidewire Connections, this first-of-its-kind InsurPitch “world championship” pitted three insurtech finalists from competitions in London, Toronto, and Las Vegas earlier this year.
I’m writing this post in the hours immediately following Battle of the Best, in part to help me process the showdown that just played out in front of hundreds of industry leaders in attendance. For many, it was an unprecedented opportunity to assess some of today’s most compelling insurtech value propositions—and cast a vote for the best. But for me, the most exciting aspect of the competition is the perspective it offers on the trends transforming the industry.
Wisedocs competes in Pitch Off: Battle of the Best, Oct. 28 during Guidewire Connections
The Path to ‘Pitch Off’
To understand what I mean, let’s start with some context. As carriers continue to modernize their core systems and migrate to the cloud, they require modular innovations that plug easily into their existing infrastructure. Guidewire’s Insurtech Vanguards incubator program identifies promising insurtechs and educates our carrier community about emergent solutions that can help them improve profitability, reduce claims friction, and enhance customer experience.
Our InsurPitch competitions gamify this effort to give carriers a firsthand look at some of the world’s highest-value insurtech value propositions as we scout for new additions to our industry-leading PartnerConnect program.
Adjusto takes to the stage to vie for the title Best of Insurtech 2025 during Pitch Off: Battle of the Best
First launched in 2022 as a live pitch competition during ITC Las Vegas, InsurPitch has grown into a globe-spanning initiative. In 2024, we established our first regional competitions in Sydney, Australia, and Dublin, Ireland. In addition to our fourth annual Las Vegas-based event, 2025 saw InsurPitch extend its reach to London, England, and Toronto, Canada. This year’s series of regional contests attracted senior industry executives from hundreds of major carriers spanning more than a dozen countries. Pitch Off: Battle of the Best marks the first time top finalists from each of the year’s regional competitions faced off to see whose solutions most effectively move carriers from challenge-seen to challenge-solved.
AI Meets ROI: Surfacing Three Global Insurtech Trends
Battle of the Best comes at a pivotal moment for the P&C industry and for insurtechs worldwide. Artificial intelligence-focused insurtechs have dominated the funding landscape in 2025, securing nearly 60% of all deals during the second quarter of the year. That’s up from 42% of all funding made in the fourth quarter of last year. By Q3 2025, global insurtech funding hit $758 million. While that’s down compared to the same period in 2024, total deal volume increased—with carriers and investors prioritizing insurtechs centered on AI, data analytics, and risk modeling. It’s no wonder, given reports from McKinsey about the ROI carriers are achieving with investments in AI-based solutions.
nettle competes in Pitch Off: Battle of the Best, the climax to 2025’s Guidewire InsurPitch competitions
During today’s Battle of the Best, contenders each delivered live, five-minute presentations to explain their solutions, and the business challenges they solve, in the first InsurPitch competition during Guidewire’s annual conference. This is no small matter given that this event is attended by more than 3,000 top industry executives, investors, and the press. Reflecting on the pitches I heard first during this year’s regional InsurPitch competitions and again within the crescendo InsurPitch reached tonight, the following three shifts taking hold throughout the global insurance industry came into sharp relief:
Innovation Must Earn Its Keep: Carriers are demanding hard metrics. All three Battle of the Best contenders can connect their value directly to expense ratios, claim cycle times, or underwriting profitability.
AI Is Entering Its Accountable Age: Nearly 55% of insurers now report full adoption of generative and predictive AI. Yet fewer than 25% say their operating models are ready to scale safely. Battle of the Best competitors easily demonstrated how governance and integration turn AI promise into performance.
Claims Are a Growth Engine: Two of our Best finalists focus on automating costly processes and accelerating settlement. In an era when claims severity in some lines is up 21% over long-term averages, these savings go straight to the bottom line.
Stage Set, Stakes High
They conquered continents, and then they faced each other. The three finalists vying for InsurPitch’s world championship included:
Adjusto (Las Vegas)
As carriers contend with rising loss-adjustment expenses, Adjusto’s AI-based solution instantly identifies, prices, and validates contents—accelerating claim cycle times and significantly reducing manual effort.
nettle (London)
nettle’s AI-powered risk assessment engine brings speed and precision to commercial property underwriting, utilizing internal and third-party data to accomplish in minutes what might otherwise take days or weeks.
Wisedocs (Toronto)
InsurPitch Toronto winner ProNavigator was acquired by Guidewire just weeks after its victory. Taking its place in Battle: finalist Wisedocs and its AI-powered claims documentation solution turns unstructured medical records and insurance files into defensible insights—cutting review times by 85% and costs by 55%.
And the Best of the Battle Goes to …
Adjusto
Ultimately, Adjusto was selected in a live (and extraordinarily close) vote as Best of Insurtech 2025. Judges and audience alike were impressed by Adjusto’s solution and its ability to remove manual friction, provide accurate indemnity, and reduce the emotional and operational toll of contents claims.
Final Thoughts on What It All Means
As we close out InsurPitch’s 2025 series of competitions leading to (and through) Battle of the Best, I want to extend my thanks to Teams Guidewire and PwC. That includes our longtime PwC partner Imran Ilyas who, along with ProNavigator founder and CEO Joseph D’Souza, served on our judges panel.
In my view, InsurPitch and its Battle of the Best aren’t just about who won and why. It’s what the results reveal. The insurtechs participating in this competition proved that innovation gains traction when it can be seamlessly integrated to a modern core, when decision data is transparent and explainable, and when a mindset focused on partnership replaces mere procurement. As ideas cross borders faster than ever, one thing is clear: Insurtech innovation is now officially a contact sport that’s always played in real time.
Think you’ve got what it takes to transform P&C? Learn more about the Guidewire Insurtech Vanguards program and apply here.
For more on InsurPitch, watch this short video celebrating the competition’s first four years, below:
