From Fintech to Insurtech: Inside Nolana AI’s Journey into the Lloyd’s Market

We recently joined The Leadership in Insurance Podcast for a conversation about how Nolana AI came to life, why insurance became the focus, and what it really takes to bring AI into the core of insurance operations.

The episode features Ty Zamkow, Co-Founder & CEO of Nolana, in discussion with host Alex Bond, covering everything from his early career in big tech to building a company focused on one of the most operationally complex industries in the world.

From big tech to insurance

Ty’s career didn’t start in insurance. After roles at Google and Amazon, and a stint building a fintech company, he wasn’t looking at insurance as a next move. Like many outside the industry, it wasn’t an obvious destination.

That changed when he took a closer look at how insurance actually runs day to day.

Behind the surface, claims and customer service workflows were still heavily manual, fragmented across systems, and reliant on significant human coordination. It was clear there was a large gap between what modern software could enable and what teams were actually working with.

That gap became the starting point for Nolana.

Why insurance, and why now

In the podcast, Ty talks about why insurance stood out as both a difficult and compelling space to build in.

It’s an industry with high stakes, complex workflows, and large volumes of unstructured communication across email, voice, and documents. At the same time, it’s under pressure to improve speed, customer experience, and operational efficiency.

AI creates a real opportunity here, but only if it can work within the constraints of how insurance actually operates.

Building AI that works inside real workflows

A key theme of the conversation is how Nolana is designed to fit into existing insurance operations rather than replace them.

The platform is structured in three layers:

• An AI operating system for insurance workflows

• A set of pre-built AI agents for common use cases like claims handling and customer service

• A configurable layer that allows insurers to build and adapt agents for their own processes

The focus is on handling real operational complexity across channels like voice, email, and chat, while keeping humans involved where it matters.

Voice, FNOL, and the future of claims

One of the areas discussed in the episode is First Notice of Loss (FNOL) and how voice AI is changing how information is captured at the start of a claim.

Today, FNOL often involves incomplete or inconsistent information, which then creates downstream delays and rework. Improving that first interaction has a disproportionate impact on the rest of the claims journey.

Ty also shares how insurers are beginning to think about automation not just in terms of efficiency, but in terms of customer experience and consistency of outcomes.

Building inside the Lloyd’s ecosystem

Nolana is currently part of the Lloyd’s Lab accelerator programme, working closely with insurers, mentors, and market participants to validate and refine its approach.

The conversation touches on what it’s been like building inside that ecosystem, where expectations are high and use cases need to work in real-world environments from day one.

Looking ahead

The long-term vision discussed in the episode is simple: claims and customer service processes that are faster, more consistent, and less dependent on manual coordination.

That includes ideas like same-day claims resolution, more self-serve journeys for customers, and better decision support for claims handlers.

For Nolana, the focus remains on building systems that insurers can actually deploy in production, not just experiment with.

Listen to the episode

You can listen to the full conversation here: The Leadership in Insurance Podcast – Ty Zamkow, Nolana AI