The insurance industry relies heavily on spreadsheets. Billions of dollars in risk decisions are made using Microsoft Excel and Outlook instead of advanced data platforms or real-time analytics. As Operating Partner at Altamont Capital Partners, Joe Zuk has watched this inefficiency cost the industry billions over more than twenty years. He’s no longer willing to wait for it to improve on its own.
Zuk accelerates growth across its financial services portfolio companies by doing what most insurers still haven’t: treating data as a starting point rather than an afterthought. At Atlas General Holdings and Orchid Underwriters, Zuk has built proprietary insurance programs and facilities and led corporate development. Throughout his career, he’s learned that technology doesn’t mean better interfaces. It just means rebuilding from the data layer up.
Garbage In, Garbage Out
A common misstep in the insurance sector’s digital transformation journey is prioritizing user experience over data infrastructure. Companies invest heavily in sleek portals and advanced reporting dashboards, yet fail to address the underlying data architecture.
“I’m not really talking necessarily about a portal or analytical reports,” Zuk explains. “I’m talking more on a fundamental basis, starting with data first and foremost.” In practice, this looks like building the data first, then shaping the workflows around it. It’s about asking hard questions about what actually needs fixing before reaching for technology and understanding the path to the customer before building products.
Insurers still rely heavily on blunt, zip-code, or even county-level pricing. That’s how one Houston property was assumed to be 70 miles inland when, in reality, it was sitting directly on the coast—one small error in an address led to an enormous mistake in exposure. “The risk models aren’t bad per se, but the data in was bad,” Zuk emphasizes. Traditional risk models can be upgraded. But they’re worthless without clean exposure and data. “If your underwriting or claims insights just purely live in a spreadsheet and you’re not able to utilize that data, you don’t really have a technology-first strategy.”
Three Steps to Stop Drowning in Spreadsheets
The first step is setting your strategy. Understand the purpose of the data and the outcome you’re trying to achieve long before you begin collecting it. The second step is to find your believers at both the corporate and business unit levels. Someone needs to drive this from the top down. However, you also need people who “live, eat, breathe, and see the power and importance of this at the business unit level.”
The third, and last step, is integrating data into your culture through clear pilots that drive tangible results. “Try not to boil the ocean,” Zuk advises. “Start to work on the lowest hanging fruit and build up from there.” This could mean ensuring the address data is complete or obtaining clear extracts from insurance applications about the underlying risks. This seems basic, but it consistently lacks across the industry. The point isn’t perfection. It’s about moving towards cleaner, stronger data signals. That takes strategy, not silos.
AI Won’t Fix Bad Foundations
AI holds great potential, but Zuk isn’t buying the hype that it can solve everything. “AI will start to help in terms of organizing data, accessing data, and providing insights through LLMs and foundational models,” he acknowledges. It will help underwriters and claim adjusters make faster, smarter decisions, model portfolios in real time, and automate routine tasks. This frees them to focus on strategy and the bigger picture.
But AI doesn’t fix insufficient or deficient data. “First and foremost is the principle of just being able to organize and access the data.” The industry is slowly inching towards change, and the upside is enormous. Companies that build their foundation right can use AI to multiply their advantage. Those who choose to cling to their spreadsheets are only automating their mistakes faster.
After two decades reshaping insurance, reinsurance, and InsurTech, Zuk’s message is clear: technology-first means data-first. Everything else is just window dressing on a broken foundation.
Connect with Joe Zuk on LinkedIn for insights on insurance innovation and technology-driven risk strategies.
