Mosaic Insurance has launched an in-house AI Lab and a programme that embeds engineers with business teams, saying it wants to move artificial intelligence projects beyond the pilot stage and into day-to-day use.

The Bermudian-based specialty insurer said the lab will develop and deploy AI capabilities across underwriting, claims, finance and global operations.

Mitch Blaser, Mosaic’s co-chief executive, said: “Most of the market has spent two years running pilots. We decided early that pilots were not the goal.

“Our AI Lab exists to build AI that runs in production, on real data, solving real problems — and the [forward deployed engineering] model is how we scale that without losing the speed and discipline that makes it work.”

The company has hired its first four forward deployed engineers — specialists in AI, machine learning and data science — for its London office. The engineers will work directly with underwriters, claims handlers and operations staff from the identification of a business problem through to putting a solution into use.

Krishnan Ethirajan, Mosaic’s chief digital and AI officer, said the model was designed to overcome the limits of isolated trials.

“You can run a pilot in a corner and declare success; what you cannot do is change how an institution underwrites, reserves and makes decisions in isolation,” he said.

Usha Badrinath, Mosaic’s chief data officer, said the lab would reuse technical infrastructure between projects and draw on the insurer’s policy, loss and business-process data, rather than generic information.

Mosaic said all models and AI agents would be assessed against business outcomes, subject to human oversight and governed by its AI acceptable use policy.

The move builds on Mosaic’s longtime focus on insurance technology. In 2022, the company integrated its technology platform with broker HowdenCap’s structured-credit placement system, allowing risk-submission data to be exchanged and processed through application programming interfaces.

The insurer is also focusing on building its Bermuda operation. In January, it launched an excess casualty unit with Bermudian-based specialist underwriters, expanding beyond the seven specialty lines that formed its original portfolio.