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As we’ve highlighted in some of our recent posts on AI value creation and “Hidden AI”, there are increasingly diverse set of ways to win given the technology advancements made available to founders today. One of the models that has come into heavy focus (and scrutiny) is AI-powered roll-ups. There are a lot of reasons to be excited about this model, after all, it’s one of the most direct pathways to tie the outcomes of AI to your own bottom-line, while implementing AI as swiftly and fully as you can. That said, it may also be the most controversial of AI value creation strategies with some claiming that it’s simply PE dressed up in VC’s clothing. With that, we wanted to share additional perspective given our experience and research on the space.

Every year, I leave the Emerging Manager Circle Summit humbled. When we started EMC back in 2019, I never intended for it to become what it is today. It was just a few of us sitting in a circle, trading stories about the brutal, beautiful work of building a venture firm from scratch. That spirit has remained sacred. This year’s gathering at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn carried that same energy–an honesty that only exists when everyone in the room knows how hard this path really is.

Almost like a scene from Fast and Furious, on the weekend on November 9th, 24,000 bottles of Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar’s Santo Tequila – worth over $1 million – vanished into thin air. Leaving Laredo, Texas the shipment was supposed to arrive at Santo’s warehouse in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and for all intents and purposes, all signs indicated that it did. The “trucking company” reported delays due to a broken water pump, and GPS signals showed the truck moving along the right route. The product was due Wednesday, but because the scammers spoofed GPS data and provided plausible updates, no one realized anything was wrong until Monday. By then, the tequila was long gone, rerouted to LA, and the entire operation had been executed digitally. The actual truck drivers had no idea they were part of a heist; they were simply following instructions from what they thought was a legitimate carrier.

In recent years, “specialty” has been among the most promising areas of growth in the insurance industry, as more premiums flow towards underwriters and programs focused on increasingly specific niches and markets. As loss ratios creep higher, insurers are looking for higher and less volatile profits. A decade of insurtech innovation provides underwriters with new approaches for loss control, and the ability to rethink how insurance is written and distributed.

The Equal team attended Insurtech Connect 2025 in Las Vegas — the largest annual gathering of innovators and investors in insurance. As always, we came away with a clearer sense of how the industry is evolving and what themes insiders are most excited about. Continuing last year’s trend, the conversation has shifted decisively toward the impact of AI and agentic workflows. The “pie-in-the-sky” promises of a few years ago have given way to real deployments, tangible productivity gains, and a sense that the next wave of automation is already here.