ITC London 2026 Speaker Interview: Usha Badrinath, Chief Data Officer at Mosaic Insurance

What’s one misconception about the industry that you’d love to change?

Many still see insurance as a product - something you buy from a company. I see it as infrastructure - a complex, interdependent system designed to offer collective protection. Every participant, from broker to reinsurer to regulator, contributes to maintaining public trust.

Shifting from thinking of insurance as selling policies, to thinking of it as a system that enables resilience, fundamentally changed how I think and what I build.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?

People are often surprised to learn that my academic path runs through engineering, an MBA, and art history. It’s an unusual mix, but it perfectly mirrors how I think about value creation in insurance - part systems and structure, part strategy and scale, and part human meaning.

Engineering taught me rigour, business taught me impact, and art history taught me to see patterns and context - how every detail sits within a bigger story.

If you could collaborate with anyone—past or present—who would it be and why?

If I could collaborate with anyone, it would be Herminia Ibarra. Her work on identity and leadership transitions resonates deeply with me.

I’ve moved between different worlds - from standing in local elections to training as a yoga teacher and studying art history in my forties - and each taught me something about perspective and adaptation.

In data and insurtech, those same lessons apply - real transformation isn’t just technical, it’s personal. Ibarra’s thinking reminds me that leading change starts with being willing to change yourself.

What advice would you give to someone looking to enter this field today?

Don’t enter insurance trying to disrupt it - start by understanding it. This is an industry built on the interplay of capital, regulation, human behaviour and human judgement, and real innovation happens when you see how those forces interact and where they break down.

There are a number of opportunities for real impact, and starting with a tech-first problem-next approach is usually not the best answer.

What’s one lesson from outside of insurance that has shaped how you work?

Art history taught me that interpretation matters as much as evidence. I approach AI the same way - AI models, like artworks, are human artefacts - shaped by perspective, context, and bias.

My role is not just in building models or data products, but in reading them critically and asking what story they’re really telling.

If this article gets you thinking, continue the conversation at ITC London 2027, taking place on 25–26 January at The Brewery, London. 

Interested in sharing your expertise on stage?