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Caroline Hands, Head of Business Transformation and AI at ERGO, brings a grounded, people-first perspective to one of insurance's most talked-about topics. At ITC Europe 2026 in Barcelona (28–29 May), she'll be joining the panel Humans in the Loop: Building and Implementing Agentic AI in Claims, exploring how to design AI that genuinely augments expert handlers rather than replacing them. In this interview, Caroline shares what drives her thinking on transformation, why hype rarely equals impact, and why she believes the insurance industry is, at its heart, a place for dreamers. 

What’s been the most defining moment of your career so far? 

Perhaps not the most defining, but the most recent and the one that I come back to whenever I think about where we are as in industry now is seeing what happens when you put the right platform and the right partners around teams, especially junior members of staff. I think of one person in particular who started an AI project four months ago, and now has a chance to make it into a career path that at the end of last year was only a daydream. 

What really stayed with me was realising that this isn’t about AI replacing jobs. It’s about AI opening entirely new horizons and potentially a new career path that didn’t exist before, new skills and a sense of progression that motivates people to stay, grow, and contribute more meaningfully. 

For me, that’s the real win. Not the headline about transformation, but the moment someone sees a future they couldn’t see before. 

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

That you’re only delivering if it’s got a flashy headline and worth a social media post. Delivery often happens because of the people who are working quietly in the background who don’t shout about what they’ve achieved. Hype doesn’t equal impact. 

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

Probably that there’s never been an easier time to get up to speed and you should take advantage of that. It’s complex, but the learning isn’t gated anymore. There’s an incredible amount of online content, training, communities, and bite‑size resources that let people build understanding quickly and continuously. You don’t need to know everything you just need to stay curious and keep learning. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? 

That I’d get more satisfaction from creating the right conditions for my teams to grow and succeed than trying to be the person with all the answers and the big idea. That’s been true for me for my entire career. 

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

One of the reasons I am in this industry is because of the freedom it gives you to daydream about what the tech could do and the levers to turn ideas into prototypes and then see what happens next. It’s an industry for the creative, the curious, and, in my opinion, the dreamers. 

Join Caroline at ITC Europe, register now