For Kamalesh (Kam) Jha (pictured), transformation is not a checklist of technology projects. It is a discipline measured by whether everyday underwriting decisions become better, faster, and more consistent.
As chief underwriting officer at American Modern, Jha sits at the forefront of strategy, risk, and execution. The company has been on a transformation journey for nearly a decade, and today that effort is less about replacing systems than extracting value from the foundation already built.
“The success of transformation is not just about chasing a lot of projects,” Jha said. “It is about making everyday decisions better, faster, and more consistent. That’s my definition of successful transformation.”
That framing shapes how American Modern invests, partners, and sets timelines - and how it thinks about the next phase of change, including artificial intelligence.
American Modern’s transformation began with what Jha describes as an inside-out effort. Nearly 10 years ago, the company focused on consolidating its technology stack, bringing disparate platforms under a single policy administration system and refreshing products along the way.
Like many insurers, it was a multi-year undertaking. “That did take us more than five years to get there,” Jha said.
Roughly three to four years ago, the focus shifted outward. The second phase emphasized customer experience and digital capability – including digital payments and self-service tools – designed to improve how policyholders and distribution partners interact with the business.
Today, Jha’s priorities sit squarely in the underwriting engine itself. “In my role as chief underwriting officer, I consider strengthening our core product underwriting engine as part of the transformation that I’m really involved in and influencing right now,” he said.
The work now has two parallel tracks. American Modern continues to invest in digital transformation while monetizing capabilities built during the consolidation phase. With the policy administration foundation largely in place, smaller, targeted initiatives can deliver disproportionate impact.
Jha evaluates transformation through three lenses. The first is portfolio outcome. “Is our portfolio getting better?” he asked. That includes reducing volatility and improving underwriting profitability.
The second measure is operational speed. Faster decisions, fewer handoffs, and less manual work are essential signals that transformation is working. “Transformation should get you there in faster decision-making,” Jha said.
The third – and often overlooked – test is adoption. “You can have the best tools, the best technologies ever,” he said, “but if it is not easy to use, if people are not adopting it, then you are failing at that transformation effort.”
Those measures also inform timelines. Some initiatives are designed for quick wins within 12 to 18 months. Others, particularly deeper capability builds, unfold over three to five years.
Jha points to wildfire risk as an example. Early efforts to deploy a wildfire scoring model as a standalone project delivered immediate insight. Fully integrating that model into underwriting workflows, however, required more extensive system changes and a longer horizon.
American Modern actively works with external solution providers, but Jha stresses selectivity. “Not every innovative solution solves a real insurance problem,” he said.
Three criteria guide partner decisions. First is evidence of real-world impact in a comparable insurance context. “We want to understand whether they have real-world data that gives us confidence that this is actually working,” Jha said.
Second is seamless integration. Standalone tools may demo well, but if they cannot fit naturally into underwriting workflows, adoption suffers. Integration, Jha said, is inseparable from transformation success.
The third criterion is validation through proof of concept. American Modern typically tests solutions quickly and narrowly before committing to full integration. Recent work with geospatial analytics followed that pattern, starting with one product in one state before expanding once results aligned with the company’s business model.
“That’s when it makes sense for us to take the time to bring that solution into our ecosystem,” Jha said.
After a decade of change, Jha has learned that transformation fails when it only changes systems, not behaviors. Effective collaboration between technology, operations, and front-line risk teams requires alignment around outcomes, not projects.
Four elements support that alignment. The first is a shared goal tied directly to strategy, with measurable progress. The second is clear ownership with empowered leaders. “If people do not know who owns it, there’s no clear accountability,” Jha said. “That’s a recipe for failure.”
The third is business-led solutions, supported by technology and operations. When solutions are driven by tools rather than business needs, buy-in erodes. The fourth is strong change management, supported by a clear framework.
American Modern uses a RACI model – responsible, accountable, consulted, informed – established early and followed consistently. That structure, Jha said, enables collaboration and improves adoption.
