Beyond the Chatbot: How SPIXII Is Rebuilding Trust in Regulated AI
- 11 minutes ago
- 8 min read
Sara Fedele, Lead, PR and Communications at Kickstart Innovation
As part of our Interview with the Founder series, we explore the stories behind the companies emerging from our community and alumni network. Today, we're speaking with Renaud Million, Founder and CEO of Spixii, an insurtech company rethinking how insurers handle complex customer interactions through intelligent automation and conversational technology.
Insurance is one of the world's most regulated industries, yet many customer interactions still rely on lengthy phone calls, manual reviews, and email exchanges that can take several days to resolve. At the same time, insurers face increasing pressure to improve customer experience while controlling operational costs.
Founded in 2016, Spixii was created to address exactly this challenge. By combining conversational interfaces with expert systems, a specialized branch of artificial intelligence, the company enables insurers to automate complex workflows while maintaining the governance, transparency, and compliance standards required in highly regulated environments. Today, requests that traditionally took 10 to 20 minutes with an agent can often be completed in as little as two minutes through Spixii's self-service platform.
In this interview, Renaud Million shares the story behind Spixii, explains how the company found its niche in automating high-value insurance processes, reflects on its experience with Kickstart, and discusses how insurers can balance automation, compliance, and human expertise as the industry continues to evolve.
Q: Let’s start at the beginning. Can you share the origin story of Spixii - what inspired its creation and what key problem were you aiming to solve?
Before co-founding Spixii, I was working as an actuarial consultant in London, and each time my friends had questions about their personal insurance, they would ask me instead of their insurance provider. It was simply because insurance products are often misunderstood, but also because at the time, the options to contact their insurance companies were either a phone call with a long wait time or sending an email that would get a reply within several working days.
The problem was big; there was no digital interface to give immediate decisions to the queries of customers online. So, with two friends, we co-founded Spixii to make insurance simpler by developing a digital self-service with a conversational interface known as a chatbot. Since then, we have kept automating high-value processes across all insurance types and beyond.
Q: The insurtech space is growing rapidly. How does Spixii differentiate itself in the insurtech space - what makes your AI-driven platform unique?
True, the insurtech space is growing rapidly in some areas, but arguably, it is growing slowly in others. This is due to the highly regulated nature of this industry. As a new company, in order to be successful and bring tangible value to the insurance businesses, we had to focus on the processes and workflows that make a noticeable impact on the operations. For example, processes that take 10 to 20 minutes to solve on the phone with a customer or a few working days by email. These processes are costly to execute in a traditional way, yet because of their high-value nature, their resolution is often well documented and guided. Our platform has been specifically designed to accommodate expert rules, enabling the process to be executed with the same service quality as traditional methods, but at a fraction of the time and cost. On average, a high-value request is solved within 2 minutes via a self-service built on the Spixii platform. The savings are significant. Finally, working on high-value processes means that we had to adopt the ISO 27001 certification for Information Security Management from an early stage, which is uncommon for nimble and professional technology companies like Spixii.
Q: Under the hood: What core technologies power Spixii’s capabilities (e.g., AI, machine learning, NLP) and how do they improve existing insurance workflows?
Regulated industries such as insurance have strong compliance needs, and as we focus on high-value requests, there is no margin for error, and 100% accuracy is required. That is why our core technology is based on expert systems, a branch of AI. It allows companies to configure all their business rules, connect securely to their various systems, and create a conversational journey for the user, which is at the same time the business process. It can be audited, validated and versioned for future improvements. As compliance teams' approval is necessary for this type of digital self-service to go live, we built the Spixii platform with their needs in mind and the features they require. Finally, another advantage of expert systems is that they can create conversations in all languages with the same level of 100% accuracy.
Q: Automation in insurance can be tricky. How do you balance automation with the need for human oversight and trust in insurance processes?
Yes, the word automation gives the feeling that it can be applied everywhere, but it is not the case, and its application can have very different impacts. For us, we started from the principle of not completely changing the way things are done, but rather, to look for bottlenecks and potential big efficiency gains. The value of automation we create is in two ways. On one side, requests that tick all the boxes with the business rules and decision can be solved without human intervention. This is the no-human-touch automation. All the rules are configured by insurance experts with our support, and they then the self-service execute the conversational process. If a request doesn’t comply with at least one rule, then the Spixii platform passes all the information gathered to a human via their usual dashboard. On the other side, this creates big savings, as the 20-minute-long initial call is reduced to 5 minutes, as the agent only asks for clarification or missing information to make the judgment required to solve the request.
Q: What has been the biggest technical or market challenge so far - and how did you overcome it?
When we started the company, chatbots were the hype, and it was the beginning of the market trying to find commercial applications. We quickly realised that chatbots based on NLP or GenAI nowadays are used for low-value queries from customers and for internal use, but never to fully execute high-value queries. Recognising this niche, we worked diligently to differentiate ourselves by specifically targeting high-value processes that require expertise to execute and automate. When we saw the value it generated for our client, we doubled down on building a specific platform just for these use cases.
Q: How have insurers and brokers responded to Spixii so far? What use cases have shown the most promising results? Can you tell us more about any recent collaborations/deals or PoCs with industry partners?
Initially, many non-life insurers adopted our solutions for their claims processes and quote-and-buy journeys. The adoption of digital tools was growing, and the feedback was very positive. We then realised that the number of customer interactions is a lot higher for health insurance simply because people tend to see their doctor more often than have a car accident (and hopefully!). The health industry is suffering from higher inflation than anywhere else, and professionals are spending more and more time on high-value administrative tasks. Combined with the fact that it is also a highly regulated industry with some technical specificities, such as medical codes mapping, this made our platform very suited for the challenges faced in health. One example is the automation of the pre-authorisation of medical claims, a key process for an international health insurance provider. A case study is available here: https://www.spixii.com/success-stories/pre-auth-case-study
Then, realising that each country has a different health system, navigating the local ecosystem can be extremely challenging. In that regard, being part of Kickstart was very useful. Kickstart is a key player in the innovation landscape in Switzerland with connections to many businesses and organisations. It acts as a conduit to bring start-ups with corporations in a very efficient way. Some companies don’t have the resources to find and engage with start-ups, and vice versa. It is a real problem that Kickstart is addressing with its innovation program and demo day. Thanks to the programme, we started several conversations with insurance companies as well as established a partnership with Swisscom, the largest IT services provider in Switzerland. Our platform complements their in-house offering and they are always looking for capabilities that can give their clients a competitive advantage. We are now working hand in hand with Swisscom in exploring targeted deployments of the Spixii platform, with an efficient implementation leveraging the knowledge and expertise of both parties.
Q: Any advice for early-stage founders trying to enter regulated industries like insurance?
Based on my experience, I would suggest that prior to founding a business, working in a regulated industry inspires trust and confidence from those who have been there, seen some problems to fix, and have built professional relationships. Then always look for the business value you want to unlock and find your 10x. It will then inform your choice of technology and the type of business you want to create.
Q: Looking ahead, what’s next for Spixii in the next 3–5 years?
With a presence in the UK and Switzerland mainly, we are seeing a lot of potential for high-value processes to be automated. Every organisation we talk to is on a different journey when it comes to the transformation of their systems, and once enabled with APIs, powerful automation such as the one we offer can be enabled. Our plan to keep talking to insurers and supporting them in their transformation journey while continuing to improve the Spixii platform with leading analytics and modular components, such as OCR, becomes more commoditised, and some companies start to have their preference.
Q: This year marks 10 years of Kickstart. What does it mean to you to be part of this ecosystem, and how do you think Kickstart has contributed to shaping the innovation landscape in Switzerland and beyond? Can you share any fun memories or unexpected connections in your journey with Kickstart?
Ten years is a big milestone for Kickstart and innovation in general. The probability of an innovation program or startup surviving 10 years is very slim, and passing this landmark is a real testament to hard work, as well as a proven business model. Coincidentally, Spixii will be passing the 10 years too, but in a few months. We are very proud to be part of the ecosystem and to be counted as alumni now, as it increases our visibility on the Swiss market. During the program in 2024, we loved the fact that the new connections we made were not only professional but also personal. In such a compact ecosystem that Switzerland has, it is not just about the benefits and features of the solution but also about the trust, the understanding of each party, and credibility, and we found that most of the conversations were at least 50% on personal interests, giving a whole new dimension. Coming from the French Alps and regularly doing a variety of mountain sports ranging from cycling to ski touring and trail running, I loved hearing stories from local trails and villages while switching to process automation later in the conversation. We are all human, and doing should be fun and personal, too. With this mindset, I was often spotted quoting that Kickstart was 2 years of business development condensed into 3 months. I genuinely believe that.
About Spixii:
Founded in 2016, Spixii is a Conversational Process Automation (CPA) company helping insurers and other regulated businesses automate complex, high-value customer interactions. By combining conversational interfaces, expert systems, and deep integration with core business systems, Spixii enables organizations to deliver compliant self-service experiences that go far beyond traditional chatbots or web forms.
The platform is designed for processes where accuracy, governance, and compliance are critical, such as policy administration, claims handling, customer service, and other regulated workflows. By digitizing these interactions, Spixii helps organizations provide faster resolutions, improve customer experience, and reduce operational costs while maintaining full auditability and control.
Today, Spixii works with insurers and regulated businesses across multiple markets, enabling customer requests that traditionally required phone calls, emails, or manual reviews to be completed through intuitive digital self-service journeys.
About Renaud Million:
Renaud Million co-founded Spixii in 2016 with Alberto Pasqualotto, combining deep insurance expertise with advanced AI and engineering capabilities.
Before launching the company, Renaud worked as an actuarial consultant at EY in London, advising leading insurers and gaining first-hand insight into the operational complexity and regulatory requirements of the industry.
Holding master's degrees in engineering and operational research, he has led Spixii's vision of delivering compliant AI-powered automation for regulated industries.
In 2017, he was named Young Actuarial Professional of the Year by Insurance ERM.
