Greg Carter (pictured), chief transformation officer at Texas Mutual, has been in the role for just over a year as he defines what transformation should mean for the insurer’s long-term future. His mandate is not incremental change, but ensuring the organization remains competitive over the next three decades. That challenge comes as the workers’ compensation market faces rate pressure, new competition, and rapid advances in technology, particularly artificial intelligence.
Rather than pursuing isolated initiatives, Carter says the company adopts a structured approach focused on foundational capabilities. “If we are going to be successful, we need to really look at transformation holistically,” he said. That means avoiding short-term fixes in favor of building layers that enable sustained acceleration across the business.
Carter identifies culture as the first and most critical layer. In a mature industry with long-tenured employees, he sees a risk that past success discourages innovation. “Being here for a long time and having tremendous success for a long time could breed resistance to change,” he said.
To address this, Texas Mutual recently introduced new core values emphasizing adaptability and challenging the status quo. The goal is to shift the organization toward a mindset that actively embraces change rather than incrementally improving existing processes.
Leadership development follows as the second layer. Carter says cultural change cannot scale without leaders who model new behaviors. The company invests in building capabilities such as AI fluency and change management. “They have to be the vanguard,” he said, referring to leadership’s role in driving transformation.
The third layer focuses on technology modernization. Like many insurers, Texas Mutual operates with legacy systems accumulated over decades. Carter says meaningful AI-driven gains depend on modern infrastructure and data architecture. “You won’t get sustained, significant improvements unless you have the right data and technology infrastructure,” he said.
The company is in the process of migrating to cloud-based systems and modern architectures, with completion expected in the next few years. This foundation is intended to enable faster development and easier integration of AI capabilities across functions.
Alongside this, Texas Mutual adopts a phased approach to AI. It introduced a secure internal chatbot to encourage experimentation while establishing guardrails around ethical use. “We say: experiment with this and see what it can do for you,” Carter said. Insights from these early use cases now inform more targeted pilots with major technology providers, with scaling expected to begin later this year.
As the company advances its technology strategy, Carter highlights a key challenge for the insurance industry, whether to build proprietary solutions or rely on external platforms. For years, insurers leaned toward software-as-a-service providers, but recent advances in AI-driven development begin to shift that balance.
“I’m beginning to see a future in which we’ll swing the pendulum back more toward build than buy,” he said. Tools that enable faster and cheaper development make it feasible to create tailored systems at a fraction of historical cost.
However, Texas Mutual remains heavily invested in major platforms, including Guidewire. Early adoption requires significant customization to meet the specific needs of workers’ compensation, creating complexity today. “We have all this customization in our core platform,” Carter said, noting that it complicates integration with newer, more innovative solutions.
This creates a trade-off. Smaller technology firms may offer cutting-edge capabilities but integrating them into a highly customized environment can be costly and disruptive. There is also uncertainty about the long-term viability of emerging vendors. “Are they going to be around?” Carter said, pointing to the risk of investing in solutions that may not endure.
To manage this, the company evaluates partners based on the effort required to test and deploy their solutions. Low-lift pilots with clear benefits are prioritized, while more complex integrations face higher scrutiny. “If I have to make that kind of commitment, then the hurdle rate is much higher,” he said.
Carter emphasizes that transformation at scale requires alignment across the entire leadership team. While his role is to drive the agenda, execution depends on coordinated effort across strategy, operations, and technology.
“It has to be broadly accepted and prioritized across the leadership team,” he said. In Texas Mutual’s case, strong support from President and CEO Jeanette Ward is critical in reinforcing the urgency and importance of change.
The company structures its approach to connect long-term strategy with execution. Strategy teams define the vision, while product teams translate it into prioritized initiatives. Technology and process teams then deliver those initiatives, supported by a program management framework.
Recognizing the human dimension of transformation, Texas Mutual also makes a deliberate investment in change management. Carter hired a dedicated leader to build a function focused on helping employees adapt to new ways of working. “If you don’t take change management seriously, this doesn’t work,” he said.
This includes developing change plans that address employee concerns and motivations, rather than focusing solely on project timelines. The aim is to build understanding and engagement across the organization as multiple transformation initiatives progress simultaneously.
