Akanksha Rais has been recognized with a 2026 Global Recognition Award for outstanding leadership in insurance technology and research-driven innovation. Rais founded Capitawise Ltd in 2022 after 26 years in the insurance industry, where she identified a structural problem: critical financial data existed in silos, limiting decision-making quality and speed. Her approach transformed this operational constraint into a research problem, examining how technology, governance, and regulatory frameworks could integrate more effectively. The resulting system delivers hourly updates on capital models, claims, policies, and reinsurance structures, providing insurers with a unified financial intelligence solution.

Shortlisted applicants for Global Recognition Awards are evaluated using the Rasch model, which creates a linear measurement scale for each category, allowing precise comparisons between applicants excelling in different areas. Rais achieved top scores across multiple evaluation criteria, receiving ratings of 5 out of 5 in vision and strategy implementation, ethical decision-making, fostering innovation, research originality, real-world application potential, novelty of innovation, market impact, technological advancement, addressing global challenges, adoption rate, and disruption of existing paradigms. Her work has earned independent recognition from Corporate LiveWire Innovation Awards 2025, Global Business Leaders Magazine, CEO Monthly, and the IE100, validating her research-led methodology.

Research-Driven Innovation in Financial Intelligence

Rais built Capitawise to address inefficiencies in traditional financial reporting where data arrived fragmented, delayed, or disconnected from the actual financial picture. The system replaced decades-old Excel-based actuarial models with an integrated, automated ecosystem supporting plug-and-play analysis of over 10 years of property and casualty insurance data and more than 50 years of life insurance data. Real-time scenario testing enables actuarial insights to reach underwriting and claims teams directly, eliminating operational bottlenecks that previously prolonged decision cycles. This modernization operationalizes advanced actuarial methodologies once confined to academic research, bringing cutting-edge theory into practice at scale for the first time.

The platform’s GenAI-powered data interrogation tool emerged from direct collaboration with the Group CFO of a leading insurer who needed intuitive, secure methods to query complex financial data without technical support. Rais designed it with robust security and governance guardrails, making it one of the platform’s most valued features by offering instant access to insights buried in complex models. Capitawise embeds transparency, explainability, and human accountability into every AI-driven insight, supporting rather than replacing human decision-makers. Full adoption delivers annual savings of $30-50 million per insurer through automation, time savings, and improved efficiency.

Leadership Through Strategic Partnerships

Rais forged alliances with leading U.S.-based captive and life insurers to co-develop specialized features for actuarial modelling and capital forecasting. The Chief Risk Officer of a major commercial insurer serves among Capitawise’s strategic advisors, ensuring the system aligns with complex regulatory and operational realities of modern insurance. Participation in Fintech Wales Foundry Accelerator Programme strengthened her approach through expert mentorship, peer learning, and exposure to industry best practices. These partnerships validate the company’s roadmap and accelerate delivery of solutions that fit seamlessly into insurers’ workflows while meeting the highest standards of rigor and compliance.

Rais addressed resistance to change by breaking ingrained reliance on legacy tools through persistent education, training, and clear value demonstrations. She navigated natural caution around AI in financial decision-making by ensuring transparency in every component, gradually shifting mindsets among change-averse stakeholders. Her leadership prioritizes collaboration, credibility, and execution, working closely with practitioners, regulators, and ecosystem partners to ensure genuine value delivery. The unified, cross-layered data infrastructure ensures consistency as a single source of truth, empowering insurers with business intelligence, corporate governance, and data governance capabilities.

Final Words

Akanksha Rais continues developing advanced GenAI capabilities that enable insurers to query information, generate forecasts, and derive actionable insights in real time, deeply integrated with capital models, reinsurance structures, and operational information. Capitawise is the first in the insurance sector to bring GenAI into the core of financial modelling, representing a significant advancement in how insurers interact with their most valuable asset. Her philosophy balances boldness with responsibility, building technology that addresses real problems while upholding trust through ethics, transparency, and accountability. The platform’s impact extends beyond cost reduction to unlocking previously hidden value, allowing insurers to operate with agility, efficiency, and confidence.

Alex Sterling, spokesperson for Global Recognition Awards, noted the significance of Akanksha Rais’s achievement. “Akanksha Rais exemplifies the kind of research-driven leadership that transforms entire industries,” he said. “Her ability to translate complex actuarial challenges into practical, AI-powered solutions while maintaining the highest standards of governance and ethical decision-making demonstrates why she has earned a 2026 Global Recognition Award. She has redefined existing paradigms in insurance financial intelligence but has done so with a commitment to collaboration and real-world impact that sets a standard for innovation leaders globally.”