Jadwin Jenkins focuses on trust: WIL Next 2023
Jadwin Jenkins
Jadwin Jenkins said the technology she’s working with didn’t exist six months ago, “It never gets boring.”
Jenkins is the assistant vice president, artificial intelligence circle lead at Travelers. She works directly with all lines of business to build, adopt and scale AI within the insurance company.
Jenkins, who has been with Travelers for over five years, said she enjoys that her current position includes working with a wide array of people. Her current manager has a degree in rocket science, one of the data scientists on her team is a particle physicist. She works directly with underwriters, interns, meteorologists, EMTs, former FBI agents, lawyers and former litigators.
She pulls ideas for her leadership style from her parents’ background as military officers.
“I grew up on military bases and learned leadership at a very young age. … One word to describe leadership, for me, would be trusted,” Jenkins said. “I want my customers to trust that I am going to do the best thing for them, I want my team to trust that I am creating strategies for their growth and trajectory and what they’re interested in working on. I want staff and senior leadership to trust that I’m going to tell you when something goes wrong. I’ll be the first person to tell you and let you know that we’ll adapt and move on. I think that trust is something I spend a lot of time building with everybody I work with, work for and all the customers we try to serve.”
Travelers launched an AI engine in October last year that can ingest aerial imagery of a catastrophic event and infer damage to policyholders.
Emerging technologies like AI models, as well as ChatGPT, have made it easier for people to understand the possibilities of AI, Jenkins said. She is currently a part of a group within Travelers dedicated to responsible AI strategy asking questions related to the risks associated with AI.
Jenkins points to mentorship as the reason she’s in her current position.
“I have horrible imposter syndrome. I’m always nervous that I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough.” She said that her managers push her to try.
“Without my mentors, I really wouldn’t be here because they’ve pushed me to try to accept, embrace my imposter syndrome and continue to apply myself anyways. … With my mentees and my direct reports that I manage, I am very open with them about imposter syndrome and being able to go after things even if you don’t think you’re worthy, try it anyways. I think without someone telling me to go try it anyways, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today. I can actually 100% say that I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
