How agencies can prepare for the next generation of insurance

This year's Applied Net 2024 conference, held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, is off to a great start. As a hot topic is the use of AI, industry experts provided insights on how this emerging technology can be used to support insurance agencies, brokerages, and carriers in automating processes and improving efficiency.

During a panel of experts yesterday afternoon, Emerging Technology Trends for the Modern Organizationthe discussion focused on how using AI in workflow can free up human-customer interaction time, ultimately leading to reduced wait times and improved customer experience.

Panelist Jason Call, COO of Blue Ridge Risk Partners, emphasized: “We've been able to bring qualified employees back into customer-facing roles.” Highlighting the various applications of AI in insurance – such as improving underwriting efficiency, predictive analytics, and claims processing – Call summarized his agency's progress, sharing: “Tasks that used to take 72 hours, or 48 hours now take hours Only 24.”

Tips for using AI in your agency

For those looking to stay ahead of the insurtech curve, Ryan Smith, president and senior advisor at RLS Consulting, offered three key considerations and agencies and brokers to watch out for when using AI.

• Privacy: It is important to be aware of privacy risks and avoid feeding highly sensitive or confidential client information to AI models. “What kind of data are you consuming? [your systems]? That information ends up being stored in the database, if things don't go as intended, that data could end up in someone else's hands,” said Smith.
• Integrity: When using AI in the office, Smith advises that it's important to think about product integrity, as AI can make mistakes. “Do you trust what comes out? What happens if the system gives the wrong advice to the client? That can have very serious consequences.”
• Availability: Smith also emphasized the importance of being prepared and having backup plans in place. “When you start automating a lot of processes, it's important to consider what will happen if your system fails.”

To mitigate the risks of AI, insurance institutions should research and evaluate technology vendors before forming a partnership.

“Ultimately, it's up to you to do your best when choosing AI tools. At least, understand how [vendors] they address the risks, their best practices, and what their plan is if something goes wrong,” Smith warned.

Striking the right balance

Panelist Jason Gobbel, chief solutions officer at Kite Technology Group, emphasized that while AI offers many time-saving and customer service benefits for consumers and insurance agencies, it's important not to be swayed by the hype and use it sparingly. Artificial intelligence isn't a fix-it-all, so knowing when it's useful and when to step back is important.

“One of the most important things organizations can do is to really assess their biggest pain points and assess what the AI ​​market has to offer to address each problem,” Gobbel said.

He warned: “Don't get caught up in the excitement of AI and think, “There are all these things we can do; let's just connect them all and solve all our problems'.