The commercial insurance industry, worth hundreds of billions, has long been entangled in outdated, paper-based processes and legacy systems. However, a shift towards digital transformation, driven by efficiency needs and advanced artificial intelligence (AI), is underway. Vishal Sankhla, co-founder and CEO of Outmarket AI, emphasizes the necessity of not just digitizing but revolutionizing these processes to address the industry’s key pain points.
The Rise of AI in Commercial Insurance
Addressing Inefficiencies with AI
Outmarket AI has devoted considerable time to developing an insurance-specific AI model, working closely with brokers, MGAs, and wholesalers. This specificity is crucial as generic AI models fail to deeply integrate within the complex workflows of the insurance sector. The targeted approach aims to deliver immediate, tangible benefits by standardizing and orchestrating processes across various system silos, addressing issues such as data inconsistency.
The utilization of AI in the commercial insurance sector promises a transformative shift. One key area where AI can deliver significant improvements is in mitigating inefficiencies stemming from data inconsistency. For instance, analysts operating on different systems often generate varied metrics for the same parameter, such as last month’s premium, leading to confusion and inefficiencies. By establishing uniform data definitions and creating a unified data layer, Outmarket AI ensures consistent and accurate metrics throughout the organization. This serves to enhance decision-making and operational efficiency, paving the way for a smoother, more accurate management of insurance data across various platforms.
The Unified Data Layer Solution
A major pain point in commercial insurance is data inconsistency, where different analysts provide varied metrics for the same parameter due to reliance on distinct systems. Outmarket addresses this by proposing a unified data layer with standardized definitions, ensuring consistency throughout the organization. This innovation represents a significant step toward more efficient and accurate data management in the industry.
Historically, the commercial insurance sector has been plagued by fragmented data systems, leading to inefficiencies and unreliable data interpretations. Outmarket AI’s unified data layer approach mitigates these challenges by consolidating data from disparate systems into a coherent and standardized platform. This unified layer not only aligns data definitions but also ensures real-time data integrity across the organization, thereby reducing the administrative overheads linked with maintaining multiple systems. Moreover, it guarantees that all stakeholders—from brokers to underwriters—are operating with the same, accurate data, enhancing overall workflow efficiency and improving the quality of service provided to clients.
Transforming Broker Operations
Reducing Manual Workflows
Outmarket’s AI-driven platform specifically targets insurance brokers, a segment that is essential yet underserviced technologically. Brokers often handle numerous emails, phone calls, and extensive policy documents manually, leading to overwhelming friction and inefficiencies. By leveraging AI, Outmarket aims to automate these labor-intensive processes, streamlining their operations significantly.
The incorporation of AI into brokers’ workflows results in substantial time savings and efficiency gains. Tasks that once required hours of manual input can now be processed within minutes, drastically reducing the administrative burden on brokers. The AI system can handle repetitive and mundane tasks such as managing email correspondence, processing policy documents, and even preliminary customer engagement. This automation frees brokers to focus on more value-added activities, such as personalized client advisory services and complex problem-solving, ultimately leading to more satisfied customers and a more streamlined operation overall.
Optimizing Broker KPIs
AI’s potential to enhance brokers’ key performance indicators (KPIs) is substantial. For example, it can improve the submission-to-bind ratio by identifying slower carriers and suggesting faster alternatives. Additionally, AI can pre-fill renewal applications using the previous year’s data, reducing the administrative burden and expediting processes, allowing brokers to focus more on advisory services.
These optimizations translate directly into increased broker productivity and client satisfaction. For instance, the AI’s ability to identify and prioritize quicker carriers can substantially reduce the time taken from application submission to policy binding, speeding up the client acquisition process. Additionally, pre-filling renewal applications with previous data minimizes errors and reduces the time spent on redundant data entry tasks, ensuring that brokers can provide their clients with timely and accurate policy renewals. By enhancing these KPIs, brokers can handle more clients simultaneously, thereby boosting their operational capacity and profitability.
Integrating AI Seamlessly
Enhancing Existing Workflows
Traditionally, insurance firms have combined various point solutions like data warehouses and workflow automation tools to achieve minor efficiency gains. Outmarket’s integrated approach consolidates these functions, creating a seamless and automated experience without requiring brokers to overhaul their existing systems. This connectivity enhancement makes tasks quicker and more efficient, contributing to overall industry improvement.
Outmarket AI’s strategy of working alongside existing systems, rather than replacing them, is particularly crucial for successful AI integration in the insurance industry. Brokers and firms can continue to utilize their established tools and processes while benefiting from the enhancements and efficiency gains provided by AI. This approach also simplifies the transition to AI-driven workflows, as employees can easily adapt to the AI enhancements without the need for extensive re-training or change management processes. The result is a combined system where AI seamlessly augments human capabilities, allowing for faster, more accurate, and more efficient operations across the board.
Future Implications for the Insurance Ecosystem
The commercial insurance industry, which is valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars, has traditionally been bogged down by outdated, paper-based methods and antiquated systems. Recently, however, there’s been a significant move toward digital transformation, fueled by the need for better efficiency and the advent of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Vishal Sankhla, the co-founder and CEO of Outmarket AI, highlights that merely digitizing these processes isn’t enough. Instead, there is an urgent necessity to completely revolutionize these systems to effectively tackle the industry’s most pressing challenges. The focus should be on transforming how the insurance industry operates by integrating AI to streamline workflows and improve operational efficiency. This approach will not only modernize the industry but also address critical pain points related to slow processing times, high operational costs, and the lack of real-time data analytics. Sankhla’s perspective underscores the importance of a comprehensive overhaul, beyond just digitization, to truly innovate and enhance the commercial insurance sector.
