MarshBerry Connect, MarshBerry’s Executive peer-to-peer exchange leadership solution, hosted its three-day Connect Summit in Chicago, Illinois in September, which featured peer-to-peer collaboration, keynote and state-of-the-industry presentations, networking, and more. A major theme from the summit was: in an industry perpetually in flux, every firm must act fast to carve its path, cultivate predictable and profitable organic growth, and improve its performance – or risk being left behind. Within this theme, a hot topic on most business owners’ minds is the role that AI and technology increasingly plays in their business. MarshBerry Connect Summit featured an insightful Q&A with Nationwide’s Chief Innovation and Digital Officer Chetan Kandhari, which delved into how AI is impacting the insurance industry.
Here are some of the key insights provided by Mr. Kandhari:
How insurance agencies are integrating AI into their business
Predictive AI mimics the way the brain thinks – it can predict losses and make risk assessments just like insurance professionals. This is beneficial since humans can only make predictions with a small amount of data and can only do it so fast. AI brings down the cost of that analysis, even as we give it more data. Specific ways to adopt AI include:
- Update or create marketing materials to promote agency products, services, and expertise.
- Summarize vital data and make it shareable, like claims data.
- Protect and document knowledge from expert producers who may retire or leave the agency.
- Train new people on insurance terms, complex concepts, and regulations. Reduce training burdens on other team members.
- Enhance service centers by offering chatbots to help employees answer client questions, driving better customer interaction.
A Nationwide study found that 62% of independent agencies have invested in AI technology, including AI embedded in current tools. For example, Salesforce offers an AI assistant called Einstein which uses customer data to improve workflows, solve customer issues, and automate sales processes.
Creating an AI platform vs adopting technology with AI
Creating your own programs can be very costly in time, resources, and training. On top of that, if you don’t constantly maintain your platform, it will quickly get outdated as fast as technology is moving. Many of the software that agencies are using today have built-in AI functions and it may be better to adopt those platforms. Some agencies are using free, widely available programs like ChatGPT or Gemini. These are fine for general questions and research but remember that these bots don’t know the specifics of your business. Since you will need to adjust output to include your agency’s rules or strategy, think of their results as foundational. In addition, exercise caution with certain programs, it’s best to avoid sharing confidential business or customer data.
A good place to start is by looking at your business goals and identifying where you have challenges. For example, if your team needs a better understanding of your customers, try integrating AI tools to enhance education and response time. Find a few people on your staff who are passionate about technology and create a pilot to test solutions and document results. Consider at what price point this becomes inefficient for your business to help determine whether you should build or buy.
AI can support the needs of the end customer (the insured)
Using AI can drive consistency in the customer experience. Across a customer’s journey, no matter who they interact with, they get the same answers. It’s also useful to help predict what customers will call about, based on their communication history and transactions, which creates better solutions for the client. For example, the technology is being used in carrier call centers to learn the emotions of past calls, then produce answers to customer inquiries based on that output. Carriers then share with agencies to help them understand how those interactions went.
Mr. Kandhari recommends thinking of AI as “not so much as ‘artificial’ but rather ‘augmented’ intelligence.” He spoke on this aspect and use of AI for client interactions: “I’m a big fan of augmenting information to all of our users of these tools with better, more complete information about the customers – to get a higher quality response. As a call is coming in, we learn the emotions of that call, augment it with the internal information and produce suggested answers. Based on that output, you can funnel that to the agency so the agency also knows how that transaction went.” This can give better-quality service to clients and drive more retention and referrals.
Addressing AI reservations
Consider the example of the calculator, which some initially rallied against as “cheating” or a short-cut. But now even top mathematicians use calculators to augment their math ability and increase the speed of solving problems. The goal is not to take away jobs, but to make our work faster, easier, and more consistent.
Since AI is so widespread, it’s vital that we keep our tech skills current to stay on par with competitors who use AI. Agencies can leverage AI to maximize what they do, but only when combined with human intellectual and emotional abilities that machines can’t match.
We are all intimidated by AI since it’s moving so fast. Embrace it, spend time with it, and you’ll be prepared for when it becomes part of everyday life.
