The ways AI can help brokers become more ‘effective and efficient’

Insurance brokers continue to play a crucial role in a service led market, but there are certain “facets” of their roles where artificial intelligence (AI) can help their service become more “effective and efficient”.

That was according to David Chapman, chief revenue officer at Applied Systems, who told Insurance Times there were areas where AI could make a “big difference” despite the best advice coming from industry professionals.

Service remains key in the insurance industry and new regulations, such as the FCA’s Consumer Duty, mean a service-driven market centred around fair value is more important than ever.

Earlier this year, Roi Amir, chief executive of Insurtech 50 firm Sprout.ai, told Insurance Times that “you cannot provide a high level of service if you don’t have the right tools and automation in place”.

For brokers, Chapman said that while robots were not able to deliver the advice and service that professionals can, they could “improve efficiency” and remove the need for brokers to complete “mundane” tasks.

“What we absolutely believe in is that there are certain facets of the broker role where we can invest in AI to ensure that they’re as effective and efficient as possible,” he added.

“Some of the mundane tasks that brokers may deal with are queries over policy documents and what is on cover.

“Therefore, training a robot to ingest that data and respond to client queries is something that we see.

“In terms of risk management and underwriting, there are things that can be automated using AI that will make a big difference to both the carrier, but also to the broker in terms of risk selection and optimisation of price.”

Broker demands

Chapman’s comments came after Insurance Times published its 2023 Five Star Rating Report: eTrading, in which over 750 brokers from across the UK came forward to rate and assess the performance of insurer extranet platforms, broker management systems and the broker experience of trading with an insurer via a software house platform.

Chapman said the software house was continuing to invest in giving brokers the ability to service their clients in the way that they saw fit.

“A large number of brokers will want to do much of that by telephone or face-to-face and we give them the most efficient processes possible to achieve that,” he said.

”However, there are brokers who want to use client servicing and make use of that digital world we keep talking about.

“Therefore, our job is to make sure that brokers can trade with their client in the way that they see fit.”

For example, Chapman noted that broker clients were increasingly looking to integrate live chat into their systems.

Live chat technology refers to a digital communication tool that enables real-time, text-based conversations between businesses and their customers or website visitors.

“[We have] expanded on the things that we have invested quite heavily in the last three to four years, but we are giving brokers a menu to pick from in terms of how they talk to partners.”

Goals

Applied Systems came second for the seventh year in a row in the eTrading survey’s software house ranking, with an overall score of 3.65 out of five – a slight decline from 3.69 in 2022.

Chapman said the goal for the software house was to be ranked number one and that it would be continuing to take client feedback onboard to improve.

He added that another area Applied Systems was focused on was increasing the breadth of its panel.

For example, the firm secured Arch Insurance, Ark Insurance and Iprism Underwriting for its commercial lines insurance panel earlier this year (9 May 2023) to expand its eTrading presence for brokers.

They joined Allianz, Axa, NIG, QBE and RSA – Applied Systems added that the move would add more schemes to its property owners, tradesman and commercial lines products.

“For us, its about making sure there’s breadth of panel, in terms of products, but also having the right insurers and the right product availability,” Chapman said.