Andy Moss: Bringing together the ‘little nuggets of information dotted around’ for underwriters

Imagine you’re an underwriter with a full inbox of submissions to manually sort through with the intention of identifying risks to underwrite effectively.

These emails could include spreadsheets, text and other attachments, with “little nuggets of information dotted around,” says Andy Moss, cofounder and chief executive of insurance software insurtech Send Technology. 

Moss became chief executive of Send in November 2022 after stepping up from the chief operating officer position.

He notes that, when coming up with the idea for Send, he remembers one managing agent who had 94% of its submissions come in via email. 

This was the pain point for underwriters that Send aimed to address when it launched its standalone product Smart Submission back in June 2023, which formed part of the firm’s underwriting workbench platform.

It was aimed to help underwriters tackle one of the biggest pain points by combining submission triage, quote management and task workflow in one place.

For underwriters, battling submission chaos and multiple admin-heavy systems is time consuming, as both processses require manual data extraction and the rekeying of risk data.

A submission is a proposal for insurance cover that is submitted to an underwriter.

Traditionally, submission intake is manual, messy and labour intensive as underwriters sift through mountains of submissions submitted by brokers, which then must be manually analysed to extract data points needed for underwriting.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times, Moss says: “These risks and data are not standardised in shape. How that risk is presented to the insurer also varies dramatically between lines of business and risk. Email is just the simplest way to move documents and unstructured data around.

”Our Smart Submission component in our platform is where we are helping to automate that increasingly and we are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to do that.

”That manual handling of things has always been a part of the workbench, but we have moved closer to the real problem – too many emails coming in and underwriters having to make sense of it all.”

For Moss, solving this problem is about using technology effectively to help better understand risk data via email and helping underwriters make better sense of it.

“The market needs to be using these placing platforms as front office trading systems and move away from emails,” he adds.

However, Moss admits that email submissions could stick around for the foreseeable future, as they are currently the most accessible vehicle for sending data.

Everything platform

To enhance this underwriting proposition, in July this year the insurtech announced its strategic partnership with digital solutions provider of global insurance standards Acord Solutions Group.

The purpose of this was to create a frictionless underwriting process for its customers, as well as supporting the ongoing delivery of Blueprint Two, Lloyd’s of London’s digital transformation strategy.

“As the market evolves, we needed a platform that will keep up with everything,” explains Moss.

However, as Blueprint Two implementation unfolds the firm has welcomed increasing numbers of customers, especially in the London market, who have asked “how they can go from where they are now to this future state”.

Moss adds: “It’s for us to combine our platform with Acord to give [the industry] something greater than the sum of its parts.”

To compound the problem, there is always uncertainty about the timings of projects such as Blueprint Two and other specifications that emerge.

Therefore, Moss says Send is keen to tell its customers that it has taken a joined-up view is able to support the messaging for this digital transformation.

Moss says: “However, it plays out with Blueprint Two, we have an ecosystem that can support [customers].”

In terms of goals, Moss says Send will aim to provide its customers a combined offering that will let them manage the complexities of navigating change in the market over the coming year.

Commenting on Blueprint Two messaging, Moss adds: ”That’s really a primary piece for us, focusing on enabling our customers to get data out of central services as and when that becomes available.”

Automation opportunity

For Moss, there’s a “massive opportunity to automate what goes on in underwriting” using generative AI.

He notes more interest in the pre-bind area, where underwriting happens.

On the flipside, despite the uptick in the use of AI, there is also a skills gap that must be solved to properly implement automation.

Moss explains: “The way [the industry] will bridge this gap is working more closely with underwriters.”

Importantly, Moss adds that this lean towards technology could also help attract more young people to insurance.

“We, as an industry, need to be showing that we are leading in terms of automation and adoption of technology. There are plenty of people in our industry who are driving that agenda and it’s getting better over time,” he says.