Practical ways to use AI in your agency

Artificial Intelligence (AI) isn't the black box it once seemed. With practical applications becoming more accessible, insurance agents have a golden opportunity to enhance both personal and agency efficiency. Our goal here is to demystify AI and provide actionable advice for insurance agents looking to be on the earlier part of the curve for utilizing it successfully.

Understanding the Infrastructure of AI

At its core, AI involves complex calculations that are often managed by engineers. These foundational models, like GPT4.0 and Gemini, form the backbone of more user-friendly applications. When people think of AI, they usually envision these sophisticated models.

However, the real magic happens when these foundational models are applied in tools that are accessible to everyday users. Applications like ChatGPT, Snowflake, and Perplexity bring the power of AI into the hands of non-engineers, making it easier to leverage technology for a variety of tasks.

Practical Steps to Get Started

Identify Your Needs

Before adopting any AI tools, assess your current workflow to identify areas that could benefit from automation or enhanced data analysis.

Choose the Right Tools

Select AI applications that align with your needs. In addition to those mentioned, tools like ChatGPT, Snowflake, and Perplexity offer a range of functionalities that can be tailored to fit your specific requirements.

Train Your Team

Ensure that everyone in your agency is comfortable using the new tools. Offer training sessions and provide resources to help your team get up to speed.

Monitor and Adjust

After implementing AI tools, continually monitor their performance and make adjustments as needed. This will help you maximize the benefits and ensure that the technology is meeting your needs.

The Adoption Curve for AI in Insurance

To stay competitive, it's crucial for insurance agents to be in the early majority of AI adopters. This not only sets you apart from your competitors but also positions you as a forward-thinking professional within the insurance industry.

By adopting AI early, you place yourself in a smaller group of insurance agencies that are leveraging new technology. This can lead to increased efficiency, better customer service, and ultimately, higher profits.

AI Tools for Agency Workflow

We’ve compiled a list of our favorite AI tools for agency workflows. From PDF editing to email efficiency, there are several options to help you save time in your day.

iLovePDF is an online service to work with PDF files completely free and easy to use. Merge PDFs, split PDFs, compress PDFs, and much more.

Dialpad has an AI enabled dialer and transcriber, and you can make phone calls from a cell phone, landline, or computer and use AI to generate summaries from the phone calls and produce recommended action items to remember.

Tools like followup.cc or Mixmax can assist with follow-up automation, you can make emails much easier for your team to track and respond.

Parabola lets you drop in data from any source and combine, transform, & automate it in any way imaginable. Build automated processes that handle the things you do manually in spreadsheets.

Perplexity can assist in risk assessment by analyzing large datasets to provide insights that would be impossible to gather manually. It is like an AI combination of Google + Wikipedia that gives you a response while including sources.

AI-enabled email tools like Superhuman and Copilot for Outlook can help you quickly digest emails AND make responses easier to manage + automate.

AI-Enabled Services

Beyond applications, there are AI-enabled services that can further streamline your workflow. These services integrate AI into your existing systems, offering enhanced capabilities without requiring you to understand the underlying technology. In our industry, QuoteWell, Attune, and others have enhanced their processes with AI integration:

• QuoteWell utilizes AI for its submission clearing process, to extract data from applications, and to build appetite-based recommendations.
• Attune is using AI to check eligibility and guidelines on submissions, build Acord submissions, and to empower their service team with tools.

Try out some of these tools for your agency, and you may find solutions for problems you didn’t even know you had!

Interested in learning more?

View our full webinar recording on this topic.