Our world seems to be changing faster than ever. Robots are being presented to us on social media with the promise of one day being our personal housekeepers. Software companies are warning their customers that they will be left behind if they don't explore the power of artificial intelligence (AI). And while there might be some truth in these forward-thinking concepts, it's important that we don't get lost in the dreams or anxieties of the future.
AI has been present in our daily lives in ways that have been invisible to most of us, showing up in navigation, video games and facial recognition on our phones and computers for the last decade. It wasn't until 2022 however that the large language foundation model known as ChatGPT revolutionized AI, giving the average user the ability to automate processes in ways never seen before. AI quickly went from a background efficiency process to a front-and-center marketed capability with the promise to change lives.
But here comes the brake pedal again. What does this mean for insurance agents? How can agents cut through the noise and hype to understand the real possibilities of today? And acknowledging that these technologies are changing faster than ever before, how can agents ensure they are ready for the next breakthrough?
Let's go through some best practices for adopting this technology and then we can dive into some use cases.
Before you buy AI
While it may be tempting to jump into the deep end of all the potential technologies and daydream about how they can revolutionize your business, begin the way you'd make any important business decision: develop a step-by-step plan. Talk to your staff about the key challenges they face and then to the leaders about potential risks and alignment with business goals.
Then do your homework. As you research capabilities to resolve challenges and optimize workflows, do the dirty work of analyzing requirements and understanding how to ensure data privacy and AI ethics as they relate to bias, fairness, transparency and accountability.
Once you and your leadership team have a good understanding of these basic principles, empower your staff with the education and training they will need, especially around the precautions and risks. Your work surely led you to a trusted technology partner that can support your agency's adoption and education of AI, so lean on them. They should make it easy and accessible for you to adopt AI technology within your daily workflows so you and your team can start seeing greater efficiency and accelerating the way towards your agency's growth objectives.
Real possibilities for real business goals
While we preach about the importance and seriousness of adopting AI in a practical and ethical way here at Planck, the excitement of possibilities and transformation is not lost on us. We've had some fun looking into various AI use cases specifically for independent agents since being acquired by Applied Systems. Let's explore a few of these use cases to give you some ideas of how you can resolve your business's unique challenges and augment your staff's human capabilities.
Does your staff spend countless hours a day reading and summarizing emails and policy documents to store in the agency management system for later use? AI technology can now connect to a team member's inbox and generate activity note summaries for emails and documents, automatically storing them in the appropriate customer accounts. Can you imagine your team members spending less time documenting activities and having that information readily available when needed? Not to mention the reduced risk of errors and omissions by not having to rekey any information.
Or how about entering data from an existing policy to begin a quote for a prospect? Talk about risk of errors and omissions. AI can now extract policy data from a PDF and auto fill it into your management system so your staff can easily begin the quoting process. No more flipping back and forth between applications and no more rekeying information.
Have high priority on building your top line? AI can identify opportunities within your book of business by finding coverage gaps within existing policies. Then based on thousands of publicly available sources, AI can build out a risk profile with as little information as a business name and address. As if this wasn't enough, AI can then give you market placement insights based on where similar risks are being successfully placed within your agency, ensuring that your client has the best market in seconds.
Do the homework
From housekeeping robots to policy data extraction, we've covered the range of possibilities for this flexible technology. We are in a really exciting time, and I'm personally thrilled to have a front-row seat as many of our customers begin exploring the limitless opportunities AI promises. At the risk of sounding cliché though, with great power comes great responsibility. Agents must take the responsibility seriously and put safeguards in place to ensure the ethical and responsible use of AI. So before you let that daydream take you away, make a plan, do your homework, and then – and only then – should you drive off into the sunset.
