This is a report from a reluctant AI wave surfer. I did my best to ignore or just let the AI chatter happen at ITC 2024 (I am a contrarian to a fault), but I have to face it, much like “Winter” on Game of Thrones, “AI is coming.”
In this report, I’ll talk about my experience with AI Founders over the past few years. The 3 AI companies I met with in one week this year that had me face the AI music, even more recent companies I have come across, pivots, and concepts and startups in “stealth mode” I am excited about too.
Let’s lay the ground terminology first with our old friends and maybe AI laggards to a fault, the definition of AI via Google:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term used to describe computer systems that can perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. AI technologies can: Learn from experience, Analyze data, Understand and translate written and spoken language, Make recommendations, and See.
Some examples of AI in everyday life include:
- Voice-assisted smartphones
- Handwriting recognition for mail delivery
- Financial trading
- Smart logistics
- Spam filtering
- Language Translation
Now AIs cousin or child, Machine Learning, who doesn’t get enough shine too, and is often the real workhorse behind the cool developments we are seeing:
According to Google, “Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that enables a system to autonomously learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed, using algorithms to analyze large amounts of data, learn patterns, and make predictions based on new input data.”
The way I think about it is that AI chips are pulling from a nexus of information, rather than the more linear AB path of logic path traditional technology. Creating projections and inferences through different inputs, gathering most likely outcomes, machine learning develops and grows through pattern recognition over time.
It’s also important to remember that the leading chip manufacturer Nvidia had its greatest strength historically from video game chip manufacturing. These chips were creating virtual worlds, now they’re pulling from extremely large amounts of data and predicting what’s coming next in ours. It’s not magic, it’s compiling information from a ton of sources and making inferences. This is where more computer memory and Machine Learning is going to be huge, the value adds of AI are going to compound.
I have to give credit where credit is due, Jimmy Padia (LI) of Floatbot, Marc Bernstein (LI) of BALTO, and Gemma Whitehouse (LI) of Ingeniva were the first people I knew talking about AI and Machine Learning in the Insurance space. We recorded InsNerds pods around the subject over the past few years too:
A data and Insurtech convo across the pond with Broker Brett and Gemma Whitehouse (2023)
They are phenomenal people and companies that have been around the space before it was popular, and have deep knowledge and connections when it comes to activating AI and ML for the insurance space. I believe Balto and Floatbot would be more on the sales, customer service coaching side, and Gemma is a Fractional CTO very comfortable with using AI tools in the Data and Analytics space.
I recently wrote a longer post about how a series of AI conversations made me eat my words and finally recognize the importance of it and its impact on the insurance space. I’ll be pulling from that post for a chunk of this article as well.
I was kind of AI’d to death, but in hindsight, I was looking at things wrong. “AI” is not the thing, it’s the engine that folks are “solutions” for various industries. There is a bit of a “solution looking for a problem” scenario going on right now, but some exciting Insurance Industry tooling and AI driven operational support tools are definitely developing.
I am now seeing that “AI” can solve a ton of uses in a variety of places. I would have this rule of thumb when engaging with startups, I didn’t want “horses” too close that I am involved with. The mistake I was making was that I was putting “AI” in one bucket.
Vibhanshu Abhishek and I connected a few weeks back on Twitter or LinkedIn? I forget. We ended up having lunch with my good buddy Trevor Hayes, CIC and talking about Alltius and AI for outbound sales that following Wednesday. It was an awesome lunch and conversation.
I hopped on a quick call with Lance J. Dowdell later that week to talk about ReFocus AI, they have some awesome tooling around client retention monitoring. Last but certainly not least, I spoke with Zach Cole and Adam Rubenstein at Traq.ai, and their sales coaching and summaries were very impressive, as well as the follow-up sales email content.
Lance was the one to break it down to me that these companies are complementary and solve different parts of the agency flow equation. You may get your walls up when you hear AI, I did, try and see what the AI is being used to solve and if there’s need / value there. If you’re selling an AI-related tool, as Lance would nudge you to, talk about the outcome and uplift. Not the tech necessarily.
A selfish plug for an InsurTech startup I am proud to be an Advisor for, 1Fort has AI-powered insurance wholesaling and proactive Cyber risk management solutions, and is the first tech company that combines coverage from top-tier insurers with proactive risk solutions to help drive future insurance premium savings by preventing claims. Limit Brokers are doing really cool inspiring work combining wholesaling and AI tooling for agent assistance as well.
GAYA had some lending tools early on that I thought were interesting and cool, I was a little bummed to see the AI pivot, but now I get it, and they seem to be building an idea I dug, super copy paste and duplicate entry elimination.
Strawberry Antler is another company I met through a mini Twitter beef between them and HawkSoft. (Seeing a good old fashion Twitter beef made me feel like InsurTech is back!) They have a small insurance agency in Texas and are building tools to solve their own pain points and are selling / working with customers to get them using their tools as well.
Side Note: Pick on one of the two 10,000lb gorilla AMSs if you’re going to beef, the HawkSoft team is great!
LightDoc’s founder just popped into my LinkedIn DMs, we haven’t had a chance to talk yet, but they look like they have cool tools around commercial insurance document comparison.
There’s even an LA-based startup starting to pop up around cool tooling for Commercial Brokers, and I have been lucky to chat with an AI-driven wholesaler Founder out of New York. In a field so early and crowded, I think staying alive will be key. If you can sell and stay alive through your own small business practices, I think you can play the forever game and win.
My original take on AI was that it was going to be a “research assistant” and or and a seasoned colleague in a corner office you can bug as many of us work from home. The 3rd screen for AI tooling is looking like a hard sell. What I am seeing now are smart point solutions that integrate into your workflow and needs. I wouldn’t look for some global AI solution, but I would check where you’re having your largest pain points and see if there may be some tech to help.
Last but not least, it’s still your E&O on the line. Make sure you know what you’re talking about and you’re reviewing what AI is delivering. IA tools will be a great resource, they will help one Individual Contributor do the work of “many,” but the buck has to stop with that IC still, these tools are impressive, but they’re far from perfect. Double check their math as well.
With some of the potential for errors, and the accountability still rolling back to a licenced producer, I think it’s safe to say we’ll still need Brokers and Agents for a bit longer, but it is an exciting time to amplify your time and tallent with AI.
-Broker Brett
Brett Fulmer is an insurance agency owner, a Territory Manager for SmartChoice, and he is helping Broker Insights come to the US from the UK. He is also on the Insurance Nerds Board.
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Brett Fulmer
Newport Beach Insurance Center
Office Dir: (949) 209-5661
brett@npbic.com
CA LIC. # 0I83384 | NPN # 17234208
Licensed in all 50 states
Brett is an insurance broker in California.
