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Vertafore (Denver) has unveiled its Digital Underwriter vision for MGAs, along with new Velocity AI agents intended to reduce friction across underwriting workflows.
Emily McGinn, General Manager of MGA and Wholesale, Vertafore.
The Digital Underwriter strategy is aimed at helping MGAs increase underwriting capacity, reduce cycle times and improve bind rates by using AI agents within underwriting workflows, according to a Vertafore statement.
Vertafore says MGA underwriters often spend significant time preparing submissions, gathering information and completing manual work that takes capacity away from evaluating risk and launching new programs. The company positions the Digital Underwriter as a way to reduce that burden from intake and risk evaluation through quoting, binding and servicing.
“The opportunity to apply AI in underwriting is bigger than automating individual tasks,” comments Emily McGinn, General Manager of MGA and Wholesale, Vertafore. “Our Digital Underwriter strategy is about creating capacity across the entire workflow.”
McGinn says the approach is intended to help MGAs support more submission volume with existing teams by taking on preparation work, accelerating repetitive tasks and surfacing items that need attention.
New Velocity Agents
Vertafore introduced two new Velocity AI agents as part of the strategy: the Velocity Change Request Agent and the Velocity Configuration Agent.
The Velocity Change Request Agent automatically identifies and summarizes changes across renewal and endorsement applications. The tool is designed to give underwriters a clearer view of changes that could affect underwriting decisions, while reducing time spent searching for differences.
The underwriter reviews and approves the summary before it is saved to the application record. Vertafore says preliminary testing shows the agent can save up to 70 percent of review time and reduce errors and missed changes by up to 98 percent. General availability is expected this fall.
The Velocity Configuration Agent helps Surefyre admins handle more complex configuration work themselves, reducing reliance on specialists to create and update programs. Admins can describe intended changes in natural language, and the agent translates the intent into configuration that can be reviewed, refined, previewed and tested before saving.
Amy Zupon, CEO, Vertafore.
Vertafore says preliminary testing shows the Velocity Configuration Agent can save up to 65 percent of configuration time. General availability is expected this fall.
Vertafore also previewed the Velocity Policy Check Agent, which will use AI to compare issued policy information against the application and policy record. The agent is intended to surface mismatches and missing information so underwriters can focus on exceptions rather than manual field-by-field review.
“Our approach isn’t about adding AI around the edges of insurance,” comments Amy Zupon, CEO, Vertafore. “It is about reimagining how the work of insurance gets done, connecting intelligence across the workflow and automating more of the work so the people at the heart of insurance have more capacity to focus on the decisions that matter to their clients and business.”
The new agents join AI capabilities Vertafore launched earlier this year, including the Velocity Submission Processing Agent and Velocity Portal Launcher Agent.
Vertafore provides insurance distribution technology for agencies, MGAs and carriers, including digital systems, AI capabilities and data-driven workflow tools.