NIBA / Special Feature
Accelerating Your Tech Growth
our teams refer to relevant components when dealing with broker queries..
us to maintain high levels of consistent customer service across the organisation.” Being able to scale operations, while ideally also improving customer service and the quality of products or services, is key when implementing a tech solution. At IAG, Craddock says the goal is straight- through processing for the more simple risks – receiving a request and getting the quote out to a broker as quickly as possible. “We focus on our straight-through processing rates, and certainly with our first implementation, we've seen significant increases in what we can handle automatically. That enables us to focus on a lot of the more complex underwriting requirements, where we really need the experience and skills of the broader team, including the underwriting team, in order to be able to provide the right service to our customers,” he says.
“None of these individual tools are particularly revolutionary, but being able to bring these into one window for the admin user makes the overall toolset so much more powerful. You're not switching applications continually to obtain the relevant information , and we can refer to connected conversations, whether with the same broker or others that have dealt with similar topics. “I call it a shared memory – something we can now embed throughout our organisation. Customer service is a difficult attribute to scale from a business perspective as it is often about individual skills in our people. I’m sure it always will be, but with agentic tools, we’re now able to scale consistent service and interpretation in a way that wasn’t possible even three years ago, thanks to the shared context this facilitates. This allows
Simplifying the complex is an essential part of tech implementation, and Leach believes getting the right ‘trade tools’ is as essential for brokers as it is for a sparky or a plumber. “For a broker, for example, practice management tools that are AI-powered are soon going to be essential,” he says. “It doesn’t have to be complicated, but what it will enable them to do is increase productivity, give higher quality advice, visit more clients, and ultimately become better brokers.”
However, there’s an evolutionary caveat:
“I also suspect there may be fewer brokers, because a smaller number of brokers will be able to get through so much more work, so many more policies, more clients, and so on. “However, if the tech is working better for them, they should have more time to be mobile – they should be able to get up and out of the office freely and spend time visiting their clients in their home or their workplace, access what they need to on their mobile device, and have a workflow that supports that.” For brokers in the early stages of their digital transformation, or hesitant about finding the time to radically change ways of working, Leach positions it like this: “It's almost an insurance policy to ensure you’ve got a successful business in five years time. “You need a culture of curiosity, growth mindset, experimentation, and internal innovation – employees should be trying new things, experimenting with how they can use AI, and learning all about it. “If they're stuck on their desktops, working in the office, or relying on remote desktop access, they're not able to get up out of the chair and visit clients, and nurture those face-to-face relationships – and increasingly that’s where the value lies.”
42 / INSURANCE ADVISER AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2025
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