Speed AI Data: Revolutionizing Insurance Decisions -

pexels-jonathanborba-29309756 win F1 silverstone tickets

Our theme for September at IE mag is Speed. Not the classic Keanu Reeves bomb-on-a-bus movie, but gathering and understanding data to make intelligent decisions on insurance, from quote to claims settlement.

So where are we right now? The Insurtech sector continues to evolve rapidly as new technologies disrupt the traditional insurance landscape. Right now, IE sees the key trends driving innovation are:

1. AI and Machine Learning for Underwriting and Claims

AI in Risk Assessment: Insurers are using machine learning models to better assess risk by analyzing large amounts of data from diverse sources like social media, IoT devices, and telematics. These models help insurers offer more personalized and accurate pricing. There’s still room for the human touch in Specialty or niche areas of course, but for MGAs, Underwriters and brokers it really is all about the data sources right now. Both quantity – and quality.

2. IoT Integration

Usage-based Insurance (UBI): By leveraging telematics devices in cars or wearables, insurers can offer more personalized policies based on real-time data. For example, driving behaviour (speed, braking patterns) can affect car insurance premiums, while health metrics from wearables can impact life and health insurance rates.
Smart Home Tech: IoT devices such as smoke detectors, smart locks, and security cameras are helping insurers monitor risk in real-time, and offer discounts to policyholders with well-equipped homes. These are two areas where AI can be used to crunch data at the point of quote, giving more personalised pricing.

3. Embedded Insurance

Seamless Integration into Consumer Journeys: Insurance products are increasingly being embedded into other products or services at the point of purchase. For example, when booking a flight or car rental, you may be offered insurance options directly integrated into the booking platform. This trend makes purchasing insurance much easier and more accessible. This is another area where data from third party sources can really make a big difference when it comes to pricing risk.

COMMENT AND ANALYSIS

Let’s delve deeper and get some expert commentary from around the insurance industry;

Kieran Watts, Industry Lead for Claims Innovation at Digital Workforce, offers these insights on customer expectations. The bottom line is that AI has to deliver on convenience, settlement of claims and things like policy amendments, or policyholders will be disappointed.

“In the UK, customer expectations for speed are rising quickly. Research shows that more policyholders are becoming comfortable with automation – acceptance of AI-determined pricing has increased from around 31% in 2024 to 37% in 2025. That shift signals an opportunity: insurers that use AI in claims can deliver faster outcomes while maintaining trust.

The reality is that settlement is still too often slowed by manual processes and legacy systems. By deploying pre-trained AI agents to manage routine steps – from first notification of loss through verification to payout initiation – insurers can cut turnaround times dramatically, without the disruption of replacing core platforms.

This isn’t just about efficiency. Faster settlement drives customer loyalty, supports compliance through consistent processes, and allows human adjusters to focus where empathy and judgment are essential. With regulatory scrutiny increasing and the UK insurance market under pressure to modernise, speed has become the differentiator. Those who act now will set the standard for the industry.”

WORK SMARTER

Here are some thoughts from Ashleigh Gwilliam, Director of Insurance at FullCircl, an nCino Company:

“It’s not just about going faster. It’s about working smarter, faster, and more intuitively. Speed without intelligence can lead to missteps, especially in a market shaped by ever-evolving risks, regulatory shifts, and rising customer expectations. The most progressive platforms today aren’t just shaving seconds off workflows; they’re fundamentally transforming the way insurance brands operate.

By harnessing billions of data points, these integrated platforms can now generate deep, 360° customer views enriched automatically and in near real-time. That means no longer spending hours researching a client; instead, brokers, insurers, underwriters and MGAs are alerted instantly to changes in a client’s risk profile. This kind of intelligence enables proactive engagement and tighter risk controls, up to 80% faster in some cases, and up to 500% faster policy review processes.

Third-party data integrations play a crucial role here. When corporate structures, officer data, and material fact indicators (like ADH, CCJ, or FCA status) are embedded into quotations, risk assessments, underwriting submissions, and claims workflows, the result is smoother, faster, more accurate decision-making. Pricing too becomes faster and smarter with near real-time indicators such as propensity-to-buy triggers, sentiment shifts, and dynamic financial signals shaping how products are packaged and positioned.

In short, platforms must do more than simply go fast. They must empower insurance brands to think fast. And that means giving them the intelligence, alerts, and engagement signals they need to serve clients better, reduce risk exposure, and grow more strategically.”

THE DATA CHAIN MATTERS

Sarah Vaughan, Director, Angelica Solutions added these thoughts;

“Data can absolutely help speed things up as it shows you what’s working, what’s not, and helps you do more of the good and less of the bad. And in today’s market, speed is certainly of the essence in the insurance industry not just because margins are thin and any commercial advantage needs to be capitalised on but also because customers have come to demand speed and see insurance no differently to grocery shopping. That said, data on its own does nothing. People make things happen. You need the data flows set up so that insight is available in near real time and teams and governance processes ready to act on those insights without delay.

Ultimately, A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and the same is true of speed. Claims will only be settled, prices changed, customer queries answered at the pace of the slowest cog”.

ACTING ON ANALYTICS

Of course to make decisions on insurance pricing, renewal rates or claims, you need an analytics software toolkit that can deliver the insights you need quickly – and accurately, as Heather Wilson from CLARA Analytics notes;

“The breadth and depth of our dataset is unmatched. When carriers want to know what’s truly happening in their business and where they stand in the market, there’s no better source of truth,” said Heather H. Wilson, CEO of CLARA Analytics. “CLARA IaaS gives insurers insights they’ve never had before — the ability to clearly see where they stand, anticipate challenges, and make decisions with confidence.”

BETTER RISK PRICING AND CLAIMS SETTLEMENT, IN REAL TIME, BY USING TECH

Previsico joined a programme in the USA, after record flooding in the New York area over the last few years created major issues for the transport system, inundating numerous highways and roads and affecting all New York City Subway services, causing a total of US$100mil of losses.

This is an area where insurers can work much faster, in real-time sending alerts to policyholders during a Cat event, working alongside emergency services and settling claims based on the data gathered, and analysed via AI. Data on asset values can also be integrated into insurers dashboards, so that risk and losses can be assessed in real time.

Stacey Matlen, Vice President of Innovation at the Partnership for New York City, commented earlier in 2025:

“The Transit Tech Lab provides an accelerated pathway for innovative companies, like Previsico, to solve challenges facing the largest transit agencies in North America. We’re excited to collaborate with Previsico and the other companies in this year’s Transit Tech Lab to test solutions that optimise maintenance processes, a key component of a well-running transit system.”

THE POWER OF AGENTIC AI

Claude Humard, Head of Customer Success at Flowable, offers these insights;

Compared to other industries, insurance faces unique challenges: large volumes of unstructured data, complex risk profiles, and unpredictable events. From responding to natural disasters to processing high volumes of claims, the pressure is on to deliver efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.

Agentic AI offers insurers the ability to rapidly address customer needs, optimize processes, and reduce costs. By streamlining quoting, underwriting, and claims management, these platforms deliver faster, more seamless customer experiences when speed matters most, and at the right time.

With autonomous AI agent platforms, insurers can be empowered to:

Enhance Underwriting: Retrieve data from multiple sources in seconds to spot anomalies and flag risks.
Detect Fraud: Continuously monitor claims data to identify suspicious patterns and escalate for review.
Personalize Proposals: Analyze renewal windows, claims history, and usage trends to generate tailored offers.
Accelerate Sales: Reduce quote turnaround times and improve conversion.
Streamline Claims: Use low-code tools to improve policy management and foster collaboration between business and IT.

By embracing agentic AI, insurance organizations can achieve the speed, agility, and customer focus needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving market. These intelligent systems empower insurers to deliver hyper-personalized experiences, streamline complex processes, and proactively respond to customer needs in real time.