With varied and complex sets of documents and constituencies to deal with, managing general agents (MGAs) may well be the poster child for the need for automation in insurance.
MGAs offer a diverse product set to many different insurance carriers, forcing them to take in a wide variety of documents. That means dealing with many different policy documents, each with their own format, and abiding by numerous underwriting guidelines.
By nature, MGAs also deal with niche markets to meet specialized needs of clients, which means lots of custom policy documents, requirements, and endorsements.
At the same time, just as traditional carriers, managing general agents typically must process underwriting submissions as well as claims. The difference is they’re doing it on behalf of numerous insurance carrier clients.
Add it all up and it means MGAs must dedicate numerous employees to the task of reading and processing all sorts of documents on one hand, while preparing claims and underwriting proposals for various carriers on the other.
Intelligent automation would give these associates a helping hand, making them more productive while enabling the MGA to reduce time to bind and underwriting leakage and increase quote ratios. They could also process claims faster, in part through automated claims triage, leading to increased client and customer satisfaction.
Related content: How automating claims intake streamlines settlements, saves time, and boosts customer satisfaction
Benefits of document intake automation for MGAs
Intelligent intake involves applying artificial intelligence technologies to the job of reading and classifying insurance documents. It also enables MGAs to automate the process of extracting relevant data from various unstructured documents for input into downstream workbench solutions such as Guidewire.
A good intelligent intake solution can capture and extract data from unstructured sources including emails, PDFs, and forms, as well as digital submissions from website input forms. Intelligent intake platforms use large language models, including generative AI models like the one behind ChatGPT. The models and are trained on the very documents your associates typically see, making them highly accurate. It’s not unusual for such solutions to increase capacity of your associates by 70% or more.
With this kind of helping hand at their associates’ side, MGAs realize benefits including:
- Reduced manual data entry: Underwriting submission and claims are processed more quickly, leading to faster decision-making.
- Increased accuracy: Data is normalized to various downstream workbench systems, greatly reducing the chance for human error in data entry.
- Workflow automation: Intelligent intake helps automate and streamline administrative processes including policy issuance and servicing, thus reducing operational costs.
- Improved regulatory compliance: Some intelligent intake solutions help to monitor for regulatory compliance by analyzing policies and other documents to ensure they comply with relevant regulations, reducing the risk of non-compliance and penalties.
Related content: How ChatGPT and other GPT AI technologies may apply to the insurance industry
Leveraging AI in insurance
By taking unstructured data and converting it to a structured format, intelligent intake also positions MGAs to take advantage of other AI-based offerings that require structured inputs. These include AI algorithms and machine learning models to assess risk more accurately, as well as identify trends and patterns that lead to more informed underwriting decisions.
Similarly, predictive analytics tools can quickly analyze historical data to predict future trends, helping MGAs optimize pricing. They can also detect patterns or anomalies that are the tell-tale signs of fraud, leading to cost savings and improved risk management.
By normalizing data, intelligent intake solutions also position MGAs to integrate with the various technology platforms that other carriers, agencies, and brokers use.
The latest version of Indico Data’s intelligent intake solution, Indico 6, is focused on helping insurers, including MGAs, optimize underwriting profits while minimizing claim costs. To learn more about how it can help you, sign up for a free demo or contact us with any questions.
