AI Insurance Shift (03/2025)

The industry’s pressing need for innovation is succinctly captured by Vishal Sankhla, co-founder and CEO of Outmarket AI, who describes the ideal solution as "a painkiller, not just a vitamin"—a technology that alleviates immediate pain points rather than providing incremental improvements. To that end, Outmarket AI recently secured $4.7 million in funding to improve integration between insurance stakeholders and modernize operations.

Unlike companies applying generic AI models, Outmarket is developing insurance-specific AI solutions from the ground up. After a year of close collaboration with industry professionals, the company has built a system designed to integrate seamlessly with legacy platforms while addressing the complexities of insurance workflows. Many legacy insurance systems are deeply embedded in business operations, making a full overhaul impractical. AI bridges this gap by serving as a connective layer, enhancing rather than replacing existing infrastructure. By leveraging APIs, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning models trained on insurance-specific data, AI can extract insights from unstructured policy documents, standardize disparate data sources, and automate manual processes without requiring costly system replacements.

One of the most significant benefits AI brings to the industry is standardization across previously disconnected systems. As Sankhla explained in a recent PYMTS article, inconsistent data definitions often lead to discrepancies when retrieving key metrics, such as monthly premium totals. Outmarket’s AI-powered unified data layer ensures consistency and accuracy across all organizational systems. This harmonization reduces errors and accelerates decision-making, ultimately improving customer experiences and operational efficiency.

Outmarket primarily targets insurance brokers—vital yet technologically underserved professionals who juggle multiple coverages for businesses. These brokers currently face inefficiencies such as manually processing extensive policy documents and managing large volumes of email correspondence while navigating siloed data systems. AI solutions alleviate these burdens by optimizing key performance indicators, such as the submission-to-bind ratio, and pre-filling renewal applications with historical data. Rather than forcing brokers to abandon established workflows, these technologies integrate with existing systems to enhance efficiency without disruption.

Conclusion

As AI adoption gains momentum in the insurance industry, the competitive advantage will no longer stem from merely having AI capabilities but from how effectively companies integrate them into core operations. This shift marks a fundamental transformation in how insurance businesses differentiate themselves.

The impact of AI will likely extend beyond brokers, benefiting the entire insurance ecosystem. Underwriters will receive more accurate and complete applications, enabling faster processing and improved coverage options. Additionally, specialized AI models tailored for claims processing and risk assessment are expected to emerge, further enhancing efficiency.

The key to AI’s success in insurance lies in its ability to enhance, rather than replace, human expertise. Insurance is inherently built on trust, relationships, and nuanced decision-making—elements that AI alone cannot replicate. Instead, AI serves as an enabler, handling tedious administrative tasks, analyzing vast datasets for insights, and ensuring regulatory compliance.

This allows professionals to focus on high-value activities such as client advisory, risk assessment, and strategic decision-making. The most successful AI implementations will strike a balance between automation and human judgment, ensuring that technology empowers rather than displaces industry professionals.

Looking ahead, the future of commercial insurance will be defined by intelligent automation that strengthens human expertise, optimizes operations, and drives industry-wide innovation.

About ECEBiS

At ECEBiS you are going to understand what will change the trajectory of the financial industry. You will develop a transversal view on the forces that are shaping the future financial industry.

From payments and lending to investment and money management, tech providers are actively shaping the future of the financial landscape - even pushing the boundaries of currency itself. You might evaluate the impact of robo-advising on health management and examine portfolio recommendations from a diversified set of RAs and attempt to identify the factors behind proposed splits between asset classes.

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