Before buying AI software for your insurance agency, define the problem, map the workflow, check your existing tools, involve your team, establish review responsibilities, and decide how you will measure success.
A compelling demo can make an AI tool feel essential. Faster service. Less administrative work. More room to grow.
Before discussing pricing, ask:
What specific problem will this solve for our agency?
If the answer is vague, keep digging. The strongest technology investments start with a measurable business need.
“We need AI” is a buying impulse. “Our team is falling behind on renewal reviews” is a problem you can investigate.
Start with four questions:
Consider a hypothetical agency whose homeowners book grows from 1,000 to 1,500 policies without adding service staff. If the same percentage of renewals needs review, the team now faces 50% more reviews.
An AI remarketing tool might help. First, find out where the work stalls.
Are employees reentering information into carrier portals? Tracking down missing account details? Waiting for customers to respond?
Each bottleneck calls for a different fix. Identify yours before choosing software.
Document how employees complete the task today, from the initial request to the final record.
For a renewal review, examine each step:
| Step | What to investigate |
|---|---|
| Identify renewals | Does the agency management system flag accounts, or does someone check manually? |
| Decide whether to remarket | Who evaluates coverage changes and underwriting considerations? |
| Gather information | Is account information complete and accessible? |
| Obtain quotes | Where does duplicate entry occur? |
| Compare options | Who verifies coverage, deductibles, and other differences? |
| Contact the client | How are responses and follow-ups tracked? |
| Document the outcome | Where are communications, decisions, and activities recorded? |
The bottleneck may surprise you.
If quotes sit unanswered because follow-up is inconsistent, faster quoting creates a larger queue. If employees request information already stored elsewhere, better access may eliminate the task.
Update your standard operating procedure, or SOP, to define each step, its owner, required information, and expected outcome.
Then assess whether a tool reduces total work, including verification and corrections.
Check what you already own before adding another subscription.
Ask your agency management system (AMS), customer relationship management (CRM), phone, and other software providers:
Your next improvement could come from a report, a workflow adjustment, or targeted training.
Understanding your current capabilities gives you a clearer standard for evaluating a new purchase.
Include employees who perform the task in product evaluations. They can spot friction that a polished demo misses.
A separate portal, misplaced tasks, or repeated verification may offset the time a tool appears to save.
Have a representative employee test realistic scenarios. For a renewal tool, include:
Measure the complete task. How much time did it take? Where did the tool need help? What required correction? Did the finished work reach the right system?
Leadership owns the purchase decision. Employee testing strengthens it.
Set review responsibilities before implementation.
Document what the tool can complete independently, what employees must verify, and when an exception requires additional attention.
A tool might organize renewal documents or prepare a coverage comparison. Your workflow should specify who checks the information, evaluates the options, and approves client communication.
Ask vendors to demonstrate how the product handles missing information, conflicting documents, and failed steps.
Build those handoffs into your SOP and training. Every employee should know when to trust the workflow, when to verify the output, and when to take over.
Establish a baseline before implementation. Track speed, quality, adoption, and business outcomes together.
Suppose an agency processes 100 renewal remarketing cases each month:
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Employee time per case | 45 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Monthly case volume | 100 | 100 |
| Total monthly employee time | 75 hours | 33.3 hours |
That creates approximately 41.7 hours of capacity per month.
These figures are hypothetical, not results from a specific agency or product.
Now decide what those hours should accomplish. Faster responses? More timely renewal reviews? A smaller backlog? Capacity to support growth?
Time savings do not automatically reduce payroll. Their value depends on how your agency uses the recovered capacity.
Compare those benefits with the full cost: subscriptions, implementation, integrations, training, monitoring, and corrections.
Use a small scorecard:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Total handling time | Whether the task requires less work |
| Reviews completed on schedule | Whether service becomes more timely |
| Errors and rework | Whether quality holds up |
| Employee adoption | Whether the tool fits daily work |
| Customer retention | Whether the broader outcome improves over time |
| Employee feedback | Whether workloads become more manageable |
Investigate retention changes carefully. Pricing, market conditions, and communication also influence whether customers stay.
Let the bottleneck guide the search.
| Agency problem | Capability to evaluate |
|---|---|
| Renewal reviews start late | Renewal identification and prioritization |
| Employees enter the same data repeatedly | Data extraction and system connections |
| Service requests pile up | Request categorization and routing |
| Renewal preparation consumes too much time | Document organization and submission preparation |
| Customer interactions require lengthy documentation | Conversation summaries and follow-up identification |
Ask vendors to demonstrate your task using the systems, exceptions, and review requirements your agency faces.
Choose one recurring task that slows your team down. Document it, measure it, and define the improvement you need.
Then evaluate the options against that goal.
Buy technology because you have identified a problem worth solving.
Need help finding the right starting point? Explore Catalyit Consulting for guidance on agency workflows, existing systems, and technology decisions.
Define the business problem, document the workflow, check existing software, involve employees, establish review responsibilities, and set measurable goals.
Test realistic cases and measure the complete task, including setup, verification, corrections, documentation, and follow-up. Compare that total with your current process.
Time savings create capacity. Assess ROI by measuring the value your agency gains from that capacity and comparing it with the full cost of the tool.
Review the process first. Remove unnecessary steps, clarify responsibilities, and address missing information before choosing which tasks to automate.
Involve employees in evaluation, test familiar scenarios, document the revised workflow, and provide training and support. Use feedback after launch to make adjustments.
Renewal Management
Service Request Management
Customer Communication