How can insurance agents use AI?

I spent nearly twenty years in insurance, and every agent knows the thing we're all supposed to do: call clients out of the blue and ask how you can help, whether you can go over their policy. Most agents don't, because the day-to-day eats everything.

"Most agents don't do it because you're just so busy with the day to day. Well, what if you weren't? ... You'll have the capacity to do that, and then you'll win more customers because of it."

Where does AI help an agency first?

Follow-up and admin. When AI handles the follow-up, you can do more sales calls because it doesn't take as much time. The point is putting humans in front of more people, not removing them.

Some jobs will go. You won't need people who just email customers back or phone agents who only take simple calls. But streamlining gives you the capacity and the money to hire people for the human work: sales, in-person contact, service when it's needed.

A guest on my podcast showed what that looks like: his AI assistant keeps the full conversation history from deals won and lost and emails him a pre-call script 15 minutes before each meeting.

What can an independent agency automate?

A lot more than most agents think. An independent agent came to my AI meetup knowing nothing about AI. In front of him, I asked Codex for the top 10 workflows it could automate for an independent insurance agent. It listed 10 things, and he looked at the list and said there's no way it could do all that.

• Quoting. Rating tools run quotes separately across many carriers, then someone has to handle all the documents that come back. That's exactly the kind of work AI is good at.
• The tools are ready. I checked, and the two or three biggest tools independents use already have MCPs and APIs.
• Headcount. If you have eight employees, I think you could run the business with four once it's optimized.

Insurance is so workflow-based and information-based that it's almost perfect for AI to automate. That's part of why I got out.

What if my carrier controls my systems?

Then you're limited, and that's the carrier's doing. Captive agents often can't use these tools at all. I told a room of captive agents I didn't have much to show that would help inside their agency, only because their carrier won't let them, not because there aren't a million things you could do with your own CRM and your own system.

What captive agents can still do:

• Use general AI for personal productivity.
• Build a lead channel they own, outside the carrier's stack.
• Build a personal brand and get good at SEO outside the carrier.

Why should a captive agent build a personal brand?

Because captive agents have the most to lose. If you leave the carrier, by your choice or not, you're nobody on the internet. If you're under 55, you have a career ahead of you in a chaotic world of AI disruption. Become a significant person online, and when you start a new business, say financial planning, the internet already knows and trusts you. You're not starting from zero.

It's harder than it sounds. I ran an AI-search audit on my own site as if I were a potential client, and it gave me a 33 out of 100. I'm more advanced on this than most people. Imagine the average insurance agent.

Is there a lead channel agents can own?

I think local media may be the best way for insurance agents to get leads. You own the attention of the local people in your community. I helped one of the top five largest agents in the country launch a couple of newsletters in his community. More in local newsletters for insurance agents.

Why are independent agencies a strong AI market?

They're numerous, they're wealthy, they still run manual processes, and they aren't locked into one carrier's stack. Some agencies I know spend $50,000 to $100,000 a month on advertising, and they know very little about AI.

A creator could win here. Show agents how to use their agency management system with Claude: tell it to do this, and it does these three things for you. People will say, "I'm paying you five grand to do that for me." Then you systematize it.

My unproven "big bet" for them was a group membership around $700 a month with templates, automations and office hours, plus cheap employee seats so the team keeps it sticky. I'm not pursuing it myself because of focus. Pricing detail in what an AI membership should include and cost.

Should I build AI software for insurance?

Probably not, if you're a small team. The market is huge and the money's there, but the regulations are a nightmare. If a contract goes differently than expected, you can get sued. If we had $3 million behind us to really get in the weeds, I'd go after it. We don't, so it isn't worth it. I'm not a lawyer, so get real advice before building anything regulated.

How will AI agents change how people buy insurance?

So much of the economy runs on arbitrage: people not knowing a better deal exists, or forgetting to cancel. Getting an insurance quote is hard because of all the forms. What if you didn't have to fill them out? AI agents are going to find your competitor or negotiate with you, and I'm mega bullish on an agency that helps businesses get in front of that.

This isn't new to me. Two and a half years ago I started an AI startup, went down the rabbit hole, saw that insurance agencies were one of the industries that would be disrupted, and got out.