(This is Pete writing in case anyone cares lol)
If there was a time that a convergence of people agreed without knowing for the need to change then perhaps the week of October 30-Nov3 in Las Vegas. While Insuretech Connect has long been a coming together for the bleeding edge thinkers, the disrupters, change makers, incumbents, and the curious have they all been there at the same time? That appeared to be the case this year as representation from all channels were at ITC Vegas, but in different forms.
For us northern hosers (Canadians), we’d never seen so many of our fellow countrymen from the distribution side in Vegas before. What did the variety of independent brokers hope to find in the labyrinth of options at ITC? Are they more aware of the need to push away from their long-standing tech gatekeepers to solve their problems or was it a curiousness of ‘is there even another way?’ That answer will not be known for some time.
We spoke with one broker in particular who will be making an announcement about an upcoming partnership which is part of a succession plan for a legacy indie (independent brokerage/agency). They were looking for a solution that perhaps they did not know about, it was almost a double check to ensure they did not miss an idea in their business plan. There were many options to discover, but you had to dig. The ITC trade show is not like your regular industry event, ones that are far too repetitive with the same entities showing up giving tired swag away to the same attendees year after year.
Speaking of swag, Curt won some money. Seriously not in the casino but at booth!! That’s how you do it by covering the cost of a few beers or at least a late night sandwich for your podcast partner. Oh yeah, beers and beverages were all over the place and not $15 from a hotel bar person moving at half speed. #Vegasbaby, it knows service and the brass at ITC know what makes insurance people tick.
The best comment we heard was from a CEO who has bootstrapped a few companies, (divorce is a great motivator apparently) about who explained the surprise connections at the booth. “Carriers are all over this place! Never have I seen so many before and I’ve been here since 2016. We have had more conversation with people from insurance companies than ever before, they are waking up.”
Incumbents have always been the sleeping giants in this ecosystem. They have (started to) modernized their systems and the legacy ones are sitting on piles of cash still too, at least the ones who got Guidewire right. Looking at you legacy mutuals- right Billy Jura and Nick Lamparelli? Are they ready to move, finally???
So what were they looking for? There’s the $64,000 (now $936,000 with Inflation) but if you walked around that vast Mandalay Bay convention centre hall, a theme should have popped out at pretty fast. The Answer, not the original AI- Allen Iverson, was AI. Oh the amount of conversations we had about generative AI. The term, topic, concept, and any other description of AI became a running joke as we met with companies and people across the floor.
“Let me tell you about how our AI is better than their AI,” said with a chuckle and perhaps an eye roll too. We all know, really. Marketing works folks, say it enough, X it enough, Instagram it enough, Tiktok it enough and voilâ it becomes reality. Everyone decides that AI is the new ‘it girl’ and so it shall be, Here’s your free marketing lesson, say your pitch enough times with creativity in as many places as possible and you too can grow.
Here’s another question- why does insurance market almost exclusively for sales? We’ve got a long way to go to catch up to the real marketing machines.
Look let’s be frank, what everyone one is saying right now is this “AI is not going to take your job but the company or competitor using AI is going to take something from you.” My early bet is it’s the clients we can’t seem to lose, divorce or offend away. However I digress…what was that the motivator for all these insurance company people? I picture an old-school CEO, rather portly in a tight shirt with a mustache, receding hair, sitting behind a desk with a cigar and bellowing at his secretary as he reads the WSJ, “Get those managers to figure out how we are going to use this AI stuff, you know that artificial ignorance crap”.
The quick take from our perspective is this AI is not coming to take your job or your business and the person using AI likely isn’t either because you can’t buy it off the shelf to use as a tool in your tech stack, you know like certain online start-ups trying to sell insurance like it’s cereal? OH!!! But… there’s always a but, you can buy a plate of algorithms and all the sides that come with it and give this AI thing a taste- that’s the bleeding edge and thank goodness there are people who like the sight of their own blood. Or you could talk with companies who are have invested into AI for their products and have tested it and verified the results.
AI is not taking anything from you, there were way too many humans at ITC to think we’ll take each other’s livelihoods, but companies employing AI through methodical testing and implementation to find efficiencies and reduce the reliance on people doing mundane tasks will eventually gain an advantage. Furthermore, the organizations who figure out how to adopt the right suite of these types of products for their needs will find a huge advantage over time. Mainly because they will be using time efficiently. Remember you cannot save time, you can only spend it, so choose to spend it wisely. That’s from the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.
Maybe that’s why so many insurance company people were there—did they (the companies)finally realize that there are ways to better their experience to partners and consumers? You know, the asks that agents and brokers have been making for years to their trusted partners.
Let’s be real, what you see at ITC is its own ecosystem with participants from many different channels within in the industry. What that means is you see a boatload of information, propositions, offers, and more in the quest to make informed business assessments. It takes time and perhaps more than a few visits to one booth or company, starting before and concluding after the event. There’s a lot of noise that might not really be applicable to certain channels and attendees have to get past that but my god that noise is fun!
What comes from being at ITC is a sense of camaraderie if you choose to network that way and meet people who face similar challenges and come from common business purposes. The speakers can be motivating, the sessions informative, and networking contagious and that’s a good thing. You are not in this alone. It’s just a choice you made if you fee you are.
Adrian James gave an incredible keynote at the event this year that captured the past and future of insurance, tech, their convergence and growth. He listed his seven ingredients for a $5b insurance sector company. I’d say you can scale way down on that number and apply them to a more modest goal say even $5m. The two that matter most are the management team and time, that’s my opinion.
If you are the smartest guy in the room you’re in the wrong room so get smarter people around you on your team. Just make sure they get the credit okay? Also time. Know your time horizon well, review it, refine it, but most importantly know what you must achieve and when, to grow the business.
That’s the tip of the iceberg, assuming that you believe there’s more depth to my thoughts than this. Never assume— oops. I wish we’d gotten a little deeper in the ITC Vegas iceberg but there’s always next year and we’ll be back.
