How health insurance brokers can use AI to thrive

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Health insurance brokers have been using artificial intelligence for the past 30 years, but they didn't recognize it, one of the early developers of AI told members of the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals at the organization's annual convention.

The NABIP Annual Convention kicked off Saturday.

Andre Forde has worked in the AI field for years and is the founder of Dula, an AI company that is scaling nationally in partnership with Aflac.

People fear AI but don't realize that it has been part of our daily lives for decades, he said. As examples, he said postal machines have read handwritten ZIP codes since the 1960s, bank scanners read the checks we deposit and filters separate junk email from legitimate email.

"None of it looked like a robot. That's the point," he said.

Brokers have used AI in their rating engines, their claims systems, their underwriting systems - "you use this every day," Forde said.

"AI won't kill the insurance broker, but it will kill the manual broker model," he said.

Forde described what the smartest brokers are doing to incorporate AI in their practices.

They let AI read their book of business first. By 7 a.m., AI has scanned their entire book and ranked priorities with dollar amounts attached. A task that would take a broker 90 minutes a day is reduced to zero minutes.

Homework assignment given

Forde challenged brokers to a weekend "homework assignment."

• Set up a custom GPT with your agency name and contact information.
• Prompt the AI tool with your writing style and tone.
• Provide your Top 10 client scenarios.
• Provide examples of three client emails you have already sent.

"From that point forward, you'll never stare at a blank email screen again," he said. "You've trained AI to be an army of employees you control and command."

Brokers also use AI to turn their phones into their back office, Forde said. "They use it for voice notes after meetings, briefings during the commute, text commands from the parking lot."

Forde asked brokers to paste their Top 20 accounts into their AI tool and let AI find the coverage gaps that exist. From there, brokers can build out a custom GPT using their unique voice and client scenarios. Send voice notes after their first meeting of the week into their customer relationship management system. "You'll have done more administrative work in 45 minutes than most brokers do in a day," he said.

"The brokers who thrive in the next five years as the ones who taught AI their business,"Forde said. "Data trumps everything and AI has the data. We are truly going into an incredible transformation."

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Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at susan.rupe@innfeedback.com.