Arming independent agents with a targeted, intuitive
AI solution is how Linqura intends to
power the next generation of insurance
By Lori Widmer
“We’re not a chatbot company; we’re a transaction company.” That focus, says CEO Mark Stender, is exactly how Linqura.ai intends to revolutionize the independent agency through the smart use of artificial intelligence (AI). “Smart” is the operative word, he says.
Yet, in a world of chatbot-generated content, Stender and his team believe there is a strong need for the type of curated, specialized content that Linqura’s chatbot delivers.
Stender, who describes Linqura as “an AI company at our soul,” says that AI needs data to make it smart—business data, in particular. The basis of the data includes a wealth of content and information extracted from the Rough Notes archives that became the foundation for the Linqura chatbot database. Curated data is the differentiator, making the chatbot, named SYBL, more effective than an open large language model, says Stender.
He should know—Stender is leading his third insurtech startup and is the author of three insurance patents. He is the former chief digital officer for Prudential Financial and prior to that, he spent 26 years at Travelers, leading business insurance technology and serving as the chief enterprise architect.
“Most chatbots using open large language models are not going to give you a consistent answer,” he says. Instead, results are going to vary widely depending on where the data is being sourced. With a wealth of misinformation and erroneous data circulating on the web, accuracy could well be compromised.
By using content exclusively from legitimate sources, Linqura continues to build accuracy into the chat function. “We’re all about business data. We look for high-value transaction data,” Stender says.
He explains that there is another area of information gathering that is ongoing. The Linqura team has added data from 40 million businesses in the United States and continues to add more business data to the chatbot database. That includes firm demographics—size of business, type, NAIC codes, whether the company is private or incorporated, owner names, and more. Transaction information, permits, risks—anything that can give producers insight into the business operations is included. “We educate you about the business,” Stender says.
The reason: to educate the producer. Linqura, he notes, helps agents grow and increase margins both with existing and new business. “We prepare a producer for a call or visit and to be smarter than he or she was otherwise” and to improve sales call results.
Linqura’s SYBL arms producers with company-specific data, such as business contracts, employee data, revenue, and the finer details of the business’s operations. “That’s a better conversation,” he says, one that only curated AI content can deliver.
It doesn’t end there, however. “As you transact with the chatbot, we learn your behavior as a producer. Then we start giving you the leads that are similar to your other businesses.” Customers also get security—data security that is explainable and auditable, the company says.
Beginning with insurance
Such game-changing innovation comes from an amassed 100-plus years of experience that the Linqura team brings to the equation. An impressive résumé for a company that formed in November 2023. Most recently, Stender has teamed with Ryan Hanley, who is now Linqura’s chief marketing officer and whose decades of “boots on the ground” producer, marketing, digital, and commercial insurance agency experience helped round out Stender’s original premise for SYBL.
“There’s an intrinsic shift happening. … [B]ecause of all the different startups that have come into the space, because of the different digital capabilities that larger agencies and brokers have, independent insurance agencies can no longer survive writing a few different types of business.”
—Ryan Hanley
Chief Marketing Officer
In building SYBL, Stender says that the company already had the AI expertise. The next logical step was to build a platform that enhanced human capabilities, not replaced them. “We had this underwriting data, but if we’re just going to put out underwriting data, we’ll just be a modern version of Rough Notes, which is nice, but how do we transact?”
That’s when Stender says the idea to mix in business data with the industry data came to fruition. He and his team built a network of sources who could provide data from various industries, which all went into SYBL.
“What we do is we string a bunch of things together; we use the right tool for the job,” he explains. “We’re made up of multiple AI techniques, machine learning, algorithms, along with large language models, etc. Several different types of AI data and insurance transactions are working together seamlessly.”
Hanley, who had just exited his agency, saw what Stender was trying to build and decided to join the company in January 2024. “When I looked at Linqura, it almost ticked me off a little,” he says. “If I’d had this tool at my agency, I probably wouldn’t have sold it because we would have been able to grow even faster.”
The struggle for growth is where independent agents find themselves today, says Hanley. “There’s an intrinsic shift happening. The way our business had operated for so long, you were able to operate in one to three niche markets or geographic regions 20 miles from your agency location, and you could grow and be happy and make money.
“Unfortunately, because of all the different startups that have come into the space, because of the different digital capabilities that larger agencies and brokers have, independent insurance agencies can no longer survive writing a few different types of business,” he adds.
Linqura, he says, changes all that for the producer. Because independent producers need to expand to survive, they need more information on client prospects, on their businesses, and on the markets they serve. The data that is programmed into Linqura’s chatbot gives producers precise data on that prospect’s business, industry, and needs. “You can now sit in front of that client and sound and act like an insurance expert in that particular niche whether you are or aren’t,” says Hanley.
“We’re making AI real and useable … . We’re more secure and more reliable than an open large language model … . [N]obody else is combining [the chatbot function] with business data.”
—Mark Stender
Chief Executive Officer
Additionally, Hanley says, having up-front the company’s statistics—revenue, market share, etc.—means that the questions driving the conversation are less about ticking boxes and more about the customer’s needs, which allows producers to focus on submission requirements, carrier appetites for certain risks, and more business-specific details.
“So now, you’re not questioning a class,” says Hanley. “I’m not questioning an excavator. I’m asking the specific questions to John Smith Excavation of West Des Moines. I now have the ability to look at specific risks and ask the specific questions that are necessary.”
Propelling business growth
Linqura, says Hanley, makes every agent a specialist on every account. No other chatbot solution can deliver curated, vetted data specific to the insurance producer’s needs. In that way, Hanley and Stender say Linqura is not a chatbot company, but a company that has a chatbot, which serves as a window into a better work model. “It is the model that defines this company and really makes it unique,” says Hanley.
“We’re making AI real and useable,” says Stender. “We’re more secure and more reliable than an open large language model, and we’re an assistant in making the most important decisions.”
“We’ve delivered consistent results,” says Stender. Also, “Nobody else is combining [the chatbot function] with business data. We have all the data to educate our AI, plus we have the connections to get nearly any type of data.”
Stender says that a focused, proprietary chatbot solution will be the critical factor for independent agents who need to compete and expand to survive. “Agents who use AI will replace agents who do not,” he notes.
For more information:
Linqura
linqura.ai
The author
Lori Widmer is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor who specializes in insurance and risk management.
