Powerbroker AI arms agents and brokers
with the ability to generate new revenue streams and accelerate their training
By Lori Widmer
When Patrick Cooney started working at age 14 for his father’s agency, CRC, little did he realize that he would one day be running a company that powered a way for agents and brokers to improve their business results.
It was that experience—seeing how agents and brokers operated—that gave Cooney and his firm’s co-founder, Marcus Gallagher, the idea to enable brokerages with AI. “We were both very familiar with problems which plagued the insurance value chain, especially those of brokerages,” says Cooney.
For his part, Gallagher brought his experience at eBay and Coalition (a cyber carrier), which Cooney says gave him the deep understanding of the intricacies of brokerage workflows. “We both deeply understand insurance, appreciate the people in those businesses, and understand that the industry is based on trust,” Cooney adds.
Those intricacies included how to analyze multiple coverage options quickly, compare quotes, and generate targeted proposals. Seeing the inefficiencies up close, Cooney says he and Gallagher realized that through generative AI there was a more efficient way.
Using AI capabilities, Powerbroker AI delivers rapid results. “We equip brokers with a customer-facing sales wedge,” Cooney says. “They can easily prospect and win new business.”
However, the solution does even more. Account managers, marketing teams, and service executives can use the solution to handle repetitive tasks. “We rapidly compare quotes, binders, policies and forms to accelerate renewal work,” says Cooney. “It takes us about 90 seconds to produce those on average.”
Powerbroker AI autogenerates proposals and customer updates in under five minutes. The system conducts a comprehensive policy check, as well, and it can be customized. “We customize our AI tools for each agency with product and/or industry specialization,” says Cooney. “This allows agencies to unlock significant scale across teams which are typically hard to build and maintain.” And because all company employees and customer data are domiciled in the United States, there is a reduced risk of data breach from offshore operations.
Cooney says the implementation process is easy, and brokerages can begin using the product while it’s being customized. He says that the product is not there as a replacement for talent, but rather to augment the skills of a firm’s employees. “It gives those stakeholders ten times the ability to intuitively do their work and have AI handle the highly repetitive tasks. If a user wants to check coverage, build a proposal or check a policy, our system rapidly allows them to go into those documents, validate and augment information and download it into any format. Brokerages can also segment out utilization across teams and users to audit information and manage E&O compliance.”
While the product makes an excellent training tool for new producers and employees, Cooney says the real value lies in the productivity it can deliver. “New revenue generation is top of mind for every brokerage, and our tool enables brokers to prospect with highly specialized and customized acumen very quickly. We made it so a producer can find deficiencies in a policy in five minutes and transform that into sales material.”
“New revenue generation is top of mind for every brokerage,
and our tool enables brokers to prospect with highly specialized and customized acumen
very quickly. We made it so a producer can find deficiencies in a policy in five minutes and transform that into sales.”
—Patrick Cooney
Co-founder
Powerbroker AI
What users say
When The Partners Group, an insurance brokerage firm that develops custom strategies for individuals and businesses, considered the issue they wanted most to solve, it was how to improve account managers’ processes.
Jarrett Stewart, director of commercial lines sales and carrier relations, says the company’s search was for a solution that would “create capacity for account managers.” Giving account managers the ability to grow their profitability and ease their workload, Stewart says, helps them make the most of their time and talents.
To achieve that, The Partners Group selected three likely candidates from myriad solution providers. It turned out to be an easy choice. “PowerBroker AI was just so far ahead of the others that we couldn’t justify not going with them,” Stewart says.
“PowerBroker AI was just so far ahead of the
others that we couldn’t justify not going with them.”
—Jarrett Stewart
Director, Commercial Lines Sales and Carrier Relations
The Partners Group
What shines in this solution, he says, is the automation of the comparison and policy review process. That helps account managers make faster, more accurate decisions that ultimately help the client and improve the customer experience.
Once PowerBroker AI was selected, Stewart says the onboarding and training was simple. “It took approximately 30 minutes to introduce the staff to the product. The training was as simple as providing an email address to the staff with instructions, i.e., ‘in the body of the email, tell the system what functionality you want performed.’”
Stewart feels he couldn’t have landed on a better solution to improve his account managers’ workflow and productivity. The process was so smooth and stress-free that he says, “I feel like we did it the right way.”
For independent agencies and brokers looking to improve their profitability, Stewart offers his encouragement: “Adopt AI and bring its functionality and value to your agency. It greatly increases employee capacity and decreases E&O exposure.”
For more information:
Powerbroker AI
powerbroker.ai
The author
Lori Widmer is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor who specializes in insurance and risk management. BrokerTech Spotlight offers a look at insurtech offerings from startups that have partnered with BrokerTech Ventures (BTV), a convening platform for brokers, carriers and wholesalers, and tech firms, and includes insight from BTV member owners.
