Two industry thought leaders develop
AI product specifically trained on insurance knowledge
By Christopher W. Cook
As someone who had never worked in the insurance industry prior to being hired onto the editorial team for Rough Notes magazine, on my first day I was gifted with a copy of our company’s book Insurance Words & Their Meanings on my desk. I didn’t read it front to back like a thriller novel, but it was a great resource tool as I stumbled upon jargon that made no sense to me while proofreading articles.
As time passed, I learned more, but it wasn’t easy. There are different policies; types of companies like agencies, brokerages, and MGAs; excess and surplus; co-insurance; captives; and don’t get me started with the plethora of acronyms. (Can someone please explain to me how SHRM-SCP doesn’t stand for shrimp scampi?)
For newbies in the insurance industry—and even seasoned veterans—questions come up. A lot. Information needs to be tracked down, and sometimes “on the fly” to give your clients top-notch customer service. Unfortunately, online searches can lead in endless circles—and often incorrect information, and when it comes to the crucial answers you seek, time is of the essence.
In September 2024, during a leadership strategy session between two industry thought leaders, an idea was sparked. Together, they set out to solve the pressing industry challenge of “modernizing knowledge access without losing the nuance and complexity that the insurance business requires,” says Mick Hunt, chief executive officer of Premier Strategy Box, an agency consulting firm—and one of the two industry thought leaders who became co-founders of a new tech product.
“The Intelligent Agent was created to solve what the industry quietly suffers from—an execution crisis,” he continues. “For years, agencies have layered on systems, portals, and ‘solutions,’ but none of them solved the root problem: that agents didn’t have access to real-time, correct, context-rich answers that matched how they actually work.”
For example:
- Producers were stuck asking coverage questions to overloaded service teams.
- CSRs were emailing underwriters just to get a form explanation.
- New hires were spending months to get confident.
- Leadership had insights locked in spreadsheets, tribal knowledge, and outdated dashboards.
“The Intelligent Agent changes that,” Hunt says. “It centralizes everything—from form language to marketing strategy to internal SOPs—and delivers it all through one smart, role-specific interface. It wasn’t built to replace people; it was built to support the people who do the work with the simple, powerful premise of, ‘What if agencies could stop searching and start knowing?’”
The other thought leader, Chris Paradiso, owner of Paradiso Insurance, joined Hunt during every step of the product’s development. Not only did the two back the project, but they helped architect it, drove strategic build decisions and, most important, brought real agency pain points to the forefront.
The two had assistance from the Premier Strategy Box team, who helped with the infrastructure, strategy and development support; a team of advisors, including data scientists, AI engineers and insurance agency operations veterans, ensured that the product was built specifically for the insurance industry. The core framework—a proprietary architecture called Information Lake—was designed in late 2024, with an alpha version tested by 10 agencies in December.
After final adjustments to the customization engine and refinements to the onboarding model, The Intelligent Agent launched on February 1, 2025, “not as a prototype, but as a production-ready, enterprise-grade AI built for the industry, by the industry,” Hunt says.
The first strategic rollouts began this past spring with elite agencies and national aggregators, and the reviews have been favorable. Agencies have praised the product’s “lightning-fast answers” and how it serves all positions from producers and account managers to customer service representatives and partners all on one page.
“It’s more than just a tool—it’s your 24/7 insurance genius,
designed to support producers, CSRs, account managers, and leadership alike.”
—Mick Hunt
Co-Founder
The Intelligent Agent
The product
So, what exactly is The Intelligent Agent?
“The Intelligent Agent is a closed-source AI engine trained on the industry’s most trusted content—built by insurance professionals, not tech outsiders,” says Hunt. “It’s more than just a tool—it’s your 24/7 insurance genius, designed to support producers, CSRs, account managers, and leadership alike.
“At its core is the proprietary Information Lake, but what makes it revolutionary is the custom layering. We can take your agency’s playbooks, processes, guidelines, and workflows and build your own Intelligent Agent on top of that. Imagine an AI that not only explains CG 20 10 vs. CG 20 37, but also teaches your new hires your quoting process, creates campaigns using your marketing tone, and helps leadership visualize book performance all in one place.”
What can The Intelligent Agent do for agencies and brokerages?
“It provides instant, role-specific insight across every department of your agency,” Hunt says.
This includes:
- Coverage intelligence. Knowing every policy inside and out, from commercial and personal lines to bonds and employee benefits and more.
- Instant risk assessments. Building client-specific playbooks for producers to close smarter.
- Policy reviews. Breaking down dec pages, flagging gaps, and explaining endorsements.
- Case law and real examples. Giving real-world applications with court decisions and case studies.
- Marketing on demand. Instantly generating email campaigns, newsletters, blog posts, and talking points.
- Producer validation tools. Creating scripts, strategies, and prospecting insights per niche.
- Training and SOP access. Replacing your intranet with an intelligent, always-on knowledge source.
Agency success and custom
onboarding process
According to early case studies, agencies that have used The Intelligent Agent have found success with the product.
Fusco Orsini & Associates in San Diego, California—the June 2022 Rough Notes Agency of the Month—has reduced its training time for new producers by 50%. Account managers feel more confident responding to their clients, and in under a week, while using the product, the agency created five new niche marketing campaigns.
“The Intelligent Agent helped us lessen the time to launch those campaigns by 80%,” says Agency Principal Michael Fusco. “We also recently hired a new producer who utilizes The Intelligent Agent daily to assist with commercial insurance’s technical side. Our producer asks the agent for help with questions on policy forms, endorsements, exclusions, risk profiling, and even responses to emails for new prospects. Our chief operating officer and vice president of operations can now spend more time on big-picture training than micro-managing daily.”
One staff member, who was recently promoted to account manager from a CSR position, says that the tool “helps me gain confidence when my insureds ask me questions that I am unsure of answering. Also, when prepping to meet with clients over the phone, I use The Intelligent Agent as a tickler for what I should ask, as it provides detailed questions for the business being marketed and suggests other lines of business to grow my book of business.”
Irvine, California’s Great Park Insurance—the May 2021 Rough Notes Agency of the Month—has used The Intelligent Agent for 100% of its new hires’ training and was able to create over 300 pieces of marketing content in the span of one month. Service support ticket volume has also decreased by 40%.
“The Intelligent Agent AI has been one of the best decisions we’ve made for our agency,” says Agency Principal Daniel Seong. “We now train 100% of our new hires using custom-built workflows and scripts generated by the AI. What used to take weeks to train manually is now down to a few days—and our team comes out even more prepared.
“The AI has also led to a 40% reduction in support tickets by handling basic policy questions, quote follow-ups, and client reminders automatically, which frees up our team to focus on high-impact conversations and sales. Instead of juggling repetitive tasks, they’re building relationships and writing more business.”
Marlow Campbell Insurance Group in Apex, North Carolina, uses the product for quoting questionnaires, which has increased its speed-to-bind by 33%. The leadership team now uses the product’s real-time dashboards to review books of business and for strategic planning. When it comes to service requests, the agency has time savings of 9-minutes per request, translating to $40,000-plus in annual time savings.
“Bringing The Intelligent Agent into our agency has really changed how we work; it’s been a welcomed addition to our team,” says Agency President Marlow Campbell. “We’re moving faster on quotes and handling service requests way more efficiently, which means a better experience for our clients and more time back for our team.
“I remember one afternoon when a teammate said, ‘I actually had time to call a client just to check in—not because something was wrong, but just to connect.’ That’s the kind of impact it’s had. The real-time dashboards have also become part of our everyday planning. They give us a much clearer view of the business and help us make smarter decisions together.”
Agencies interested in signing up can experience a customized implementation process. This includes:
- Discovery call. An assessment of current workflows, pain points, and content assets
- Intelligent build. The merging of Information Lake with your agency’s materials
- Deployment. The product is delivered securely with role-based access
- Training and launch. Live sessions are provided for every department
- Ongoing support. Real-time access to updates, enhancements, and model expansions
“Agencies don’t adapt to us—we build The Intelligent Agent around you,” Hunt says. “Getting started is simple. We’ll schedule a discovery session and walk through how to layer your processes on top of our foundation,” he concludes.
For more information:
The Intelligent Agent
theintelligentagent.ai
