Insurance is positioned between two digital waves. The first has focused on digitizing the customer experience – simplifying sales, onboarding, and claims. The next, already emerging, is shaped by GenAI and agentic automation.

Despite visible progress, key opportunities remain where customer experience transformation still struggles to translate into tangible commercial impact. These represent the core levers of value creation:

• Uplift servicing & engagement to increase NPS and retention – and ultimately increase and protect GWP
• Scale operations through digitalization and automation to achieve lower expense and combined ratios
• Elevate distribution through broker and agent orchestration to grow volume and profitability

Each lever offers measurable potential – not through more technology, but through sharper alignment of digital with business outcomes.

Lever 1 – Uplift Customer Engagement Through Continuous Engagement

Customer engagement in insurance has traditionally been transactional and episodic. Customers interact with their insurer at three moments: when buying, when filing a claim,and occasionally during renewal. The rest of the time? Silence. Uplifting engagement means fundamentally reimagining these touchpoints and, crucially, creating meaningful interactions between them. Digital channels enable personalized, timely conversations that turn insurers from reactive vendors into trusted partners.

This is the crucial opportunity that few have truly cracked to go beyond sales and claims – to build genuine, ongoing relationships. The impact is substantial:

• +5-10% GWP uplift from deeper engagement and stronger customer value propositions.
• −20-30% fewer policy cancellations when moving from low to high customer-experience quartiles.
• +10-20% higher sales conversion as AI-enabled rewiring boosts agent effectiveness.
• +40-point increase in loyalty scores through customer-centric redesigns and improved experience delivery.

The hurdles are familiar: unclear ownership across Distribution, Underwriting, and Claims; engagement initiatives detached from measurable business KPIs; and lack of routines or guidelines for proactive contact. Too often, engagement remains an afterthought – episodic, fragmented, and reactive.

Bringing customer engagement to the executive level – making it measurable in financial terms such as Net Revenue Retention (NRR) – and extending it across functions with clear ownership of channels and P&L can shift the equation. On the technical side, a lightweight data-360 foundation combined with orchestration and channel capabilities enables contextual communication – from micro-nudges to event triggers – that turns static interaction into an ongoing dialogue anchored in everyday life.

Lever 2 – Scale Operations Through Automation and Simplification

Insurance operations remain some of the most complex in financial services. Policy administration, underwriting, claims handling, and servicing still rely heavily on manual inputs and exceptions that drive both cost and risk. Scaling operations means simplifying, standardizing, and automating – freeing skilled teams to focus where human judgment adds value.

The results speak for themselves:

• Up to 30% reduction in operating expenses through front-to-back digitization that removes manual effort
• 25% faster processing times achieved through customer-centric workflow redesigns
• $80 million in annual savings delivered by reengineering motor claims processes (UK-based insurance group)
• 50% shorter quote-to-bind time, accelerating the entire sales flow

To truly scale, insurers need aligned processes, reusable tools, and standardized frameworks that enable efficiency and consistency across business lines. Yet many still focus on products, not services. Claims and servicing are treated as necessities rather than experience levers. Processes stay fragmented, and pilots stall before reaching scale. AI is seen as a shortcut rather than the final layer in a more fundamental redesign.

The way forward starts with journey-based logic that centers on the customer process. Redesign first, digitize second. Build lightweight workflow automation and domain-wide data platforms that can be reused and scaled across units. GenAI can then enhance decision speed and accuracy – but only when embedded into clear operating rhythms and ownership structures.

Lever 3 – Strengthen Distribution Through Orchestration and Enablement

Distribution remains the engine of growth in insurance, yet channels – agents, brokers, partners, and direct – often operate in silos. Orchestration connects them, ensuring the customer moves seamlessly between touchpoints and experiences one coherent journey. The goal: amplify reach and productivity without multiplying cost.

The business upside is proven:

• 3-4× higher success rates through integrated omni-channel journeys that outperform traditional sales channels.
• Over 1,000 qualified monthly leads generated via partnership models – even for complex, long-term products.
• 50% faster policy issuance through APIs and real-time quoting that streamline broker workflows.
• 5-10% higher GWP and lower acquisition costs achieved through sharper propositions and coordinated distribution.

Still, most insurers face fragmented ecosystems, conflicting incentives, and complex handovers. Agents and brokers often work with inconsistent tools and limited visibility, while multiple heterogeneous systems prevent coordinated steering.

Clear broker and agent segmentation, aligned incentives, and modular product logic can address this. Simplified administration, standardized interfaces, and transparent dashboards build trust and reduce friction. Scalable API-based integration, modular product platforms, and embedded AI assistants empower intermediaries to focus on advice and growth.

Critical Principles to Get It Right

Across these three levers, insurers don’t need to move on all fronts at once. Each area – engagement, operations, and distribution – requires distinct focus and rhythm. But the underlying principles for success are shared.

• Start with the customer view or business problem – focus on understanding the real pain points and customer flows before applying tools. Many inefficiencies come from skipping this basic step.
• Make pilots big enough to matter – avoid small, isolated tests. Design pilots that demonstrate measurable business impact and build momentum for scale.
• Empower and engage the frontline – underwriters, agents, and claims handlers are value creators. Equip them with tools that simplify work, increase productivity, and make success tangible.
• Ensure clear business ownership – each initiative should have a sponsor accountable for KPIs and financial results. Ownership ensures traction and     consistency.
• Focus on the basics – clean data, standard processes, and integrated systems deliver most of today’s value. Master these to unlock full value of advanced AI or automation.

While agentic and GenAI capabilities will define the next wave, uplifting engagement, scaling operations, and elevating distribution remain critical levers today. These fundamentals still drive the bulk of financial impact – and getting them right now, supported by AI but rooted in strong basics, is what truly creates commercial results in the short term.

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Sources:
McKinsey (2024), Global Insurance Report 2025 – The Pursuit of Growth; McKinsey(2023), Elevating Customer Experience – A Win-Win for Insurers and Customers; BCG(2025), Insurance 2025 – Adapting to a New Era of Opportunities and Challenges; BCG (2025), Revolutionize Your Business with F2B Platforms; McKinsey (2025),Reimagining Insurance with a Comprehensive Approach to Gen AI; BCG/PEAK3(2024), Omni-Channel Sales Whitepaper; BCG (2023), Building Tomorrow’s Commercial Insurer; IFZ (2024), Digital Insurance Experience – IFZ Studie 2024;Munich Re (2024), Tech Trend Radar 2024; BCG (2025), How Insurers Win Business from Retail Brokers

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