How Tech and AI in Insurance Sales Can Help You Be More Human

Published on

September 18, 2025

Contributors

Carrie Thornbrugh

Customer and Partner Marketing Manager

In short, Carrie is a collector. She collects ideas, memories, and habits, weaving them together to create a better version of her work and her community. With a background in customer marketing and partnerships for tech startups, non-profits, and small businesses, she offers a unique perspective at the intersection of branded storytelling and customer engagement strategy.

As an insurance agent or agency owner, you've heard the refrain a thousand times: "Customers want human interaction, not bots." And they're right—for the most part. When it comes to something as important as protecting a family's future or a business's assets, people want to talk to a person they trust. They want to know you're there for them.

However, while people crave human-to-human connection for the big stuff, they absolutely do not want to spend 30 minutes on the phone manually reciting their policy history or vehicle details. This is where the narrative about "resisting tech" or being "too busy" falls apart. In reality, being "too busy" is often a symptom of spending too much time on the very transactional tasks that technology is designed to eliminate.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the SecureRisk Mid Year Meeting and listened to an inspiring presentation given by Steve Anderson, renowned futurist and co-founder of Catalyit, titled “AI Tech in the Insurance Industry.” The audience of sales and service agents, brokers, and agency owners were rapt and I could see the “A-Ha” moment occur simultaneously throughout the crowd—the realization that the real game-changer is not about replacing humans with technology, but rather about using technology to enable "customer obsession." In his work, Anderson references Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, who famously said, "It's always Day One." The "Day One" philosophy, as Anderson explains, is about maintaining the same energy, inventiveness, and, most importantly, customer-centric focus. It's about a relentless, almost obsessive, focus on the customer.

By leveraging tech and AI, you can shift your "Day One" focus from repetitive, transactional tasks to what truly matters: building meaningful, lasting relationships with your customers.

The Problem: The "Too Busy" Trap

You’re busy. We get it. But what are you busy with? Is it the rewarding work of advising clients and building trust, or is it the tedious, manual grind of data entry, paperwork, and information gathering? Many agents are too bogged down by the latter to focus on the former.

Think about the amount of time you spend on the phone with a prospect, walking them through their existing policy line by line, or asking them to find and read their declarations page. These are necessary steps, but they are transactional by nature. They don't foster a deep connection. In fact, they can feel like a chore for both you and the client.

This is where smart technology comes in. The goal isn't to get rid of human interaction; it's to automate the mundane so you can amplify the meaningful.

The Solution: Leveraging Tech to Be More Human

By adopting the right tools, you can free yourself from the transactional grind and dedicate your time to high-value, human-to-human interactions. This means more time for:

Proactive check-ins: Calling a client just to see how they're doing, not because their renewal is due.
Strategic advisory: Helping a business client navigate new risks or a family client plan for a major life event.
Deepening relationships: Sending a personalized, handwritten note, or meeting for coffee to truly understand their needs.

These are the moments that build trust and loyalty, and they can only happen when you're not chained to your desk, manually entering data.

Essential Tech & AI Tools to Reclaim Your Time

To truly transform your sales workflow, you need a tech stack that works for you, not against you. Here are a few essential tools that help automate transactional tasks and give you back the time to focus on what matters most.

Agency Management System (AMS)

An AMS is a no-brainer—but is yours truly working for you? Think of it as the central nervous system of your agency. A good AMS should integrate seamlessly with your other tools, automating workflows, managing client information, tracking policies, and handling billing. When it works well, it frees you from administrative chaos, so choose one that plays nicely with the rest of your tech stack.

AI-Powered Chatbots

Integrate a chatbot on your website or social media channels to handle common, repetitive customer questions 24/7. They can answer FAQs, collect basic contact information, and even qualify leads, so when a human agent does connect with the prospect, the conversation is already advanced. Make sure users can still easily connect with an agent too. As we know, a chatbot can't replace a speaking to a real person.

Custom ChatGPTs for Messaging & Ideas

Custom ChatGPTs can handle routine client messages, generate business ideas, and even draft content for emails or social posts. By automating these common communications and brainstorming tasks, you save time while keeping your messaging consistent and professional.

Canopy Connect

Canopy Connect is a must-have for any modern insurance agent. It's a powerful platform that automates the most time-consuming part of the quoting process: gathering a prospect's current policy information.

By sending a simple, secure link via text or email, your prospect can log in to their current carrier in seconds, and all their policy details—including limits, deductibles, vehicles, drivers, and declaration pages—are instantly and accurately populated in your dashboard. This eliminates the manual, error-prone data entry that can take 20-30 minutes per prospect.

Drastically Reduce Quoting Time. You can go from initial contact to a competitive quote in minutes, not hours.
Improve Data Accuracy. Pulling information directly from the carrier eliminates human error, ensuring quotes are accurate and reliable.
Provide a Superior Customer Experience. Your clients will appreciate not having to dig for documents or spend time on the phone reciting policy numbers and VINs. It's a frictionless, modern experience that sets you apart.
Position Yourself as an Authority. When you have all their information at your fingertips in seconds, you can immediately begin an informed, consultative conversation about their coverage, not a clerical Q&A session.

The Future of Insurance

The future of insurance is not about choosing between tech and human connection. It's about using tech and AI to provide exceptional human connection. As Steve Anderson and other thought leaders have shown, the most successful businesses are those that are relentlessly customer-obsessed.

By offloading the transactional work to powerful tools like Canopy Connect, you can get back to being what your clients truly need you to be: a trusted advisor, a problem solver, and a human being who cares.