{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1", "user_comment": "This feed allows you to read the posts from this site in any feed reader that supports the JSON Feed format. To add this feed to your reader, copy the following URL -- https://www.pymnts.com/category/insurance/feed/json/ -- and add it your reader.", "next_url": "https://www.pymnts.com/category/insurance/feed/json/?paged=2", "home_page_url": "https://www.pymnts.com/category/insurance/", "feed_url": "https://www.pymnts.com/category/insurance/feed/json/", "language": "en-US", "title": "Insurance Archives | PYMNTS.com", "description": "The latest global news and analysis in payments, retail, fintech, financial services and the digital economy.", "icon": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cropped-PYMNTS-Icon-512x512-1.png", "items": [ { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3676742", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2026/the-ai-leapfrog-coming-for-insurance-underwriting/", "title": "The AI Leapfrog Coming for Insurance Underwriting", "content_html": "

Watch more: Digital Shift With Crystal Venture Partners\u2019 Jonathan Crystal

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In the late 1680s, a man named Edward Lloyd opened a coffeehouse on Tower Street in London. The place filled up with sailors, merchants and ship owners swapping news about which boats had gone down in a storm and which had come back loaded with sugar. Somewhere in that smoky room, over bad coffee, the modern insurance industry was born. People figured out how to put a price on catastrophe. They learned to look at a rotting hull bound for the West Indies and say, with a straight face, \u201cI\u2019ll take that bet for three percent.\u201d

\n

Three hundred and forty years later, the bet is still on. The coffee is better. The paperwork, somehow, is worse.

\n

This is the strange thing Jonathan Crystal keeps bumping into. Crystal runs Crystal Venture Partners, a firm that backs startups working inside the guts of the insurance business, and he spent two decades in brokerage before that. He recently sat down with Karen Webster at PYMNTS to talk about what\u2019s broken, what\u2019s fixable, and the possibility that the oldest risk-pricing industry on earth might be about to leapfrog everybody.

\n

60% of the Mail Never Gets Read

\n

Crystal told Webster that for 20-plus years and untold billions of dollars, insurance has been trying to go digital. Paper became PDF. The fax became an email attachment. The filing cabinet became a server. And yet: the average underwriter, the human being whose job it is to look at a risk and decide whether to insure it, only gets to about 40% of the submissions that land on their desk, he said.

\n

The other 60% of the work sits there in a big stack waiting to be read, and eventually expires or gets declined by default. An entire industry has been busy digitizing its inbox without actually reading the mail.

\n

Crystal calls this \u201cthe industrial model of production,\u201d which is a fancy way of saying: we put the old assembly line inside a computer and called it a transformation. It wasn\u2019t. The paper stacks just got thinner.

\n

The Leapfrog

\n

And this is where the story takes a turn, because the thing about being late is that sometimes you get to skip a step.

\n

Think of the countries that never built landline networks and jumped straight to mobile phones. Places that never had a banking branch on every corner and went straight to payments on a screen. They didn\u2019t have to un-build a legacy system. They just started fresh.

\n

Crystal sees something similar happening now in insurance, but with artificial intelligence. The industry that couldn\u2019t quite get its act together to become digital might accidentally become smarter instead.

\n

His thesis is this: AI can read. A lot. Fast. You hand it a thousand-page litigation file or a patient\u2019s medical history going back 20 years, and in roughly the time it takes to refill your coffee cup, the technology has pulled out what matters. The signal inside the noise. The detail an underwriter would have flagged on page 847 if they\u2019d ever gotten to page 847.

\n

Right Pricing, Not Fast Pricing

\n

Crystal is careful not to oversell this. He doesn\u2019t think AI is going to replace the pricing models insurers have spent centuries refining. What he thinks it will do is execute those models properly for the first time. All the risk has been there. Most of it just wasn\u2019t being priced correctly because nobody had time to look.

\n

He calls this \u201cright pricing.\u201d Not faster pricing, not cheaper pricing. Just pricing that actually reflects what\u2019s in the file.

\n

Then he goes further. Imagine, he says, a world where risk is priced not once a year at renewal, but continuously, every time a new piece of information becomes available. A customer adds a warehouse. Their rate adjusts. A region\u2019s wildfire data updates. Their rate adjusts. The model is always on. \u201cFully autonomous,\u201d in his words.

\n

A Conversation, Not a Letter

\n

That\u2019s a big swing. It would reorganize the way customers relate to their insurance. And let\u2019s be honest: that relationship is currently defined by confusion, irritation and the suspicion that you\u2019re being overcharged for reasons nobody will explain.

\n

Crystal thinks can AI change that too. Instead of a letter that reads like it was drafted by a committee of attorneys in 1978, you\u2019ll be able to ask your insurer, out loud, in plain English: \u201cWhy is my coverage priced this way?\u201d and \u201cWhat could I do to pay less?\u201d And get an answer that makes sense. On the spot.

\n

Where the Humans Still Win

\n

Crystal is not a techno-utopian. Ask him about the limits and he gets specific. There\u2019s a whole category of risk where the data is thin, the history is anecdotal, and the only real tool is human judgment. The weird stuff. The long-tail stuff. The one in-100-years event. Earthquakes in places that don\u2019t usually have earthquakes. Novel cyberattacks. New drug classes. The rare, the unprecedented, the genuinely strange. Those still need a person in the room.

\n

The coffeehouse, in other words, isn\u2019t going anywhere. It\u2019s just getting an AI assistant.

\n

Where Crystal Ventures Is Putting the Chips

\n

The firm\u2019s portfolio traces the thesis. Sixfold AI helps commercial underwriters get through their pile. With Coverage is a brokerage platform. Roe is trying to make the customer-facing side of insurance feel less like a DMV visit. And Charter Space is pointed at financial infrastructure in newer industries, like space.

\n

Ask customers what they hate about insurance, and they\u2019ll rarely lead with price, Crystal said. They\u2019ll lead with saying it\u2019s slow, the service is bad, and nobody explains anything. Three hundred and forty years of practice, and the industry still hasn\u2019t figured out how to be pleasant and understandable.

\n

That, Crystal said, maybe more than any actuarial model, is what AI has a real shot at fixing.

\n

The Twist

\n

The business that was born pricing catastrophe (fires, shipwrecks, plagues) spent two decades failing to manage a much smaller catastrophe \u2014 its own paperwork. Now, just as it was finally getting around to the job, something bigger arrived.

\n

And the companies that were behind on email might end up ahead on intelligence.

\n

\u201cWhen the world changes,\u201d Crystal told Webster, \u201ca lot of things change together.\u201d

\n

Who knows, maybe somewhere Edward Lloyd is nodding into his coffee.

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The post The AI Leapfrog Coming for Insurance Underwriting appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "Watch more: Digital Shift With Crystal Venture Partners\u2019 Jonathan Crystal\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nIn the late 1680s, a man named Edward Lloyd opened a coffeehouse on Tower Street in London. The place filled up with sailors, merchants and ship owners swapping news about which boats had gone down in a storm and which had come back loaded with sugar. Somewhere in that smoky room, over bad coffee, the modern insurance industry was born. People figured out how to put a price on catastrophe. They learned to look at a rotting hull bound for the West Indies and say, with a straight face, \u201cI\u2019ll take that bet for three percent.\u201d\nThree hundred and forty years later, the bet is still on. The coffee is better. The paperwork, somehow, is worse.\nThis is the strange thing Jonathan Crystal keeps bumping into. Crystal runs Crystal Venture Partners, a firm that backs startups working inside the guts of the insurance business, and he spent two decades in brokerage before that. He recently sat down with Karen Webster at PYMNTS to talk about what\u2019s broken, what\u2019s fixable, and the possibility that the oldest risk-pricing industry on earth might be about to leapfrog everybody.\n60% of the Mail Never Gets Read\nCrystal told Webster that for 20-plus years and untold billions of dollars, insurance has been trying to go digital. Paper became PDF. The fax became an email attachment. The filing cabinet became a server. And yet: the average underwriter, the human being whose job it is to look at a risk and decide whether to insure it, only gets to about 40% of the submissions that land on their desk, he said.\nThe other 60% of the work sits there in a big stack waiting to be read, and eventually expires or gets declined by default. An entire industry has been busy digitizing its inbox without actually reading the mail.\nCrystal calls this \u201cthe industrial model of production,\u201d which is a fancy way of saying: we put the old assembly line inside a computer and called it a transformation. It wasn\u2019t. The paper stacks just got thinner.\nThe Leapfrog\nAnd this is where the story takes a turn, because the thing about being late is that sometimes you get to skip a step.\nThink of the countries that never built landline networks and jumped straight to mobile phones. Places that never had a banking branch on every corner and went straight to payments on a screen. They didn\u2019t have to un-build a legacy system. They just started fresh.\nCrystal sees something similar happening now in insurance, but with artificial intelligence. The industry that couldn\u2019t quite get its act together to become digital might accidentally become smarter instead.\nHis thesis is this: AI can read. A lot. Fast. You hand it a thousand-page litigation file or a patient\u2019s medical history going back 20 years, and in roughly the time it takes to refill your coffee cup, the technology has pulled out what matters. The signal inside the noise. The detail an underwriter would have flagged on page 847 if they\u2019d ever gotten to page 847.\nRight Pricing, Not Fast Pricing\nCrystal is careful not to oversell this. He doesn\u2019t think AI is going to replace the pricing models insurers have spent centuries refining. What he thinks it will do is execute those models properly for the first time. All the risk has been there. Most of it just wasn\u2019t being priced correctly because nobody had time to look.\nHe calls this \u201cright pricing.\u201d Not faster pricing, not cheaper pricing. Just pricing that actually reflects what\u2019s in the file.\nThen he goes further. Imagine, he says, a world where risk is priced not once a year at renewal, but continuously, every time a new piece of information becomes available. A customer adds a warehouse. Their rate adjusts. A region\u2019s wildfire data updates. Their rate adjusts. The model is always on. \u201cFully autonomous,\u201d in his words.\nA Conversation, Not a Letter\nThat\u2019s a big swing. It would reorganize the way customers relate to their insurance. And let\u2019s be honest: that relationship is currently defined by confusion, irritation and the suspicion that you\u2019re being overcharged for reasons nobody will explain.\nCrystal thinks can AI change that too. Instead of a letter that reads like it was drafted by a committee of attorneys in 1978, you\u2019ll be able to ask your insurer, out loud, in plain English: \u201cWhy is my coverage priced this way?\u201d and \u201cWhat could I do to pay less?\u201d And get an answer that makes sense. On the spot.\nWhere the Humans Still Win\nCrystal is not a techno-utopian. Ask him about the limits and he gets specific. There\u2019s a whole category of risk where the data is thin, the history is anecdotal, and the only real tool is human judgment. The weird stuff. The long-tail stuff. The one in-100-years event. Earthquakes in places that don\u2019t usually have earthquakes. Novel cyberattacks. New drug classes. The rare, the unprecedented, the genuinely strange. Those still need a person in the room.\nThe coffeehouse, in other words, isn\u2019t going anywhere. It\u2019s just getting an AI assistant.\nWhere Crystal Ventures Is Putting the Chips\nThe firm\u2019s portfolio traces the thesis. Sixfold AI helps commercial underwriters get through their pile. With Coverage is a brokerage platform. Roe is trying to make the customer-facing side of insurance feel less like a DMV visit. And Charter Space is pointed at financial infrastructure in newer industries, like space.\nAsk customers what they hate about insurance, and they\u2019ll rarely lead with price, Crystal said. They\u2019ll lead with saying it\u2019s slow, the service is bad, and nobody explains anything. Three hundred and forty years of practice, and the industry still hasn\u2019t figured out how to be pleasant and understandable.\nThat, Crystal said, maybe more than any actuarial model, is what AI has a real shot at fixing.\nThe Twist\nThe business that was born pricing catastrophe (fires, shipwrecks, plagues) spent two decades failing to manage a much smaller catastrophe \u2014 its own paperwork. Now, just as it was finally getting around to the job, something bigger arrived.\nAnd the companies that were behind on email might end up ahead on intelligence.\n\u201cWhen the world changes,\u201d Crystal told Webster, \u201ca lot of things change together.\u201d\nWho knows, maybe somewhere Edward Lloyd is nodding into his coffee.\n\r\n\r\nThe post The AI Leapfrog Coming for Insurance Underwriting appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-24T04:03:28-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-23T20:07:51-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Digital-Shift-Crystal-Venture-Partners-Jonathan-Crystal.png", "tags": [ "AI", "artificial intelligence", "Crystal Venture Partners", "digital transformation", "Featured News", "Insurance", "Investments", "News", "PYMNTS News", "pymnts tv", "video" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3664382", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2026/payments-modernization-is-insurances-next-big-margin-engine/", "title": "Payments Modernization Is Insurance\u2019s Next Big Margin Engine", "content_html": "

Watch more: Need to Know With One Inc\u2019s Ian Drysdale

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Insurance carriers are under pressure and operating on the edge. With margins often hovering between 1% and 2%, even small inefficiencies can erase profitability. One of the biggest and most overlooked drivers of margin compression sits inside the payments function.

\n

According to One Inc CEO Ian Drysdale, payments modernization is no longer a technology upgrade. It is a financial strategy.

\n

In a conversation with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, Drysdale framed the issue clearly. Insurers are not losing margin only in underwriting. They are also losing it through outdated, check-based payment systems embedded in claims operations.

\n

The Hidden Cost Center Dragging Down Margins

\n

Legacy payment workflows were built for a different era, one with lower claims volume, less fraud and fewer expectations around speed. Today, they are creating operational drag at exactly the wrong time.

\n

Paper checks remain embedded across claims, commissions, refunds and subrogation payments. Each check carries cost, not just the $4 to $20 issuance expense cited by financial institutions, but also the downstream burden of tracking, reissuing, reconciling and managing exceptions.

\n

Those costs compound quickly.

\n

Payments often involve multiple stakeholders including policyholders, contractors, medical providers and lenders. Each requires validation. The result is friction-heavy processes that can stretch payout timelines to four to eight weeks.

\n

That delay is not just an operational issue. It directly impacts customer satisfaction, increases claims severity and ultimately erodes margins.

\n

At the same time, fraud risk is escalating. Checks can be intercepted, altered or misdirected, exposing insurers to losses that are both preventable and growing.

\n

Why Payments Modernization Is a Margin Strategy

\n

The shift to digital payments changes the economics fundamentally.

\n

Modern payout platforms validate recipients up front, reducing fraud exposure while enabling near-instant disbursements once claims are approved. More importantly, they remove the manual processes and administrative overhead tied to paper.

\n

Drysdale said the impact is measurable.

\n

He points to savings that can reach tens of millions of dollars annually for large carriers. In some cases, digital methods such as virtual cards can eliminate payout costs entirely for insurers, while vendors accept small fees in exchange for faster access to funds.

\n

This is not incremental improvement. It is structural margin expansion.

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a margin recovery strategy,\u201d Drysdale said, noting that digitizing payments alone can add one to two percentage points back to the bottom line. That is a meaningful shift in an industry where that margin defines viability.

\n

From Operational Fix to Strategic Priority

\n

What is changing now, Drysdale said, is how insurers think about payments.

\n

Historically treated as a back-office function, payments are being reevaluated as a core lever of financial performance and competitive differentiation. Faster payouts improve customer experience. Lower costs improve profitability. Reduced fraud improves resilience.

\n

Adoption curves reflect that shift. Carriers that begin with low digital penetration often move quickly to a majority of payments processed electronically once modern infrastructure is in place.

\n

Artificial intelligence is also beginning to play a role, not as a sweeping transformation, but as a targeted tool for improving reporting, reconciliation and operational visibility. Adoption remains cautious, given regulatory and privacy concerns.

\n

Modernization Under Pressure

\n

The urgency is being driven by external forces insurers cannot control.

\n

Catastrophe losses are increasing in frequency and severity, putting pressure on claims volumes and costs. At the same time, policyholders expect payouts to move as quickly as any other digital transaction.

\n

Legacy systems were not built for either reality.

\n

That mismatch is forcing a broader rethink. If insurers cannot fully control losses or pricing, they must control costs. Payments are one of the few areas where immediate gains are achievable.

\n

The Bottom Line

\n

Payments modernization is no longer optional, and it is no longer just about efficiency.

\n

It is about margin expansion.

\n

Insurers that modernize can reduce cost, accelerate claims, limit fraud and improve customer outcomes, while reclaiming critical basis points of profitability.

\n

Those that do not risk watching their margins erode further under the weight of systems built for a different time.

\n

As Drysdale put it, the industry\u2019s future will hinge on a single capability: resilience.

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The post Payments Modernization Is Insurance\u2019s Next Big Margin Engine appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "Watch more: Need to Know With One Inc\u2019s Ian Drysdale\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nInsurance carriers are under pressure and operating on the edge. With margins often hovering between 1% and 2%, even small inefficiencies can erase profitability. One of the biggest and most overlooked drivers of margin compression sits inside the payments function.\nAccording to One Inc CEO Ian Drysdale, payments modernization is no longer a technology upgrade. It is a financial strategy.\nIn a conversation with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, Drysdale framed the issue clearly. Insurers are not losing margin only in underwriting. They are also losing it through outdated, check-based payment systems embedded in claims operations.\nThe Hidden Cost Center Dragging Down Margins\nLegacy payment workflows were built for a different era, one with lower claims volume, less fraud and fewer expectations around speed. Today, they are creating operational drag at exactly the wrong time.\nPaper checks remain embedded across claims, commissions, refunds and subrogation payments. Each check carries cost, not just the $4 to $20 issuance expense cited by financial institutions, but also the downstream burden of tracking, reissuing, reconciling and managing exceptions.\nThose costs compound quickly.\nPayments often involve multiple stakeholders including policyholders, contractors, medical providers and lenders. Each requires validation. The result is friction-heavy processes that can stretch payout timelines to four to eight weeks.\nThat delay is not just an operational issue. It directly impacts customer satisfaction, increases claims severity and ultimately erodes margins.\nAt the same time, fraud risk is escalating. Checks can be intercepted, altered or misdirected, exposing insurers to losses that are both preventable and growing.\nWhy Payments Modernization Is a Margin Strategy\nThe shift to digital payments changes the economics fundamentally.\nModern payout platforms validate recipients up front, reducing fraud exposure while enabling near-instant disbursements once claims are approved. More importantly, they remove the manual processes and administrative overhead tied to paper.\nDrysdale said the impact is measurable.\nHe points to savings that can reach tens of millions of dollars annually for large carriers. In some cases, digital methods such as virtual cards can eliminate payout costs entirely for insurers, while vendors accept small fees in exchange for faster access to funds.\nThis is not incremental improvement. It is structural margin expansion.\n\u201cIt\u2019s a margin recovery strategy,\u201d Drysdale said, noting that digitizing payments alone can add one to two percentage points back to the bottom line. That is a meaningful shift in an industry where that margin defines viability.\nFrom Operational Fix to Strategic Priority\nWhat is changing now, Drysdale said, is how insurers think about payments.\nHistorically treated as a back-office function, payments are being reevaluated as a core lever of financial performance and competitive differentiation. Faster payouts improve customer experience. Lower costs improve profitability. Reduced fraud improves resilience.\nAdoption curves reflect that shift. Carriers that begin with low digital penetration often move quickly to a majority of payments processed electronically once modern infrastructure is in place.\nArtificial intelligence is also beginning to play a role, not as a sweeping transformation, but as a targeted tool for improving reporting, reconciliation and operational visibility. Adoption remains cautious, given regulatory and privacy concerns.\nModernization Under Pressure\nThe urgency is being driven by external forces insurers cannot control.\nCatastrophe losses are increasing in frequency and severity, putting pressure on claims volumes and costs. At the same time, policyholders expect payouts to move as quickly as any other digital transaction.\nLegacy systems were not built for either reality.\nThat mismatch is forcing a broader rethink. If insurers cannot fully control losses or pricing, they must control costs. Payments are one of the few areas where immediate gains are achievable.\nThe Bottom Line\nPayments modernization is no longer optional, and it is no longer just about efficiency.\nIt is about margin expansion.\nInsurers that modernize can reduce cost, accelerate claims, limit fraud and improve customer outcomes, while reclaiming critical basis points of profitability.\nThose that do not risk watching their margins erode further under the weight of systems built for a different time.\nAs Drysdale put it, the industry\u2019s future will hinge on a single capability: resilience.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Payments Modernization Is Insurance\u2019s Next Big Margin Engine appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-20T04:03:46-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-19T22:54:37-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Monday-Conversation-Drysdale-One-Inc.png", "tags": [ "Digital Payments", "digital shift", "Featured News", "fraud", "Insurance", "monday conversation", "News", "one inc", "paper checks", "PYMNTS News", "pymnts tv", "video" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3647704", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2026/visa-teams-with-neat-to-enhance-embedded-insurance-offerings/", "title": "Visa Teams With Neat to Enhance Embedded Insurance Offerings", "content_html": "

France-based embedded insurance company\u00a0Neat\u00a0has launched a partnership with\u00a0Visa.

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The collaboration is designed to \u201cenhance the insurance and medical assistance services embedded within Visa cards,\u201d the companies said in a\u00a0news release\u00a0Monday (April 13).

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Visa cardholders will get access to new insurance features, more transparency on protections, \u201cdigitally enhanced\u201d claim processes, and the ability to personalize protections based on individual users, the release added.

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The partnership will begin in France before rolling out to other countries in Europe. It is designed to \u201celevate\u201d the way cardholders engage with their embedded insurance, the companies said.

\n

Florence M\u00e9lique, senior vice-president group, and managing director for the France, Belgium, and Luxembourg region at Visa, noted that the company\u2019s\u00a0embedded insurance\u00a0programs already protect more than 25 million cardholders just in France.

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\u201cAs usage scales, expectations are changing – cardholders want clarity, personalisation and faster, digital\u2011first claims experiences,\u201d M\u00e9lique added.

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\u201cThrough our partnership with Neat, we are reinventing card\u2011embedded insurance by combining Visa\u2019s scale and trust with next\u2011generation technology. This partnership allows us to deliver more intuitive, more transparent and more relevant protection, reinforcing the Visa card as an everyday companion that brings real, high\u2011value benefits well beyond payments.\u201d

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Neat\u2019s product offerings include travel and ticket insurance, device protection programs, along with insurance for payments providers and FinTech companies.

\n

In other news from the insurance world, PYMNTS spoke with\u00a0Rick McCathron, CEO of InsurTech company Hippo, about the changes and challenges facing the industry, in an interview posted Monday.

\n

That report pointed out that the\u00a0insurance model\u00a0spent decades largely unchanged. Agents took care of writing policies, underwriting cycles could last weeks, and customer relationships were handled through paperwork and intermediaries. It was an industry that often focused inward, McCathron told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.

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\u201cInsurance companies didn\u2019t even call customers \u2018customers\u2019 until recently,\u201d but rather \u2018insureds\u2019 or \u2018policyholders,\u2019\u201d he said.

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That inward focus has begun to clash with a more complicated operating environment, PYMNTS added.\u00a0Climate-related losses\u00a0have introduced volatility that makes pricing and risk selection harder. Insurers must price policies with no idea of when claims will happen, a dynamic McCathron addressed fairly directly.

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\u201cInsurance is the only product I can think of that you don\u2019t know what the cost is to manufacture until years down the road,” he said.

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The post Visa Teams With Neat to Enhance Embedded Insurance Offerings appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "France-based embedded insurance company\u00a0Neat\u00a0has launched a partnership with\u00a0Visa.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe collaboration is designed to \u201cenhance the insurance and medical assistance services embedded within Visa cards,\u201d the companies said in a\u00a0news release\u00a0Monday (April 13).\nVisa cardholders will get access to new insurance features, more transparency on protections, \u201cdigitally enhanced\u201d claim processes, and the ability to personalize protections based on individual users, the release added.\nThe partnership will begin in France before rolling out to other countries in Europe. It is designed to \u201celevate\u201d the way cardholders engage with their embedded insurance, the companies said.\nFlorence M\u00e9lique, senior vice-president group, and managing director for the France, Belgium, and Luxembourg region at Visa, noted that the company\u2019s\u00a0embedded insurance\u00a0programs already protect more than 25 million cardholders just in France.\n\u201cAs usage scales, expectations are changing – cardholders want clarity, personalisation and faster, digital\u2011first claims experiences,\u201d M\u00e9lique added.\n\u201cThrough our partnership with Neat, we are reinventing card\u2011embedded insurance by combining Visa\u2019s scale and trust with next\u2011generation technology. This partnership allows us to deliver more intuitive, more transparent and more relevant protection, reinforcing the Visa card as an everyday companion that brings real, high\u2011value benefits well beyond payments.\u201d\nNeat\u2019s product offerings include travel and ticket insurance, device protection programs, along with insurance for payments providers and FinTech companies.\nIn other news from the insurance world, PYMNTS spoke with\u00a0Rick McCathron, CEO of InsurTech company Hippo, about the changes and challenges facing the industry, in an interview posted Monday.\nThat report pointed out that the\u00a0insurance model\u00a0spent decades largely unchanged. Agents took care of writing policies, underwriting cycles could last weeks, and customer relationships were handled through paperwork and intermediaries. It was an industry that often focused inward, McCathron told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster.\n\u201cInsurance companies didn\u2019t even call customers \u2018customers\u2019 until recently,\u201d but rather \u2018insureds\u2019 or \u2018policyholders,\u2019\u201d he said.\nThat inward focus has begun to clash with a more complicated operating environment, PYMNTS added.\u00a0Climate-related losses\u00a0have introduced volatility that makes pricing and risk selection harder. Insurers must price policies with no idea of when claims will happen, a dynamic McCathron addressed fairly directly.\n\u201cInsurance is the only product I can think of that you don\u2019t know what the cost is to manufacture until years down the road,” he said.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Visa Teams With Neat to Enhance Embedded Insurance Offerings appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-13T11:04:04-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-13T11:04:04-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Neat-Visa-insurance.png", "tags": [ "embedded finance", "Insurance", "Neat", "News", "partnerships", "PYMNTS News", "Visa", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3645724", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2026/hippos-ceo-says-insurtech-grew-up-and-the-progressive-deal-proves-it/", "title": "Hippo\u2019s CEO Says InsurTech Grew Up and the Progressive Deal Proves It", "content_html": "

Watch more: Monday Conversation With Hippo\u2019s Rick McCathron

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Ask most people about their homeowners insurance and you\u2019ll get a shrug. It\u2019s not exactly a dinner-table conversation starter. But behind that ho-hum product sits one of the most structurally complicated, climate-rattled and technologically disrupted markets in financial services. And right now, it\u2019s at a genuine inflection point.

\n

That\u2019s the terrain Karen Webster navigated in a sharp Monday Conversation with Rick McCathron, the CEO of Hippo, a company that has been through its own very public reckoning with what it means to be an InsurTech in 2026. McCathron didn\u2019t come to the conversation with spin. He came with evidence: a turnaround story, a new strategic partnership with Progressive Insurance and a pretty clear-eyed view of where the industry goes from here.

\n

For decades, the insurance model remained largely unchanged. Policies were written through agents, underwriting cycles stretched across weeks, and customer relationships were mediated through paperwork and intermediaries.

\n

As McCathron noted, the industry often focused inward. \u201cInsurance companies didn’t even call customers \u2018customers\u2019 until recently,\u201d he said, recalling an era when they were referred to as \u201cinsureds\u201d or \u201cpolicyholders.\u201d

\n

That inward focus now collides with a more complex operating environment. Climate-related losses have introduced volatility that makes pricing and risk selection more difficult. Insurers must price policies without knowing when claims will occur, a dynamic McCathron described pretty directly.

\n

\u201cInsurance is the only product I can think of that you don’t know what the cost is to manufacture until years down the road.\u201d

\n

\u00a0Payments, Regulation and the Burden of Longevity

\n

The pressures extend beyond underwriting. Payments remain fragmented, with checks still embedded in workflows, even as fraud risks grow. At the same time, insurers operate within a regulatory framework that limits how quickly they can modernize.

\n

Those constraints are compounded by the industry\u2019s age. Many insurers have operated for decades, if not more than a century. As McCathron observed, these companies have built scale and expertise over long periods, making rapid transformation difficult.

\n

Webster framed the challenge in terms of scale and distribution, noting that reaching customers efficiently remains central to growth.\u00a0 Technology alone does not solve for customer acquisition or retention.

\n

Technology at the Front End

\n

Where technology has begun to reshape the industry is at the front end of the customer relationship. Insurers can now assemble detailed customer profiles before an application is completed, drawing on third-party data and internal models.

\n

That capability allows insurers to align risk appetite with customer characteristics in real time. McCathron described how distribution partners, like his new deal with Progressive, can route prospective customers to carriers based on underwriting criteria, geography and exposure.

\n

AI supports this process but does not replace human judgment. Regulatory requirements still mandate licensed professionals for key decisions such as claims adjudication. AI, instead, reduces friction in routine tasks and surfaces data for human review.

\n

\u201cThose human agents that very much embrace technology are upleveling their work,\u201d McCathron explained, shifting from routine processes to more complex decision-making.

\n

What It Takes to Compete

\n

Against that backdrop, competitiveness in insurance has become a function of discipline as much as innovation. Hippo\u2019s own trajectory reflects that reality.

\n

When McCathron assumed the CEO role from his seat on the Board, the company was attempting to address multiple priorities at once. \u201cWe were trying to do sort of all things to all people,\u201d he told Webster, describing a period that required strategic recalibration.

\n

The reset centered on underwriting discipline, geographic diversification and product focus, not to mention McCathron\u2019s experience in the insurance industry for nearly three decades. Growth would no longer be pursued without a path to profitability. His approach mirrors a broader shift across InsurTech, where early expansion has given way to more measured strategies.

\n

Distribution emerged as a central constraint. Digital-native insurers, McCathron acknowledged, underestimated the difficulty of scaling without established channels. \u201cThey miscalculated how difficult it is,\u201d he said, pointing to the time required to build both products and customer pipelines.

\n

From Disruption to Partnership

\n

That realization informs Hippo\u2019s partnership with Progressive, which places its homeowners\u2019 products within a large-scale distribution network across multiple states.

\n

The mechanics of the arrangement are straightforward. Progressive identifies and qualifies customers, while Hippo applies its underwriting and pricing models. The alignment depends on matching customer profiles with each insurer\u2019s risk appetite, a process enabled by data and analytics.

\n

McCathron characterized the outcome as additive. By combining distribution scale with underwriting precision, the partnership creates what he described as a \u201cone plus one equals three scenario in which the customer ultimately benefits.\u201d

\n

The use of AI supports that alignment, particularly in screening and routing prospective customers. However, the structure remains grounded in regulatory compliance and human oversight.

\n

The agreement also reflects a more selective growth strategy. Rather than broad expansion, Hippo is targeting specific geographies and customer segments that align with its underwriting model.

\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t run all your business in one particular area,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need to diversify geographically. And we very much did that. We got right-sized in each of the areas in which we wrote business. And we refined the strategic direction of the company, which is to have discipline, make sure you’re geographically diversified, but then also make sure the products that you support, offer and take underwriting risk on are also geographically diversified.\u201d

\n

The New Shape of InsurTech

\n

The partnership signals a broader evolution in InsurTech. Early narratives emphasized disruption, with digital-native firms positioned against incumbents. That framing has softened.

\n

McCathron expressed a clear preference for collaboration over confrontation.

\n

\u201cWhat InsurTech\u2026companies are very good at doing is helping the incumbents modernize their tech stacks,\u201d he stated, while legacy insurers contribute data, scale and experience.

\n

This synergy suggests that the next phase of the industry will be defined less by competition between platforms and more by integration across them.

\n

As McCathron emphasized, the goal is not to capture the entire market but to participate in it more effectively.

\n

\u201cWhere we can partner with others, and create better outcomes, it\u2019s a true win-win.\u201d

\n\r\n
\r\n

The post Hippo\u2019s CEO Says InsurTech Grew Up and the Progressive Deal Proves It appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "Watch more: Monday Conversation With Hippo\u2019s Rick McCathron\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAsk most people about their homeowners insurance and you\u2019ll get a shrug. It\u2019s not exactly a dinner-table conversation starter. But behind that ho-hum product sits one of the most structurally complicated, climate-rattled and technologically disrupted markets in financial services. And right now, it\u2019s at a genuine inflection point.\nThat\u2019s the terrain Karen Webster navigated in a sharp Monday Conversation with Rick McCathron, the CEO of Hippo, a company that has been through its own very public reckoning with what it means to be an InsurTech in 2026. McCathron didn\u2019t come to the conversation with spin. He came with evidence: a turnaround story, a new strategic partnership with Progressive Insurance and a pretty clear-eyed view of where the industry goes from here.\nFor decades, the insurance model remained largely unchanged. Policies were written through agents, underwriting cycles stretched across weeks, and customer relationships were mediated through paperwork and intermediaries.\nAs McCathron noted, the industry often focused inward. \u201cInsurance companies didn’t even call customers \u2018customers\u2019 until recently,\u201d he said, recalling an era when they were referred to as \u201cinsureds\u201d or \u201cpolicyholders.\u201d\nThat inward focus now collides with a more complex operating environment. Climate-related losses have introduced volatility that makes pricing and risk selection more difficult. Insurers must price policies without knowing when claims will occur, a dynamic McCathron described pretty directly.\n\u201cInsurance is the only product I can think of that you don’t know what the cost is to manufacture until years down the road.\u201d\n\u00a0Payments, Regulation and the Burden of Longevity\nThe pressures extend beyond underwriting. Payments remain fragmented, with checks still embedded in workflows, even as fraud risks grow. At the same time, insurers operate within a regulatory framework that limits how quickly they can modernize.\nThose constraints are compounded by the industry\u2019s age. Many insurers have operated for decades, if not more than a century. As McCathron observed, these companies have built scale and expertise over long periods, making rapid transformation difficult.\nWebster framed the challenge in terms of scale and distribution, noting that reaching customers efficiently remains central to growth.\u00a0 Technology alone does not solve for customer acquisition or retention.\nTechnology at the Front End\nWhere technology has begun to reshape the industry is at the front end of the customer relationship. Insurers can now assemble detailed customer profiles before an application is completed, drawing on third-party data and internal models.\nThat capability allows insurers to align risk appetite with customer characteristics in real time. McCathron described how distribution partners, like his new deal with Progressive, can route prospective customers to carriers based on underwriting criteria, geography and exposure.\nAI supports this process but does not replace human judgment. Regulatory requirements still mandate licensed professionals for key decisions such as claims adjudication. AI, instead, reduces friction in routine tasks and surfaces data for human review.\n\u201cThose human agents that very much embrace technology are upleveling their work,\u201d McCathron explained, shifting from routine processes to more complex decision-making.\nWhat It Takes to Compete\nAgainst that backdrop, competitiveness in insurance has become a function of discipline as much as innovation. Hippo\u2019s own trajectory reflects that reality.\nWhen McCathron assumed the CEO role from his seat on the Board, the company was attempting to address multiple priorities at once. \u201cWe were trying to do sort of all things to all people,\u201d he told Webster, describing a period that required strategic recalibration.\nThe reset centered on underwriting discipline, geographic diversification and product focus, not to mention McCathron\u2019s experience in the insurance industry for nearly three decades. Growth would no longer be pursued without a path to profitability. His approach mirrors a broader shift across InsurTech, where early expansion has given way to more measured strategies.\nDistribution emerged as a central constraint. Digital-native insurers, McCathron acknowledged, underestimated the difficulty of scaling without established channels. \u201cThey miscalculated how difficult it is,\u201d he said, pointing to the time required to build both products and customer pipelines.\nFrom Disruption to Partnership\nThat realization informs Hippo\u2019s partnership with Progressive, which places its homeowners\u2019 products within a large-scale distribution network across multiple states.\nThe mechanics of the arrangement are straightforward. Progressive identifies and qualifies customers, while Hippo applies its underwriting and pricing models. The alignment depends on matching customer profiles with each insurer\u2019s risk appetite, a process enabled by data and analytics.\nMcCathron characterized the outcome as additive. By combining distribution scale with underwriting precision, the partnership creates what he described as a \u201cone plus one equals three scenario in which the customer ultimately benefits.\u201d\nThe use of AI supports that alignment, particularly in screening and routing prospective customers. However, the structure remains grounded in regulatory compliance and human oversight.\nThe agreement also reflects a more selective growth strategy. Rather than broad expansion, Hippo is targeting specific geographies and customer segments that align with its underwriting model.\n\u201cYou can\u2019t run all your business in one particular area,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need to diversify geographically. And we very much did that. We got right-sized in each of the areas in which we wrote business. And we refined the strategic direction of the company, which is to have discipline, make sure you’re geographically diversified, but then also make sure the products that you support, offer and take underwriting risk on are also geographically diversified.\u201d\nThe New Shape of InsurTech\nThe partnership signals a broader evolution in InsurTech. Early narratives emphasized disruption, with digital-native firms positioned against incumbents. That framing has softened.\nMcCathron expressed a clear preference for collaboration over confrontation.\n\u201cWhat InsurTech\u2026companies are very good at doing is helping the incumbents modernize their tech stacks,\u201d he stated, while legacy insurers contribute data, scale and experience.\nThis synergy suggests that the next phase of the industry will be defined less by competition between platforms and more by integration across them.\nAs McCathron emphasized, the goal is not to capture the entire market but to participate in it more effectively.\n\u201cWhere we can partner with others, and create better outcomes, it\u2019s a true win-win.\u201d\n\r\n\r\nThe post Hippo\u2019s CEO Says InsurTech Grew Up and the Progressive Deal Proves It appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-13T04:03:50-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-12T22:20:18-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Monday-Conversation-Hippo.png", "tags": [ "AI", "Featured News", "Hippo", "Insurance", "InsurTech", "monday conversation", "News", "partnerships", "Progressive", "PYMNTS News", "pymnts tv", "underwriting", "video" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3468236", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2026/equal-parts-wants-to-turn-independent-insurance-agencies-into-growth-network/", "title": "Equal Parts Wants to Turn Independent Insurance Agencies Into Growth Network", "content_html": "

The insurance sector is colliding with a new customer rhythm. People can move money with a tap and ask an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for advice in plain English. They bring those expectations to insurance: quick answers and fast follow-through. Yet many independent agencies are still slowed by disconnected software and manual steps.

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That gap is widening just as a generational shift hits the industry. Many independent insurance agency owners are nearing retirement, and the path forward can feel like a choice between selling to a large consolidator or trying to modernize alone.

\n

Mike Witte thinks there\u2019s a third option. Witte is founder and CEO of Equal Parts, a platform that acquires independent agencies and provides technology, capital and operational support so they can compete at modern speed and scale while preserving the trust-based model clients value.

\n

Before launching Equal Parts, Witte built workflow technology in oil and gas. In a conversation with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, he explained why the leap made sense: both sectors are huge, but relationship-driven.

\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think oil and gas and insurance are actually that far apart,\u201d Witte said. \u201cThey\u2019re both really big industries in which, once you get into it, everybody knows everybody. And it has a heavy relationship dynamic.\u201d

\n

The lesson he carried over is that innovation should strengthen the people doing the work. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about automating the people away,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s using innovation to enhance the human connection.\u201d

\n

Equal Parts is now scaling that thesis with new funding. The company has announced a $23 million Series A round led by Inspired Capital. Since its March founding, Equal Parts says acquired agencies have driven nearly 40% revenue growth and almost 50% bottom-line improvement. The company\u2019s targets are bold: acquire 25 agencies this year and become the fastest company to $1 billion in premiums within the next 24 months.

\n

Succession Plans

\n

The pitch to agency owners starts with succession and sometimes frustration. \u201cIf you\u2019re 65 years old and you\u2019ve built a small town agency at some point you think \u2018Where do I retire? What is my succession plan?\u2019\u201d Witte said. For many smaller agencies, he added, there aren\u2019t many appealing options such as selling to private equity or big conglomerate.

\n

Equal Parts wants to offer an exit without stripping away culture and autonomy. And for owners who still want to stay active, the company offers a different division of labor. Witte described one agency owner in his late 60s who knew he needed to sell but \u201cwasn\u2019t quite ready to \u2026 hang it up.\u201d After joining Equal Parts, the owner stayed close to customers while the platform took over the blocking and tackling.

\n

Witte summarized their message to the owner: \u201cJust go spend time with your customers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d

\n

What, exactly, is being \u201ctaken care of?\u201d

\n

Witte argued the industry\u2019s biggest drag is less a lack of software than a lack of connection between systems.

\n

\u201cI came in with this idea that insurance had a technology problem. And I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s true,\u201d he said. \u201cInsurance has a massive connectivity problem. Nothing connects. Everything is a point-to-point system.\u201d

\n

In plain terms, he said, the insurance companies underwriting policies often don\u2019t connect cleanly to agency management systems (the software that tracks policies, renewals and documents). Those systems may not connect to CRMs (customer relationship tools) or to websites and intake forms.

\n

The outcome is predictable: people spend time moving information instead of serving customers.

\n

Equal Parts\u2019 operating system is designed to standardize workflows across acquisitions and automate repetitive back-office steps so relationship managers can focus on clients and growth.

\n

\u201cWe\u2019re absorbing that complexity for the people that are the heart of the agencies, which are the relationship managers,\u201d Witte said. \u201cLet us absorb the complexity of everything else.\u201d

\n

That people-first view also defines how Witte picks agencies to acquire.

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about a book of business. It\u2019s not about a location. It is about people,\u201d he said.

\n

Early acquisitions set the tone for the broader network, so Equal Parts looks for owners who can be culture anchors and who are willing to rethink how the work gets done. Agencies that join, he added, tend to be motivated by the technology and the vision, not by a promise that they must give up their identity.

\n

The AI Angle

\n

Webster asked how AI might reshape distribution as consumers increasingly use large language models to describe their needs and compare coverage. Could that pull customers toward buying directly from carriers?

\n

Witte said he expects AI to change how people learn and shop, but he doesn\u2019t see it removing the need for a licensed professional to match products and policies with customers. He also said he sees an upside in customers arriving better informed, because insurance is a complicated product and many people don\u2019t know what to ask for.

\n

For Witte, AI should raise service quality by removing friction, not by replacing the conversation.

\n

\u201cPicking up the phone and calling my insurance agent or sending them a text, and two minutes later I get a text back and things are addressed,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s a pretty good service.\u201d

\n

He doesn\u2019t see insurance as \u201cthe space in which people want to talk to robots\u201d when something goes wrong. If AI can strip away some of the manual work behind the scenes, he said he believes agencies can respond faster and with more consistency.

\n

Looking ahead, Witte wants Equal Parts to function less like a consolidator and more like a network. Once agencies share infrastructure, he sees room to expand what trusted relationship managers can offer beyond core property and casualty.

\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason that agent can\u2019t be given the platform capabilities to sell great group benefits or to sell financial services if the back office is built to handle the complexity,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world will look very different in five years than it does today, and even very different in a year. The companies that will be great are the companies that can move fast and adapt.\u201d

\n\r\n
\r\n

The post Equal Parts Wants to Turn Independent Insurance Agencies Into Growth Network appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "The insurance sector is colliding with a new customer rhythm. People can move money with a tap and ask an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for advice in plain English. They bring those expectations to insurance: quick answers and fast follow-through. Yet many independent agencies are still slowed by disconnected software and manual steps.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThat gap is widening just as a generational shift hits the industry. Many independent insurance agency owners are nearing retirement, and the path forward can feel like a choice between selling to a large consolidator or trying to modernize alone.\nMike Witte thinks there\u2019s a third option. Witte is founder and CEO of Equal Parts, a platform that acquires independent agencies and provides technology, capital and operational support so they can compete at modern speed and scale while preserving the trust-based model clients value.\nBefore launching Equal Parts, Witte built workflow technology in oil and gas. In a conversation with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, he explained why the leap made sense: both sectors are huge, but relationship-driven.\n\u201cI don\u2019t think oil and gas and insurance are actually that far apart,\u201d Witte said. \u201cThey\u2019re both really big industries in which, once you get into it, everybody knows everybody. And it has a heavy relationship dynamic.\u201d\nThe lesson he carried over is that innovation should strengthen the people doing the work. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about automating the people away,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s using innovation to enhance the human connection.\u201d\nEqual Parts is now scaling that thesis with new funding. The company has announced a $23 million Series A round led by Inspired Capital. Since its March founding, Equal Parts says acquired agencies have driven nearly 40% revenue growth and almost 50% bottom-line improvement. The company\u2019s targets are bold: acquire 25 agencies this year and become the fastest company to $1 billion in premiums within the next 24 months.\nSuccession Plans\nThe pitch to agency owners starts with succession and sometimes frustration. \u201cIf you\u2019re 65 years old and you\u2019ve built a small town agency at some point you think \u2018Where do I retire? What is my succession plan?\u2019\u201d Witte said. For many smaller agencies, he added, there aren\u2019t many appealing options such as selling to private equity or big conglomerate.\nEqual Parts wants to offer an exit without stripping away culture and autonomy. And for owners who still want to stay active, the company offers a different division of labor. Witte described one agency owner in his late 60s who knew he needed to sell but \u201cwasn\u2019t quite ready to \u2026 hang it up.\u201d After joining Equal Parts, the owner stayed close to customers while the platform took over the blocking and tackling.\nWitte summarized their message to the owner: \u201cJust go spend time with your customers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d\nWhat, exactly, is being \u201ctaken care of?\u201d\nWitte argued the industry\u2019s biggest drag is less a lack of software than a lack of connection between systems.\n\u201cI came in with this idea that insurance had a technology problem. And I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s true,\u201d he said. \u201cInsurance has a massive connectivity problem. Nothing connects. Everything is a point-to-point system.\u201d\nIn plain terms, he said, the insurance companies underwriting policies often don\u2019t connect cleanly to agency management systems (the software that tracks policies, renewals and documents). Those systems may not connect to CRMs (customer relationship tools) or to websites and intake forms.\nThe outcome is predictable: people spend time moving information instead of serving customers.\nEqual Parts\u2019 operating system is designed to standardize workflows across acquisitions and automate repetitive back-office steps so relationship managers can focus on clients and growth.\n\u201cWe\u2019re absorbing that complexity for the people that are the heart of the agencies, which are the relationship managers,\u201d Witte said. \u201cLet us absorb the complexity of everything else.\u201d\nThat people-first view also defines how Witte picks agencies to acquire.\n\u201cIt\u2019s not about a book of business. It\u2019s not about a location. It is about people,\u201d he said.\nEarly acquisitions set the tone for the broader network, so Equal Parts looks for owners who can be culture anchors and who are willing to rethink how the work gets done. Agencies that join, he added, tend to be motivated by the technology and the vision, not by a promise that they must give up their identity.\nThe AI Angle\nWebster asked how AI might reshape distribution as consumers increasingly use large language models to describe their needs and compare coverage. Could that pull customers toward buying directly from carriers?\nWitte said he expects AI to change how people learn and shop, but he doesn\u2019t see it removing the need for a licensed professional to match products and policies with customers. He also said he sees an upside in customers arriving better informed, because insurance is a complicated product and many people don\u2019t know what to ask for.\nFor Witte, AI should raise service quality by removing friction, not by replacing the conversation.\n\u201cPicking up the phone and calling my insurance agent or sending them a text, and two minutes later I get a text back and things are addressed,\u201d he said, \u201cthat\u2019s a pretty good service.\u201d\nHe doesn\u2019t see insurance as \u201cthe space in which people want to talk to robots\u201d when something goes wrong. If AI can strip away some of the manual work behind the scenes, he said he believes agencies can respond faster and with more consistency.\nLooking ahead, Witte wants Equal Parts to function less like a consolidator and more like a network. Once agencies share infrastructure, he sees room to expand what trusted relationship managers can offer beyond core property and casualty.\n\u201cThere\u2019s no reason that agent can\u2019t be given the platform capabilities to sell great group benefits or to sell financial services if the back office is built to handle the complexity,\u201d he said. \u201cThe world will look very different in five years than it does today, and even very different in a year. The companies that will be great are the companies that can move fast and adapt.\u201d\n\r\n\r\nThe post Equal Parts Wants to Turn Independent Insurance Agencies Into Growth Network appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-02-10T12:00:10-05:00", "date_modified": "2026-02-10T21:56:27-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Digital-Shift-Sidebar1.png", "tags": [ "AI", "digital transformation", "Equal Parts", "Featured News", "Insurance", "InsurTech", "News", "PYMNTS News", "pymnts tv", "video" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3383223", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2026/insurance-policyholders-now-rate-insurers-by-how-fast-they-pay/", "title": "Insurance Policyholders Now Rate Insurers by How Fast They Pay", "content_html": "

With policyholders facing more choices, more transparency and fewer switching barriers, insurers are discovering that retention is no longer protected by inertia but earned through performance at the most emotional moment of the relationship: getting paid.

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Competition Has Turned Insurance Into a Buyer\u2019s Market

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The report \u201cThe Demand for Instant Insurance: Why Speed Is the New Trust,\u201d a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments, underscores that insurance markets are now firmly tilted toward consumers, with elevated shopping levels and declining tolerance for friction.

\n

A growing share of customers report low satisfaction, and those customers are far more likely to change carriers when renewal approaches. In this environment, loyalty is increasingly transactional and time-sensitive.

\n

Customers Are Willing to Pay

\n

One of the clearest signals in the research is that policyholders do not just want faster payments; many value speed enough to pay for it. PYMNTS Intelligence finds that 23% of consumers receiving insurance disbursements between $500 and $1,000 are willing to pay a fee for instant access to funds, along with 18% of those receiving smaller payouts.

\n

That willingness reframes disbursement speed from an operational upgrade into a perceived premium service. In moments of loss or disruption, faster access to money is treated as relief, not convenience.

\n

\"insurance

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Speed and Satisfaction

\n

The report shows that payout speed has overtaken nearly every other factor in shaping how customers judge their insurance experience. Nearly half of all claimants rate speed as the most important element of the payment process, ahead of choice, simplicity or cost.

\n

This effect intensifies during catastrophic or severe-weather events, when more than half of policyholders prioritize quick payouts above all else. In these moments, speed becomes synonymous with care.

\n

Why Loyalty Is Ultimately About Trust and Churn

\n

Trust is built when insurers deliver at the moment customers feel most vulnerable. The research shows that customers who are dissatisfied with their claims experience are far more likely to cite slow payments as a central failure, while highly satisfied customers consistently point to payment speed as a reinforcing factor.

\n

This dynamic directly affects churn. Delayed payments erode goodwill and increase switching intent, even among customers who otherwise value their insurer.

\n

How Disbursement Methods Reinforce Loyalty

\n

While checks still dominate insurance payouts, the report highlights a growing shift toward digital options that give customers control. Policyholders who are offered payment choice report markedly higher satisfaction than those limited to a single method.

\n

Among instant disbursement recipients, push-to-credit card payments emerge as the most commonly used rail, followed by digital wallets, real-time bank deposits and push-to-debit cards. The preference for card-based speed reflects the urgency many customers feel to access funds immediately.

\n

Why Disbursements Have Become a Loyalty Strategy

\n

The core insight of the PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo collaboration is that disbursements now sit at the center of the insurance loyalty equation. Payments are no longer a back-office function but a defining brand moment that shapes trust, satisfaction and renewal behavior.

\n

For insurers competing in a crowded, price-sensitive market, the ability to move money quickly is becoming one of the most reliable ways to keep customers when it matters most.

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The post Insurance Policyholders Now Rate Insurers by How Fast They Pay appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "With policyholders facing more choices, more transparency and fewer switching barriers, insurers are discovering that retention is no longer protected by inertia but earned through performance at the most emotional moment of the relationship: getting paid.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nCompetition Has Turned Insurance Into a Buyer\u2019s Market\nThe report \u201cThe Demand for Instant Insurance: Why Speed Is the New Trust,\u201d a collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments, underscores that insurance markets are now firmly tilted toward consumers, with elevated shopping levels and declining tolerance for friction.\nA growing share of customers report low satisfaction, and those customers are far more likely to change carriers when renewal approaches. In this environment, loyalty is increasingly transactional and time-sensitive.\nCustomers Are Willing to Pay\nOne of the clearest signals in the research is that policyholders do not just want faster payments; many value speed enough to pay for it. PYMNTS Intelligence finds that 23% of consumers receiving insurance disbursements between $500 and $1,000 are willing to pay a fee for instant access to funds, along with 18% of those receiving smaller payouts.\nThat willingness reframes disbursement speed from an operational upgrade into a perceived premium service. In moments of loss or disruption, faster access to money is treated as relief, not convenience.\n\nSpeed and Satisfaction\nThe report shows that payout speed has overtaken nearly every other factor in shaping how customers judge their insurance experience. Nearly half of all claimants rate speed as the most important element of the payment process, ahead of choice, simplicity or cost.\nThis effect intensifies during catastrophic or severe-weather events, when more than half of policyholders prioritize quick payouts above all else. In these moments, speed becomes synonymous with care.\nWhy Loyalty Is Ultimately About Trust and Churn\nTrust is built when insurers deliver at the moment customers feel most vulnerable. The research shows that customers who are dissatisfied with their claims experience are far more likely to cite slow payments as a central failure, while highly satisfied customers consistently point to payment speed as a reinforcing factor.\nThis dynamic directly affects churn. Delayed payments erode goodwill and increase switching intent, even among customers who otherwise value their insurer.\nHow Disbursement Methods Reinforce Loyalty\nWhile checks still dominate insurance payouts, the report highlights a growing shift toward digital options that give customers control. Policyholders who are offered payment choice report markedly higher satisfaction than those limited to a single method.\nAmong instant disbursement recipients, push-to-credit card payments emerge as the most commonly used rail, followed by digital wallets, real-time bank deposits and push-to-debit cards. The preference for card-based speed reflects the urgency many customers feel to access funds immediately.\nWhy Disbursements Have Become a Loyalty Strategy\nThe core insight of the PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo collaboration is that disbursements now sit at the center of the insurance loyalty equation. Payments are no longer a back-office function but a defining brand moment that shapes trust, satisfaction and renewal behavior.\nFor insurers competing in a crowded, price-sensitive market, the ability to move money quickly is becoming one of the most reliable ways to keep customers when it matters most.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Insurance Policyholders Now Rate Insurers by How Fast They Pay appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-01-15T04:02:50-05:00", "date_modified": "2026-01-14T20:59:49-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Insurance-disbursements.jpg", "tags": [ "disbursements", "Featured News", "Ingo Payments", "Insurance", "News", "PYMNTS Intelligence", "PYMNTS News" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3332146", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2025/nirvana-insurance-raises-100-million-for-ai-operating-system/", "title": "Nirvana Insurance Raises $100 Million for AI Operating System", "content_html": "

Trucking industry insurance company Nirvana has raised $100 million.

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The company\u2019s Series D round, announced last week, will allow it to bolster its operating system, which it says it constructed to combat the industry problem of slow decisions and innovation cycles that could stretch into years.

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\u201cTelematics and AI have changed that equation,\u201d wrote Co-Founder and CEO Rushil Goel. \u201cFor the first time, it became possible to continuously learn from real-world driving behavior at scale, and to rebuild insurance around live signals rather than static assumptions.\u201d

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He added that Nirvana saw a chance to rethink that model, building the company as an \u201cAI-native issuer\u201d that employs data, machine learning and human expertise to improve and accelerate decisions on pricing, underwriting and claims.

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\u201cBecause of that foundation, our teams can test, ship and iterate far faster than traditional carriers,\u201d Goel added. \u201cOver the past year alone, being AI-native has allowed us to release dozens of new features and platform enhancements, rapidly experiment across the insurance life cycle, and turn real-world outcomes into immediate improvements.\u201d

\n

The company said its systems let safe fleets get upfront discounts of up to 20%, based on driving behavior instead of \u201cbroad averages.\u201d The systems can also \u201canalyze risk and deliver precise quotes in minutes, giving fleets back their most valuable resource, time,\u201d Goel said.

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Research by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown how crucial quicker decisions can be for the insurance industry.

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\u201cThe industry\u2019s math has changed. Affordable coverage attracts buyers; fast claims keep them coming back,\u201d PYMNTS wrote earlier this year.

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\u201cForty-six percent of insurance claimants say payment velocity is their top priority \u2014 eclipsing concerns like convenience, choice or security.\u201d

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Meanwhile, PYMNTS took a closer look at the way AI is impacting the insurance sector earlier this year in an interview with Aviad Pinkovezky, CEO of InsurTech platform First Connect.

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He said that eventually, the technology will affect all aspects of the industry once the regulatory frameworks are hammered out, touching everything from pricing to claims construction.

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First Connect\u2019s AI efforts\u00a0 have expedited the process of analyzing and approving, or rejecting, errors and omissions policies that agents need to upload to the company as part of their onboarding experience.

\n

\u201cThere is some manual, human validation here, but at the end of the day, AI has proven to be a game changer,\u201d Pinkovezky said.

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The post Nirvana Insurance Raises $100 Million for AI Operating System appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "Trucking industry insurance company Nirvana has raised $100 million.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe company\u2019s Series D round, announced last week, will allow it to bolster its operating system, which it says it constructed to combat the industry problem of slow decisions and innovation cycles that could stretch into years.\n\u201cTelematics and AI have changed that equation,\u201d wrote Co-Founder and CEO Rushil Goel. \u201cFor the first time, it became possible to continuously learn from real-world driving behavior at scale, and to rebuild insurance around live signals rather than static assumptions.\u201d\nHe added that Nirvana saw a chance to rethink that model, building the company as an \u201cAI-native issuer\u201d that employs data, machine learning and human expertise to improve and accelerate decisions on pricing, underwriting and claims.\n\u201cBecause of that foundation, our teams can test, ship and iterate far faster than traditional carriers,\u201d Goel added. \u201cOver the past year alone, being AI-native has allowed us to release dozens of new features and platform enhancements, rapidly experiment across the insurance life cycle, and turn real-world outcomes into immediate improvements.\u201d\nThe company said its systems let safe fleets get upfront discounts of up to 20%, based on driving behavior instead of \u201cbroad averages.\u201d The systems can also \u201canalyze risk and deliver precise quotes in minutes, giving fleets back their most valuable resource, time,\u201d Goel said.\nResearch by PYMNTS Intelligence has shown how crucial quicker decisions can be for the insurance industry.\n\u201cThe industry\u2019s math has changed. Affordable coverage attracts buyers; fast claims keep them coming back,\u201d PYMNTS wrote earlier this year.\n\u201cForty-six percent of insurance claimants say payment velocity is their top priority \u2014 eclipsing concerns like convenience, choice or security.\u201d\nMeanwhile, PYMNTS took a closer look at the way AI is impacting the insurance sector earlier this year in an interview with Aviad Pinkovezky, CEO of InsurTech platform First Connect.\nHe said that eventually, the technology will affect all aspects of the industry once the regulatory frameworks are hammered out, touching everything from pricing to claims construction.\nFirst Connect\u2019s AI efforts\u00a0 have expedited the process of analyzing and approving, or rejecting, errors and omissions policies that agents need to upload to the company as part of their onboarding experience.\n\u201cThere is some manual, human validation here, but at the end of the day, AI has proven to be a game changer,\u201d Pinkovezky said.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Nirvana Insurance Raises $100 Million for AI Operating System appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2025-12-22T17:26:15-05:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-22T17:28:03-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Nirvana-truck-insurance1.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "B2B", "B2B Payments", "Insurance", "InsurTech", "News", "Nirvana Insurance", "PYMNTS News", "Trucking", "What's Hot", "What's Hot In B2B" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3320362", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2025/payments-infrastructure-now-decides-which-insurers-win/", "title": "Payments Infrastructure Now Decides Which Insurers Win", "content_html": "

Watch more: What\u2019s Next in Payments: One Inc\u2019s Elizabeth Hoemeke

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Payments are maturing into a utility layer for the global economy.

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The unsung heroes of the sector\u2019s operations can increasingly determine which companies can grow with confidence and which will falter.

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\u201cMy infrastructure team, cloud, site reliability and database are remarkable,\u201d One Inc Chief Information Officer Elizabeth Hoemeke told PYMNTS during a discussion for the What\u2019s Next in Payments Series, \u201cUnsung Heroes.\u201d

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\u201cThey don\u2019t get enough kudos and credit \u2026 but they move the needle very quietly behind the scenes,\u201d Hoemeke said.

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That quiet work is foundational. As One Inc itself scales toward larger, tier-one insurance carriers, expectations around uptime, security and recoverability escalate. High availability is no longer aspirational; it is contractual. Over the past year, One Inc completed a step change in resilience by implementing multi-region disaster recovery across its products.

\n

\u201cWe already had a high availability configuration, but this year we implemented, through our infrastructure group, high multi-region DR,\u201d Hoemeke said.

\n

This was not a compliance exercise.

\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just tabletop exercise it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are now executing a full failover every quarter for both of our products.\u201d

\n

Those rehearsals matter. Each failover surfaces new insights, edge cases and opportunities to harden systems further. The payoff comes not just in theoretical resilience, but in real-world crisis response.

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Orchestrating an Expanding Ecosystem While Maintaining Resilience

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Payments resilience today extends beyond internal systems. Platforms like One Inc operate within dense ecosystems of banks, payment service providers, digital wallets and insurers. Orchestrating those relationships requires technical sophistication and operational accountability.

\n

One Inc\u2019s approach starts with \u201chigh availability, multi-region DR\u201d and extensive automation around monitoring and alerting, Hoemeke said. It also depends on tight collaboration across product development, engineering, security and compliance.

\n

\u201cThose four pillars work very closely together \u2026 just to make sure that we\u2019re thinking of everything as we do that design,\u201d she said.

\n

Infrastructure in this context is not treated as a cost center or a reactive function, but as an enabling layer for product innovation.

\n

\u201cOur engineers just want to put hands on the keyboard,\u201d Hoemeke said. \u201cThey want to do great work.\u201d

\n

On the external side, One Inc integrates with a range of payment providers, including Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo and\u00a0Zelle, and traditional banking partners like JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank. The goal is breadth without fragility.

\n

\u201cWe are trying to meet every client that we have where they want us to be,\u201d Hoemeke said.

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Identity, Risk and Invisible Security Are Infrastructure Tentpoles

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Scalability, reliability and security standards are increasingly non-negotiable in today\u2019s always-on environment. As One Inc scales, identity and fraud controls have become central to its architecture. Like many payment platforms, it faces persistent automated attacks.

\n

\u201cBIN attacks are really prevalent,\u201d Hoemeke said, referring to fraud attempts that exploit card number patterns.

\n

Identity federation is another resilience pillar. Single sign-on via security assertion markup language allows carrier partners to integrate seamlessly while reducing credential sprawl. Strong multifactor authentication policies, improved audit trails, and Microsoft Entra as a trusted identity provider form part of what Hoemeke described as a defense-in-depth strategy.

\n

Looking ahead, One Inc is exploring risk-based authentication with an emphasis on adaptive controls that escalate only when risk justifies it.

\n

Underlying these capabilities is a deliberate architectural consolidation. Over the past several years, One Inc migrated its platforms fully into Microsoft Azure, choosing focus over multi-cloud complexity.

\n

\u201cWe chose to centralize into Azure so that we could take advantage of human-scale training,\u201d Hoemeke said.

\n

Standardization allows engineers to spend less time context-switching and more time building differentiated capabilities.

\n

The company is leaning into cloud-native patterns, API-first design and event-driven architectures. New services are being built as composable components on Kubernetes, enabling faster iteration and clearer ownership.

\n

\u201cWe want to focus our engineering efforts on our own IP,\u201d Hoemeke said, rather than rebuilding commodity capabilities already offered by hyperscalers.

\n

Data sits at the center of this strategy. Extensive data warehouses support internal analytics and client-facing insights, helping insurers understand payment trends and customer behavior over time. In an industry where margins are tight and expectations are rising, such visibility increasingly differentiates platforms.

\n

The future of payments, it turns out, depends less on what launches next than on what quietly holds everything together.

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The post Payments Infrastructure Now Decides Which Insurers Win appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "Watch more: What\u2019s Next in Payments: One Inc\u2019s Elizabeth Hoemeke\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nPayments are maturing into a utility layer for the global economy.\nThe unsung heroes of the sector\u2019s operations can increasingly determine which companies can grow with confidence and which will falter.\n\u201cMy infrastructure team, cloud, site reliability and database are remarkable,\u201d One Inc Chief Information Officer Elizabeth Hoemeke told PYMNTS during a discussion for the What\u2019s Next in Payments Series, \u201cUnsung Heroes.\u201d\n\u201cThey don\u2019t get enough kudos and credit \u2026 but they move the needle very quietly behind the scenes,\u201d Hoemeke said.\nThat quiet work is foundational. As One Inc itself scales toward larger, tier-one insurance carriers, expectations around uptime, security and recoverability escalate. High availability is no longer aspirational; it is contractual. Over the past year, One Inc completed a step change in resilience by implementing multi-region disaster recovery across its products.\n\u201cWe already had a high availability configuration, but this year we implemented, through our infrastructure group, high multi-region DR,\u201d Hoemeke said.\nThis was not a compliance exercise.\n\u201cWe don\u2019t just tabletop exercise it,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are now executing a full failover every quarter for both of our products.\u201d\nThose rehearsals matter. Each failover surfaces new insights, edge cases and opportunities to harden systems further. The payoff comes not just in theoretical resilience, but in real-world crisis response.\nOrchestrating an Expanding Ecosystem While Maintaining Resilience\nPayments resilience today extends beyond internal systems. Platforms like One Inc operate within dense ecosystems of banks, payment service providers, digital wallets and insurers. Orchestrating those relationships requires technical sophistication and operational accountability.\nOne Inc\u2019s approach starts with \u201chigh availability, multi-region DR\u201d and extensive automation around monitoring and alerting, Hoemeke said. It also depends on tight collaboration across product development, engineering, security and compliance.\n\u201cThose four pillars work very closely together \u2026 just to make sure that we\u2019re thinking of everything as we do that design,\u201d she said.\nInfrastructure in this context is not treated as a cost center or a reactive function, but as an enabling layer for product innovation.\n\u201cOur engineers just want to put hands on the keyboard,\u201d Hoemeke said. \u201cThey want to do great work.\u201d\nOn the external side, One Inc integrates with a range of payment providers, including Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo and\u00a0Zelle, and traditional banking partners like JPMorgan Chase and U.S. Bank. The goal is breadth without fragility.\n\u201cWe are trying to meet every client that we have where they want us to be,\u201d Hoemeke said.\nIdentity, Risk and Invisible Security Are Infrastructure Tentpoles\nScalability, reliability and security standards are increasingly non-negotiable in today\u2019s always-on environment. As One Inc scales, identity and fraud controls have become central to its architecture. Like many payment platforms, it faces persistent automated attacks.\n\u201cBIN attacks are really prevalent,\u201d Hoemeke said, referring to fraud attempts that exploit card number patterns.\nIdentity federation is another resilience pillar. Single sign-on via security assertion markup language allows carrier partners to integrate seamlessly while reducing credential sprawl. Strong multifactor authentication policies, improved audit trails, and Microsoft Entra as a trusted identity provider form part of what Hoemeke described as a defense-in-depth strategy.\nLooking ahead, One Inc is exploring risk-based authentication with an emphasis on adaptive controls that escalate only when risk justifies it.\nUnderlying these capabilities is a deliberate architectural consolidation. Over the past several years, One Inc migrated its platforms fully into Microsoft Azure, choosing focus over multi-cloud complexity.\n\u201cWe chose to centralize into Azure so that we could take advantage of human-scale training,\u201d Hoemeke said.\nStandardization allows engineers to spend less time context-switching and more time building differentiated capabilities.\nThe company is leaning into cloud-native patterns, API-first design and event-driven architectures. New services are being built as composable components on Kubernetes, enabling faster iteration and clearer ownership.\n\u201cWe want to focus our engineering efforts on our own IP,\u201d Hoemeke said, rather than rebuilding commodity capabilities already offered by hyperscalers.\nData sits at the center of this strategy. Extensive data warehouses support internal analytics and client-facing insights, helping insurers understand payment trends and customer behavior over time. In an industry where margins are tight and expectations are rising, such visibility increasingly differentiates platforms.\nThe future of payments, it turns out, depends less on what launches next than on what quietly holds everything together.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Payments Infrastructure Now Decides Which Insurers Win appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2025-12-18T04:00:20-05:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T23:09:15-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Insurance.jpg", "tags": [ "authentication", "data", "Featured News", "fraud", "Insurance", "News", "one inc", "PYMNTS News", "pymnts tv", "Security", "video", "WhatsNextInPaymentsSeries", "What\u2019s Next in Payments: The Unsung Hero 2025" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3268549", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2025/big-firms-test-ai-agents-as-internal-teams-race-to-build-guardrails/", "title": "Big Firms Test AI Agents as Internal Teams Race to Build Guardrails", "content_html": "

The last few Prompt Economy Weekly features have focused on trust and technical security for agentic AI. Seeing as how security is a prerequisite for its consistent usage, that focus was spot-on and will continue to be an issue. But this week was something of a litmus test for the Prompt Economy. It marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and time will tell whether agentic AI was a factor.

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In the meantime, we did\u00a0have several new cases come to the forefront over the past week. That\u2019s where we will focus as more companies develop the trust and security necessary to fulfill agentic AI\u2019s promise. The first one comes from Harvard Business Review, who put out a report last week that spelled out agentic AI\u2019s promise as an internal enterprise workhorse.

\n

The report takes the stance that while companies are eager to apply agentic AI to customer-facing operations, those environments are too variable and error-sensitive for current systems. It argues that the real near-term value lies in internal workflows where tasks are structured, repetitive, and supported by humans in the loop. Agentic AI is progressing through a clear maturity curve, from prompting, to retrieval-augmented generation, to multi-agent architectures that divide work into small, supervised steps. These systems can meaningfully raise accuracy and efficiency, but only when deployed in controlled settings with defined inputs and strong guardrails.

\n

HBR highlights case evidence showing that multi-agent systems can reduce resolution times, improve data quality, and save costs when embedded in back-office processes such as technical field operations. Still, the authors stress that building and scaling these systems requires significant organizational effort: deep process literacy, cross-functional governance, integration with legacy systems, and ongoing experimentation. True autonomy remains distant; in the near term, value comes from augmenting workers rather than replacing them. Companies that develop internal capabilities\u2014data engineers, context designers, and what the authors call \u201cgen AI black belts\u201d\u2014will be best positioned to capture the next decade of AI-driven operational gains.\u00a0

\n

\u201cCustomer-facing contexts are a bad fit for the current capabilities of AI agents,\u201d the article states. \u201cThey\u2019re messy and unpredictable\u2026 Backend and operational processes are fertile ground because they are structured and repetitive\u2014much better suited for agentic workflow automation.\u201d\u00a0

\n

Insurance, Agentic Style

\n

But apparently the insurance business didn\u2019t get the memo. It is zooming ahead in the agentic revolution, with a major trade publication carrying a warning about adopting it and detailing some use cases. Insurance Business reports that major global insurers are accelerating their shift toward agentic AI, moving from controlled pilots to real operational deployment. While early adopters such as Allianz are beginning with highly specific tasks\u2014like automating food spoilage claims\u2014insurers across the industry are now exploring how autonomous agents can reshape customer interactions, underwriting, and claims workflows. Competitive pressure is rising as insurtechs test AI agents capable of handling live customer conversations, pushing traditional carriers to evaluate where and how agentic systems should fit within their technology stacks. Early gains are compelling: analysis cited in the article shows that insurers deploying agentic AI across dynamic workflows may achieve productivity improvements of 20% to 30%.\u00a0

\n

The article emphasizes that the long-term transformation will depend as much on people and process as on technology. Zurich\u2019s Tim Kane argues that insurers must rethink distribution models, redesign workflow orchestration, and adopt hybrid architectures that blend customer-facing automation with deeper \u201ccore\u201d decisioning systems. But successful rollout demands a workforce trained not only to use agentic AI but also to supervise, refine, and co-manage it. Even after deployment, significant effort goes into continuously training and calibrating agents, ensuring compliance, and preserving human judgment where empathy or nuance is required. The insurers that adapt fastest\u2014both technologically and organizationally\u2014are poised to lead as agentic AI becomes embedded in the industry\u2019s operational core.\u00a0

\n

Financial Services

\n

Insurance also figured heavily in CapGemini\u2019s prospective use cases for agentic AI in financial services. It argues that agentic AI represents a major shift for financial services, enabling systems that can plan, act, and adapt across complex workflows in banking and insurance. Unlike generative AI, which assists with narrow tasks, agentic AI is designed to make autonomous decisions and manage end-to-end processes such as claims triage, fraud checks, loan onboarding, underwriting, and personalized customer engagement.

\n

Yet most financial institutions struggle to move beyond pilots. Only 26% have the capabilities to scale AI effectively, with many stalling due to project complexity, regulatory demands, and the challenge of integrating governance, data, and model controls from day one. Capgemini stresses that the opportunity is meaningful\u2014cycle-time reductions, higher straight-through processing, and consistent decisioning\u2014but firms need structured methods and experienced partners to avoid stalled programs and unrealized ROI.\u00a0

\n

The article highlights that agentic AI is already improving performance across the financial services value chain. Insurers are using agents to accelerate claims, enhance underwriting accuracy, personalize distribution, and improve servicing. Banks are deploying agentic systems in retail engagement, wealth management, investment research, cards, and payments, with one Capgemini client reporting a 20\u201330% increase in developer throughput using agentic workflows. Capgemini also details how agents are reshaping cloud modernization by autonomously assessing legacy systems, assisting production teams, and orchestrating hybrid environments. Strong governance\u2014explainability, auditability, human-in-the-loop design, and model risk controls\u2014is essential as EU and U.S. regulators tighten oversight.

\n

Ultimately, Capgemini concludes that firms win not by flashy demonstrations, but by disciplined engineering, clear guardrails, and measurable outcomes that scale responsibly.\u00a0\u201cAgentic AI isn\u2019t magic \u2013 it\u2019s disciplined engineering and change management,\u201d it states. \u201cThe winners\u2026 deploy with strong guardrails, prove impact, and scale responsibly.\u201d\u00a0

\n\r\n
\r\n

The post Big Firms Test AI Agents as Internal Teams Race to Build Guardrails appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "The last few Prompt Economy Weekly features have focused on trust and technical security for agentic AI. Seeing as how security is a prerequisite for its consistent usage, that focus was spot-on and will continue to be an issue. But this week was something of a litmus test for the Prompt Economy. It marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and time will tell whether agentic AI was a factor. \r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nIn the meantime, we did\u00a0have several new cases come to the forefront over the past week. That\u2019s where we will focus as more companies develop the trust and security necessary to fulfill agentic AI\u2019s promise. The first one comes from Harvard Business Review, who put out a report last week that spelled out agentic AI\u2019s promise as an internal enterprise workhorse. \n The report takes the stance that while companies are eager to apply agentic AI to customer-facing operations, those environments are too variable and error-sensitive for current systems. It argues that the real near-term value lies in internal workflows where tasks are structured, repetitive, and supported by humans in the loop. Agentic AI is progressing through a clear maturity curve, from prompting, to retrieval-augmented generation, to multi-agent architectures that divide work into small, supervised steps. These systems can meaningfully raise accuracy and efficiency, but only when deployed in controlled settings with defined inputs and strong guardrails.\nHBR highlights case evidence showing that multi-agent systems can reduce resolution times, improve data quality, and save costs when embedded in back-office processes such as technical field operations. Still, the authors stress that building and scaling these systems requires significant organizational effort: deep process literacy, cross-functional governance, integration with legacy systems, and ongoing experimentation. True autonomy remains distant; in the near term, value comes from augmenting workers rather than replacing them. Companies that develop internal capabilities\u2014data engineers, context designers, and what the authors call \u201cgen AI black belts\u201d\u2014will be best positioned to capture the next decade of AI-driven operational gains.\u00a0\n \u201cCustomer-facing contexts are a bad fit for the current capabilities of AI agents,\u201d the article states. \u201cThey\u2019re messy and unpredictable\u2026 Backend and operational processes are fertile ground because they are structured and repetitive\u2014much better suited for agentic workflow automation.\u201d\u00a0\nInsurance, Agentic Style\nBut apparently the insurance business didn\u2019t get the memo. It is zooming ahead in the agentic revolution, with a major trade publication carrying a warning about adopting it and detailing some use cases. Insurance Business reports that major global insurers are accelerating their shift toward agentic AI, moving from controlled pilots to real operational deployment. While early adopters such as Allianz are beginning with highly specific tasks\u2014like automating food spoilage claims\u2014insurers across the industry are now exploring how autonomous agents can reshape customer interactions, underwriting, and claims workflows. Competitive pressure is rising as insurtechs test AI agents capable of handling live customer conversations, pushing traditional carriers to evaluate where and how agentic systems should fit within their technology stacks. Early gains are compelling: analysis cited in the article shows that insurers deploying agentic AI across dynamic workflows may achieve productivity improvements of 20% to 30%.\u00a0\nThe article emphasizes that the long-term transformation will depend as much on people and process as on technology. Zurich\u2019s Tim Kane argues that insurers must rethink distribution models, redesign workflow orchestration, and adopt hybrid architectures that blend customer-facing automation with deeper \u201ccore\u201d decisioning systems. But successful rollout demands a workforce trained not only to use agentic AI but also to supervise, refine, and co-manage it. Even after deployment, significant effort goes into continuously training and calibrating agents, ensuring compliance, and preserving human judgment where empathy or nuance is required. The insurers that adapt fastest\u2014both technologically and organizationally\u2014are poised to lead as agentic AI becomes embedded in the industry\u2019s operational core.\u00a0\nFinancial Services\nInsurance also figured heavily in CapGemini\u2019s prospective use cases for agentic AI in financial services. It argues that agentic AI represents a major shift for financial services, enabling systems that can plan, act, and adapt across complex workflows in banking and insurance. Unlike generative AI, which assists with narrow tasks, agentic AI is designed to make autonomous decisions and manage end-to-end processes such as claims triage, fraud checks, loan onboarding, underwriting, and personalized customer engagement. \nYet most financial institutions struggle to move beyond pilots. Only 26% have the capabilities to scale AI effectively, with many stalling due to project complexity, regulatory demands, and the challenge of integrating governance, data, and model controls from day one. Capgemini stresses that the opportunity is meaningful\u2014cycle-time reductions, higher straight-through processing, and consistent decisioning\u2014but firms need structured methods and experienced partners to avoid stalled programs and unrealized ROI.\u00a0\nThe article highlights that agentic AI is already improving performance across the financial services value chain. Insurers are using agents to accelerate claims, enhance underwriting accuracy, personalize distribution, and improve servicing. Banks are deploying agentic systems in retail engagement, wealth management, investment research, cards, and payments, with one Capgemini client reporting a 20\u201330% increase in developer throughput using agentic workflows. Capgemini also details how agents are reshaping cloud modernization by autonomously assessing legacy systems, assisting production teams, and orchestrating hybrid environments. Strong governance\u2014explainability, auditability, human-in-the-loop design, and model risk controls\u2014is essential as EU and U.S. regulators tighten oversight. \nUltimately, Capgemini concludes that firms win not by flashy demonstrations, but by disciplined engineering, clear guardrails, and measurable outcomes that scale responsibly.\u00a0\u201cAgentic AI isn\u2019t magic \u2013 it\u2019s disciplined engineering and change management,\u201d it states. \u201cThe winners\u2026 deploy with strong guardrails, prove impact, and scale responsibly.\u201d\u00a0\n\r\n\r\nThe post Big Firms Test AI Agents as Internal Teams Race to Build Guardrails appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2025-12-01T04:00:29-05:00", "date_modified": "2025-11-30T23:46:02-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AI-risk-management1.jpg", "tags": [ "Agentic AI", "AI", "automation", "Featured News", "financial services", "Insurance", "News", "PYMNTS News", "The Prompt Economy" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3268532", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/insurance/2025/lemonade-extends-its-ai-push-and-pressures-the-insurance-pack/", "title": "Lemonade Extends Its AI Push and Pressures the Insurance Pack", "content_html": "

Big month for car insurance in the PYMNTS app provider rankings, with one big surprise at the top. The PYMNTS.com Insurance Apps page offers a monthly ranking of smartphone Insurance Apps, assessing them based on publicly available information and exclusive app usage data, helping users identify the top performers in the market. The ranking aims to provide precise insights into app performance, aiding stakeholders in making informed decisions.

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The top spot for October in the insurance category comes from a newcomer: Jerry: The AllCar App. It posted a six point gain. Jerry markets itself as \u201cAmerica\u2019s first AllCar app,\u201d giving drivers a single mobile hub to compare car insurance quotes from dozens of carriers, buy or switch policies inside the app, monitor driving behavior, refinance auto loans, and track maintenance and repair costs, with features like PriceProtect, DriveShield and GarageGuard designed to cut premiums and make ownership less stressful. A spike in Jerry\u2019s recent usage is consistent with the broader environment the company itself has documented, in which car insurance inflation has hit a four-decade high, with annual increases near 20 percent in October driving more consumers to shop aggressively for savings.\u00a0

\n

At the same time, Jerry has scaled to roughly 5 million U.S. customers and invested in visible consumer marketing, including October 2025 social campaigns positioning the app as a fast way to handle quotes, comparisons and switching in one place, while reviews highlight its ease of use and ability to surface better rates without spammy follow-up calls. Taken together, surging insurance costs, a clear \u201cone-tap savings\u201d value proposition and active October outreach give a plausible explanation for why Jerry would climb rapidly in PYMNTS\u2019 insurance app rankings that month.

\n

Also posting a six point gain was a more familiar name, Liberty Mutual. Liberty Mutual\u2019s mobile app functions as a \u201cone-stop insurance resource\u201d that lets customers securely log in, view digital ID cards, pay bills, change payment schedules, update coverages, access policy documents, and file and manage auto and property claims, including uploading damage photos and calling 24/7 roadside assistance, all from a single interface. The app also ties into Liberty Mutual\u2019s RightTrack telematics program, which runs in the background to capture driving behavior and reward safe drivers with premium discounts, giving policyholders a concrete reason to keep the app installed and active.

\n

A sharp October usage gain would be consistent with the broader environment of elevated insurance premiums, as Liberty Mutual itself notes that inflation, higher repair costs and labor shortages are pushing auto and home insurance rates higher, prompting consumers to monitor bills, adjust coverage and seek discounts more aggressively via digital channels. Recent industry research also spotlighted Liberty Mutual among the top digital performers in P&C insurance, with strong mobile and security capabilities, which may have further nudged policyholders to rely on the app as their primary service touchpoint during that period.

\n

Lemonade Insurance took the third spot with a three point gain. Lemonade\u2019s app is the front door for its fully digital insurance business, letting consumers buy and manage renters, homeowners, car, pet and term life policies in one place and handle almost everything through an AI assistant. Customers are required to use the app (or web) to manage their policies and file claims, which are driven by Lemonade\u2019s chatbots Maya and Jim, designed to guide users through quotes, policy changes and claims in a conversational flow that can approve simple claims in minutes. The same app surface also lets users swipe between multiple product lines and take advantage of bundling discounts across car, renters, homeowners and pet insurance, reinforcing the \u201call in one\u201d positioning.

\n

Lemonade has not reported an October app-usage spike specifically, but several developments around that period make a jump in PYMNTS\u2019 rankings plausible. The company has been rolling out Lemonade Car to more states, reaching about 42% of the U.S. car insurance market by mid-2025, which directly increases the addressable base of app users. Management also highlighted strong Q2 2025 results, 35% revenue growth, rising in-force premiums and stepped-up customer acquisition spend in its August shareholder letter and early-October investor coverage, putting a brighter spotlight on the brand ahead of Q3 earnings and likely supporting higher download and engagement volumes into October. Combined with a backdrop of elevated insurance costs that push consumers toward digital tools for savings and faster service, those expansion and marketing dynamics offer a reasonable explanation for Lemonade\u2019s three-point gain in the PYMNTS insurance app rankings.

\n\r\n
\r\n

The post Lemonade Extends Its AI Push and Pressures the Insurance Pack appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

\n", "content_text": "Big month for car insurance in the PYMNTS app provider rankings, with one big surprise at the top. The PYMNTS.com Insurance Apps page offers a monthly ranking of smartphone Insurance Apps, assessing them based on publicly available information and exclusive app usage data, helping users identify the top performers in the market. The ranking aims to provide precise insights into app performance, aiding stakeholders in making informed decisions.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe top spot for October in the insurance category comes from a newcomer: Jerry: The AllCar App. It posted a six point gain. Jerry markets itself as \u201cAmerica\u2019s first AllCar app,\u201d giving drivers a single mobile hub to compare car insurance quotes from dozens of carriers, buy or switch policies inside the app, monitor driving behavior, refinance auto loans, and track maintenance and repair costs, with features like PriceProtect, DriveShield and GarageGuard designed to cut premiums and make ownership less stressful. A spike in Jerry\u2019s recent usage is consistent with the broader environment the company itself has documented, in which car insurance inflation has hit a four-decade high, with annual increases near 20 percent in October driving more consumers to shop aggressively for savings.\u00a0 \nAt the same time, Jerry has scaled to roughly 5 million U.S. customers and invested in visible consumer marketing, including October 2025 social campaigns positioning the app as a fast way to handle quotes, comparisons and switching in one place, while reviews highlight its ease of use and ability to surface better rates without spammy follow-up calls. Taken together, surging insurance costs, a clear \u201cone-tap savings\u201d value proposition and active October outreach give a plausible explanation for why Jerry would climb rapidly in PYMNTS\u2019 insurance app rankings that month.\nAlso posting a six point gain was a more familiar name, Liberty Mutual. Liberty Mutual\u2019s mobile app functions as a \u201cone-stop insurance resource\u201d that lets customers securely log in, view digital ID cards, pay bills, change payment schedules, update coverages, access policy documents, and file and manage auto and property claims, including uploading damage photos and calling 24/7 roadside assistance, all from a single interface. The app also ties into Liberty Mutual\u2019s RightTrack telematics program, which runs in the background to capture driving behavior and reward safe drivers with premium discounts, giving policyholders a concrete reason to keep the app installed and active. \nA sharp October usage gain would be consistent with the broader environment of elevated insurance premiums, as Liberty Mutual itself notes that inflation, higher repair costs and labor shortages are pushing auto and home insurance rates higher, prompting consumers to monitor bills, adjust coverage and seek discounts more aggressively via digital channels. Recent industry research also spotlighted Liberty Mutual among the top digital performers in P&C insurance, with strong mobile and security capabilities, which may have further nudged policyholders to rely on the app as their primary service touchpoint during that period.\nLemonade Insurance took the third spot with a three point gain. Lemonade\u2019s app is the front door for its fully digital insurance business, letting consumers buy and manage renters, homeowners, car, pet and term life policies in one place and handle almost everything through an AI assistant. Customers are required to use the app (or web) to manage their policies and file claims, which are driven by Lemonade\u2019s chatbots Maya and Jim, designed to guide users through quotes, policy changes and claims in a conversational flow that can approve simple claims in minutes. The same app surface also lets users swipe between multiple product lines and take advantage of bundling discounts across car, renters, homeowners and pet insurance, reinforcing the \u201call in one\u201d positioning. \nLemonade has not reported an October app-usage spike specifically, but several developments around that period make a jump in PYMNTS\u2019 rankings plausible. The company has been rolling out Lemonade Car to more states, reaching about 42% of the U.S. car insurance market by mid-2025, which directly increases the addressable base of app users. Management also highlighted strong Q2 2025 results, 35% revenue growth, rising in-force premiums and stepped-up customer acquisition spend in its August shareholder letter and early-October investor coverage, putting a brighter spotlight on the brand ahead of Q3 earnings and likely supporting higher download and engagement volumes into October. Combined with a backdrop of elevated insurance costs that push consumers toward digital tools for savings and faster service, those expansion and marketing dynamics offer a reasonable explanation for Lemonade\u2019s three-point gain in the PYMNTS insurance app rankings.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Lemonade Extends Its AI Push and Pressures the Insurance Pack appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2025-12-01T04:00:26-05:00", "date_modified": "2025-11-30T23:34:14-05:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Lemonade-App-Provider1.jpg", "tags": [ "Featured News", "Insurance", "Jerry", "Lemonade", "Liberty Mutual", "Mobile Applications", "News", "PYMNTS App provider rankings", "PYMNTS News" ] } ] }