This week, Applied Systems hosted Applied Net 2024 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. At the conference, which was attended by approximately 4,100 people, Applied unveiled several updates to Applied Epic and EZLynx, including several updates that use AI technology.

During the opening keynote, Taylor Rhodes, CEO of Applied Systems, said that AI “offers us new potential to bring more intelligent automation and insights to our industry" and that “while this industry's greatest asset has always been and will be you, the great people who work in it, more than ever now in this hard market ... we need our technology to work harder for us."

A key theme of this year's event was cutting through the noise associated with AI technology and focusing on harnessing AI to drive productivity for agencies large and small. Instrumental in allowing strategic AI innovations to come to fruition is the Applied AI Lab, which allows agents to participate in research, guide use cases, and experiment hands-on with innovative AI-assisted capabilities in Epic and EZLynx.

For example, one of the latest capabilities of Applied software is its ability to summarize emails, texts and agent notes, saving agents huge amounts of time previously spent reading and analyzing client notes and enabling faster customer service.

Also, the EVA Prospect Policy Assist feature can auto-fill data extracted from a prospect's existing PDF policy directly into EZLynx Management System to begin a new quote, eliminating manual data entry so agents can quote and win business more quickly. Further, EVA Product Assistance means agents can ask a product question about EZLynx workflows and get step-by-step instructions and links to the most relevant learning resources.

Meanwhile, as the hard market pushes commercial premiums higher, Applied also announced the integration of Applied Pay with the top three premium finance companies—AFCO Direct, First Insurance Funding and Imperial PFS—that enables insureds to solicit financing and sign financing agreements up to $100,000 with immediate approvals and upfront terms while paying premiums online.

Using AI, deep integration between Applied Pay, Epic and each premium finance company facilitates the seamless application of premium payment to the correct transactions on the insured's account in Applied Epic, saving agents time and reducing errors that come with manual reconciliation on agency billing.

During his keynote, Rhodes noted that these enhancements are merely the beginning of AI use in the industry. The acquisition of Planck, a provider of AI software for the insurance industry, in July will push the boundaries to where AI can be deployed in the independent insurance agent channel.

“Their proprietary technology combined with our unique data sets, coupled with our software products, will put us in a position to build the best AI capability in insurance," Rhodes said. 

In Applied Epic, Applied announced Book Builder, an enhancement that is a result of Applied's partnership with Planck. Book Builder is a prospecting and renewals solution that enables insurance producers and account managers to target both new commercial lines prospects and cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Embedded in Epic, commercial risk attributes and intelligent account rounding recommendations will accelerate the renewal process and new business growth.

Further, the latest innovations to Epic Dashboards, released in July 2024, simplify access to data in Epic to expand an agency's understanding of business performance across more agency roles than before. Other enhancements to commercial lines workflows improve connectivity by syncing submission activities, automating certificate holder updates during renewals, and providing insights into staff time spent on renewals.

Overall, the enhancements to core management system capabilities streamline repetitive, time-consuming data entry, documentation, and accounting tasks through innovative applications of AI and redesigned user experiences.

Informing Applied's strategy is a continual feedback loop between the company and its agent and broker users. While AI continues to be a buzzword across all industries, Rhodes held a media roundtable discussion where he emphasized practicality over hype when finding ways to save agencies time and resources.

“The feedback we've gotten is to flip AI on its head," Rhodes said. “Instead of AI, it's IA—intelligent automation."

Will Jones is IA editor-in-chief.