When I sold my marketing agency in 2021 after growing it to eight figures, I thought I might retire at 35. Within three weeks, I realized something: I'm not built to sit around. I'm built to build.
But here's what changed. When I started that first company in 2014, success meant hiring more people. More revenue required more headcount. It was a simple equation that every business owner understood.
Today, that equation is being completely rewritten. And if you're not paying attention, you're going to wake up in five years and wonder how you lost the race.
What Blockbuster Teaches Us About Waiting Too Long
In 2004, Blockbuster was generating nearly $6 billion in revenue with over 9,000 stores and 84,000 employees. They were so dominant they collected $800 million in late fees alone.
Six years later? Bankrupt. Over $900 million in debt. They didn't miss Netflix. They saw it coming and waited too long to act.
I see the same pattern happening right now with artificial intelligence (AI). Companies know that AI is important. But then they wait. Leaders are overwhelmed and unsure where to start. So, they do nothing.
Meanwhile, AI-native companies are scaling at unprecedented speeds. Cursor, the AI code editor, hit $500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with just 12 people. AI app builder Lovable reached $17 million in ARR with 15 employees, three months after launch. Bolt.new got to $20 million in ARR in two months with 15 people.
The cost of waiting is watching your competitors serve customers faster, operate more efficiently and scale without the traditional overhead that's holding you back.
AI Employees Are Already Here
When I talk about AI-powered digital employees, I'm not talking about some distant sci-fi future. I'm talking about what's happening right now in insurance agencies.
Here's a problem costing agencies serious money: agent onboarding is a leaky boat. Many agencies lose one out of every six new agents after hiring. These aren't people who fail the licensing exam. These are agents who accept the job and drop out before their first policy sale.
The dropout typically happens during that critical 10-day study period. They miss a day of communication. They fall behind on their study calendar. They don't get questions answered at 9 p.m. on a Saturday, and they're gone.
We worked with an insurance agency losing roughly $1 million annually to failed onboarding. For every five agents hired, only one made it to production. So, we built them two AI-powered digital employees: the pipeline assistant and onboarding assistant.
The pipeline assistant processes daily progress reports automatically and alerts managers the moment an agent falls behind. The onboarding assistant creates personalized study calendars, sends daily encouragement, answers questions instantly at any hour and escalates to humans when real intervention is needed.
The result? Agents get support exactly when they need it. Managers spend their time building relationships and handling complex coaching, not checking spreadsheets and sending reminder texts.
That's not replacing humans. That's freeing humans to do what they do best.
Meet Your New Digital Coworkers
Think about your agency's daily work. How much is truly strategic client work and relationship building? And how much is data entry, policy checking, certificate generation and renewal tracking?
AI-powered digital employees aren't generic chatbots. They're purpose-built team members designed for insurance workflows. Consider these examples:
- Your data processing specialist transforms chaos into clarity, processing applications automatically and maintaining clean databases.
- Your policy service coordinator handles certificate requests, tracks renewals and sends timely alerts around the clock.
- Your knowledge assistant is your agency's institutional memory, providing instant coverage answers and training new staff consistently.
These digital employees are already working in agencies, alongside human teams.
The Real Question: Human Augmentation, Not Replacement
The conversation about AI shouldn't be whether it will take our jobs, but how it will make us better at our jobs.
When Excel was introduced, accountants didn't become obsolete. They became more valuable because they could analyze data faster and focus on insights instead of manual calculations. When GPS was introduced, delivery drivers became more efficient and could focus on customer service instead of getting lost.
AI is following the same pattern in a more powerful way. The agencies that will win are combining human creativity, judgment and relationship building with AI's speed, consistency and scale.
Your team brings emotional intelligence and builds relationships. They understand context and nuance. They make judgment calls requiring years of experience. AI brings tireless execution, processes information at scale and works around the clock.
Together? That's when the magic happens.
The Best Way to Learn Is By Doing
The best way to understand AI is to actually use it. And here's the fascinating part: you can use AI to help you learn about AI.
Pick something real you're working on this week. Writing new business emails, analyzing loss runs, creating training materials or drafting policy summaries. Try using AI as your co-pilot.
Start with Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT. Give it context about what you're trying to accomplish. Ask it to help you draft something, then refine it. Add your expertise and judgment.
You'll quickly realize two things:
- AI eliminates the blank page problem by giving you a starting point.
- The output is only as good as your input and judgment.
You still need to know your clients and apply your expertise. AI doesn't replace that. It amplifies it.
The Agencies That Win Will Move Now
AI feels overwhelming. There are a million tools and everyone's talking about it. You're already running a business and don't have time to become an AI expert.
But the reality is you don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to start.
Start with one process: your certificate request backlog, policy renewal tracking or new agent onboarding. Pick one thing, automate it, measure the impact and move to the next challenge.
The insurance agencies winning with AI aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the most technical teams. They're the ones that decided to stop waiting and start learning.
While you're waiting for the perfect moment, your competitors are already moving.
Applied Client Network exists to help you navigate exactly these transitions. The peer-to-peer learning, the education sessions and the sharing of what's actually working at real agencies. This is the moment to lean into that community.
The future of insurance isn't AI versus agents. It's AI working alongside agents, handling the repetitive work so your team can focus on building relationships, solving complex problems and providing service that clients can't get from an app.
The only question is: are you going to be part of that future, or are you going to be the next Blockbuster?
The choice is yours. But I'd recommend you make it soon.