It's easy to think of competition in the traditional sense: the agency down the street, the regional broker expanding into your market or the carrier courting your clients.

But the reality is, customer expectations are being shaped by their daily digital interactions. Whether it's checking an order status online, receiving a tailored recommendation from a streaming service or getting an instant answer from an AI assistant, consumers have become accustomed to experiences that are fast, intuitive and simple.

As Michael Streit, president of Ivans at Appiled, noted during a recent ACN Coffee Talk, insurance providers are competing against those expectations in addition to other insurance software platforms.

The Rising Cost of Friction

The insurance industry has never lacked expertise. What it has often struggled with is friction. Clients still encounter processes that require duplicate information, status updates hidden inside email exchanges and workflows that can feel slow. Agents and brokers experience similar frustrations, particularly in complex commercial lines workflows where information is exchanged across multiple parties and systems.

Historically, some level of friction was accepted as part of doing business in insurance. Today, that tolerance is shrinking. As customer expectations continue to evolve, convenience is a differentiator and a core value proposition. Clients may not fully understand the complexity behind underwriting, policy administration or carrier interactions, but they do expect those processes to feel seamless.

AI Is Changing More Than Efficiency

Much of the industry's AI conversation focuses on productivity gains. The ability to process unstructured information, automate tasks and reduce manual effort has enormous potential. But it’s also raising expectations across the board.

Consumers are quickly becoming accustomed to technology that can understand context, generate answers and facilitate conversations that feel natural. As those experiences become commonplace, customers will expect similar levels of responsiveness and simplicity across more of their interactions, including insurance.

For agencies and brokerages, AI's value extends beyond productivity gains. As clients and employees grow accustomed to faster, more intuitive technology experiences, agencies have an opportunity to use AI to reduce delays, improve visibility and make complex insurance processes feel easier to navigate.

Thinking About the Big Picture

With the rate of change and innovation in the insurance industry, it can be tempting to chase the shiny object, focusing on individual tools and point solutions.

Streit encourages agencies to resist that temptation and instead look at entire workflows. Rather than asking where AI can automate a single task, agencies should ask how a process might work differently from beginning to end.

That perspective matters because customers rarely evaluate one interaction in isolation. They evaluate the overall experience. Improving a single step is valuable, but if friction remains throughout the rest of the process, the customer experience remains unchanged.

The agencies that stand out over the next several years are likely to be those that focus on eliminating friction wherever it appears, whether the challenge involves client communications, renewals, submissions, servicing or internal operations.

ACN Coffee Chats are a chance to meet experts across the industry. Keep an eye on the event calendar for future happenings, or catch up on past Coffee Chats on demand.