As sourcing and VMO leaders in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors look ahead to the coming year, many are reimagining their approach to tech and ops sourcing to improve efficiency and strategic value.

We hosted this practitioner-only session, guided by Everest Group analysts,  exploring forward-thinking tech and ops priorities in BFSI, such as cost, AI adoption, and challenges ahead. This flexible forum is a prime opportunity to connect with the experts, raise questions, and gain valuable perspectives from your peers.

In this session, participants discussed how 2024 is wrapping up and their plans for 2025.

While the discussion is always guided by participant interests, expect to learn:

• What cost savings targets are set for next year
• How participants are factoring in the benefits and costs of AI
• How to plan for investment budgets and expected challenges

 Who attended? 

• Sourcing leaders from BFSI
• Category managers
• Vendor managers
• BFSI Tech and ops leaders (open to buy side only)

Leading global research firm Everest Group has released its first in-depth “leading” reports, with its Leading 50 Life & Annuities (L&A) Insurance Technology Providers 2024, Leading 50 Property & Casualty (P&C) Technology Providers 2024, and Leading 50 Core Banking Technology Providers 2024 reports all now available to read via Everest Group Leading 50 – Everest Group. 

Everest Group’s Leading 50 reports spotlight the top 50 technology providers across industries, based on proprietary analysis and direct provider data. These reports provide an objective view of tech provider landscapes, helping enterprises find leading platforms and allowing providers to benchmark and innovate effectively. 

Leading 50 Life & Annuities (L&A) Insurance Technology Providers 2024: 

The Everest Group Leading 50 Life & Annuity (L&A) Insurance Technology Providers report objectively analyzes the leading technology providers serving the L&A insurance, retirements, and pensions industry.  

The ranking is based on key parameters, including revenue generated from L&A insurance platforms, line-of-business coverage, value chain functions, and global client reach. It also examines recent investments in capability enhancements, product launches, and partnerships across the technology landscape. 

The report also offers valuable insights for L&A insurers looking to identify technology suppliers that excel in high-impact segments such as customer engagement, digital workflow management, underwriting assistance, pension administration, and distribution management. 

Ronak Doshi, partner at Everest Group, said: 

“BFSI enterprises value technology that helps drive velocity of change, while ensuring resiliency and cost efficiency of their business. Our Leading 50TM research lists technology providers helping enterprises finely balance the complexities across data, compliance, business operations, products, and services experience. The Leading 50 technology providers span across core and core augmentation use cases of process orchestration and infusing data and intelligence into BFSI business operations. Congratulations to all the providers featured and recognized in the three reports.” 

Leading 50 Property & Casualty (P&C) Technology Providers 2024: 

The Everest Group Leading 50 Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance Technology Providers report objectively analyzes the leading technology providers serving the P&C insurance industry. The ranking is based on key parameters, including revenue derived from P&C insurance-focused technology platforms/solutions, line-of-business coverage, value chain coverage, and client geographic coverage. It also examines recent investments in capability enhancements, product launches, and partnerships across the technology landscape. 

This report provides important insights into leading core and augmentation technology providers for P&C insurers, aiding in more informed provider selection and strategic technology purchase decisions.  

The report also recognizes technology providers across high-impact segments such as underwriting assistance, fraud detection and mitigation, distribution and agency management, digital experience platforms (including customer experience and relationship management), emerging risks intelligence and assessment – cyber and climate, intelligent workflow orchestration, risk intelligence for property and auto insurance, and standalone pricing and rating engine. It can also serve as a benchmarking tool for technology providers to measure themselves against peers.  

Leading 50 Core Banking Technology Providers 2024: 

The Everest Group Leading 50 Core Banking Technology Providers is a global ranking of the leading technology providers specializing in core banking platforms for the retail and commercial banking industry. The list is based on multiple objective parameters, including:​ 

Revenue and customer base: assesses the provider’s revenue generated specifically from core banking platforms (retail and commercial) and customer base​ 

Module coverage: evaluates the provider’s coverage across core banking components, encompassing retail and commercial modules​ 

Innovation and investment: analyzes the provider’s innovation capabilities, focusing on cloud-native solutions, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), AI integration, and strategic partnerships​  

Client geographic coverage: assesses the provider’s global reach across regions such as North America, the UK & Ireland, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific (APAC), and the Rest of the World (RoW)​ 

In addition to the rankings, Everest Group has recognized core banking technology providers across categories such as regional leaders and those serving credit unions. Recognition is based on publicly available data such as annual reports, investor announcements, and provider press releases, ensuring a comprehensive and objective evaluation.​ 

Generative AI (gen AI) has laid the groundwork, but Agentic AI is now the architect of the next frontier in enterprise transformation…

Introduction: 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries worldwide, and Agentic AI now represents the next wave of this revolution, with the potential to reshape complex, data-intensive sectors such as insurance. 

Agentic AI is an evolved form of AI that creates autonomous agents possessing advanced levels of autonomy, decision-making, and adaptability. The agents can execute tasks in their entirety through natural language-based inputs. They can set goals independently, plan accordingly, and act to accomplish the targets.  

It’s important to note that while Agentic AI shares some similarities with gen AI, which creates content based on user inputs, Agentic AI goes further by empowering systems to act and make decisions in real time. 

How Agentic AI is Transforming Insurance 

In the insurance industry, where efficient customer service, precise risk management, and timely claims processing are critical, Agentic AI holds immense promise. From underwriting and fraud detection to personalized customer service, Agentic AI offers insurers an unprecedented opportunity to streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and respond more effectively to evolving risks and regulatory demands. 

The insurance industry has long been marked by data-intensive processes, extensive documentation, and a reliance on skilled human judgment for underwriting, claims management, and customer engagement.  

Agentic AI is set to transform these foundational elements by enabling smarter decision-making, automating routine tasks, and enhancing predictive analytics. Insurers can leverage Agentic AI to achieve greater operational efficiency, improve customer satisfaction, and unlock cost savings. 

Through a multi-agent approach, Agentic AI can consolidate data from multiple sources, analyze it in real time, and make informed decisions faster and more accurately than traditional systems. This holistic view not only reduces human error but also allows insurance companies to personalize products and services, ultimately leading to higher customer loyalty and trust. 

Use Cases of Agentic AI in Insurance 

This chart categorizes Agentic AI use cases for insurance, into four quadrants based on potential impact and ease of adoption, as well as offering a roadmap for prioritizing AI implementation. 

• Quick wins (high impact, high ease of adoption): These include streamlined claims processing, such as fraud detection and prioritization of suspicious claims, and policy servicing, where AI autonomously renews policies and handles adjustments. Personalized marketing and lead generation also fall here, leveraging AI to target and retain customers effectively. These use cases deliver immediate value with minimal barriers, making them ideal for early adoption 

• Evaluate (high impact, low ease of adoption): High-potential applications like automated underwriting and complex claims adjudication require integrating vast datasets and advanced decision-making, making them challenging to implement. However, once adopted, they can drive transformative efficiencies and profitability 

• Educate (low impact, high ease of adoption): Easily implemented tasks like chatbots for customer service and automated record updates, streamline operations and free up human resources (HR). These serve as steppingstones to familiarize teams with AI capabilities 

• Wait (low impact, low ease of adoption): Complex and low-return tasks like rare claims adjudication or regulatory reporting face significant challenges and should be deprioritized 

By focusing on “quick wins” and strategically tackling “evaluate” areas, insurers can maximize Agentic AI’s value while gradually scaling adoption. 

Future Trends in Agentic AI for Insurance 

• Integration with Internet of Things (IoT): Combining Agentic AI with IoT devices like vehicle telematics and health monitors, allows real-time data collection for customizing insurance products, monitoring risks, and automating claims, creating responsive and personalized insurance solutions 

• Enhanced predictive analytics: Agentic AI enables precise claims forecasting, pricing, and customer behavior analysis, helping insurers anticipate claims, optimize pricing, and proactively engage with policyholders 

• AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants: Advanced AI-powered chatbots can handle complex customer queries, provide 24/7 support, and deliver personalized responses, improving customer satisfaction and reducing the workload on human agents 

• Evolving underwriting and claims: Agentic AI automates complex underwriting and claims tasks, analyzing vast datasets to make quick, accurate decisions, leading to faster, more effective customer service 

• Ethics and data privacy: As AI integrates further, insurers need strong frameworks to ensure decisions are transparent, fair, and compliant with regulations, balancing automation benefits with ethical and privacy safeguards 

Potential Challenges and Risks of Adopting Agentic AI 

• Technical and financial barriers: Implementing Agentic AI requires significant investment in technology and talent, and the integration with existing systems can be challenging. Insurers may face high upfront costs, ongoing maintenance expenses, and a prolonged timeline before realizing a return on investment 

• Data privacy and security: Given the volume of sensitive data handled by insurance companies, the risk of data breaches and compliance violations is substantial. As Agentic AI systems gain more autonomy, ensuring robust security protocols will be essential to safeguard customer data and maintain regulatory compliance 

• Ethical and operational risks: Agentic AI’s ability to operate autonomously raises ethical concerns around decision-making transparency and accountability. If AI agents act independently, insurers risk unintended actions that could impact customers or violate regulatory requirements 

Safeguarding Measures 

• Establish a strong governance model and clear guidelines: Implement robust governance frameworks that define ethical principles, operational boundaries, and accountability measures for Agentic AI. These models should address autonomy, transparency, and compliance to ensure AI systems operate responsibly, and align with organizational values and regulatory requirements 

• Implement comprehensive human oversight: Ensure regular audits and active human supervision of AI systems, especially in high-stakes scenarios, to validate decisions and prevent unintended outcomes. Human oversight acts as a critical checkpoint to maintain accountability and ethical compliance 

• Strengthen security measures: Build and enforce advanced security protocols, including multi-layered access controls, real-time monitoring, and regular vulnerability assessments. These measures are essential for protecting sensitive data, mitigating privacy risks, and ensuring regulatory adherence in Agentic AI implementations 

Conclusion  

Agentic AI presents transformative benefits for insurers, enabling them to enhance operational efficiency, detect fraud, personalize customer experiences, and improve risk assessment. By automating routine tasks and providing real-time decision-making capabilities, Agentic AI can help insurers achieve significant cost savings and operational improvements. 

Looking forward, Agentic AI is set to redefine the relationship between humans and machines in the insurance industry. As the technology evolves, it will usher in a new era of responsive, efficient, and customer-centered insurance services, paving the way for a future where AI and human expertise work together to deliver superior outcomes.  

In this landscape, insurers that embrace Agentic AI thoughtfully—balancing innovation with ethical oversight—will be well-positioned to lead the industry into the future. 

If you found this blog interesting, check out our blog focusing on Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI): From Science Fiction to Life Sciences Disruption | Blog – Everest Group, which delves deeper into the topic of Agentic AI and artificial intelligence.   

If you have any questions, would like to gain expertise in Agentic AI and artificial intelligence, or would like to reach out to discuss these topics in more depth, contact Sidhaant Nagpal (sidhaant.nagpal@everestgrp.com) and Abhimanyu Awasthi (abhimanyu.awasthi@everestgrp.com).  

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