The insurance industry must define common standards for securely connecting workplace systems to support future artificial intelligence workflows, JAVLN CEO David Leach says.  

Insurtechs still lack well-defined integration standards, while sectors such as healthcare have adopted them globally, helping to innovate at scale.

Insurance and healthcare share similarities around the need for data integration, Mr Leach says. Each deals with complex, data-heavy work, requires the exchange of sensitive information, and wants to improve efficiency and customer experience with technology.  

More insurance systems need to support public application programming interfaces (APIs) to achieve this. 

“The insurance industry has a chance to work together on API standardisation and we’re here to help make this happen,” said Mr Leach, who joined JAVLN’s board last year and took the CEO role in October. 

He notes many brokers still spend hours each day entering data into different, disconnected systems that do not work well together, even as cloud technology advances rapidly, “getting smarter and way more helpful”.

Mr Leach says data and integration are the “two speedbumps” stopping insurance brokers fulfilling their potential. Even brokerages that have modernised from legacy desktop software may still lack a fully integrated set-up.

“It’s not as exciting as the shiny new world of AI, but until this issue is tackled, brokers will be stuck using legacy systems and risk missing out on the new AI productivity paradigm.

“What I’ve learnt from my conversations is brokers know they need to move away from desktop systems, adopting cloud tech and automation to future-proof their business ... but in reality, it’s a tough job, especially for brokers who are already stretched for time.”