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AI helps excess and surplus underwriters clear guideline checks faster
More submission volume in recent years, partly linked to wildfire activity in California and the West Coast, has driven demand for quicker guideline scanning.
Artificial intelligence is changing how excess and surplus underwriters check whether a risk fits a carrier’s guidelines, primarily by speeding up the underwriting workflow rather than taking over rate-setting, according to Insurance Business.
Kirk Schneider, a personal lines underwriter and broker at Specialty Program Group (SPG Wholesale), said submission volume has risen sharply in recent years, helped by wildfire activity across California and the West Coast that has pushed more business into the E&S market.
He said tools such as Claude can cut through hundreds of pages of carrier guidelines in seconds instead of hours, allowing him to move from submission to a fit-or-no-fit answer more quickly. While he described using guideline-driven tools such as Risk Meter and MapRisk to gauge where the market stands, he said carriers still control the underlying actuarial pricing.
Schneider also cautioned that increased carrier use of their own AI tools to audit accounts may narrow underwriting flexibility and raise scrutiny. He argued AI is unlikely to eliminate human accountability or customer relationships, saying a person still has to answer when a risk goes bad, even after proper underwriting.