Scout InsurTech Interview with Infer

Infer builds insurance-specific conversational AI voice agents that take work off the plates of licensed staff. Instead of sending customers through “press 1, press 2” IVR menus, Infer’s conversational voice AI agents hold full conversations, capture all the details for endorsements and quotes, and update systems just like a well-trained CSR would. By automating routine quote intake and policy servicing, Infer helps medium and large agencies answer more calls, clear service backlogs, and grow without adding headcount. Scout’s Chris Luiz sat down with Co-Founder and CEO Vaibhav Saxena to discuss how Infer is being used in the insurance world today.

Who are your clients?

Our clients are primarily property & casualty insurance agencies and brokerages. We work best with organizations that already feel the strain of growth, typically 50 to 1,000 employees. At that size, they have meaningful call volume, larger books of business, and service teams that are constantly juggling endorsements, certificates, and day-to-day questions.

That’s where a conversational AI voice agent makes a clear impact: answering every call, collecting information accurately, and logging work so licensed staff can focus on higher-value conversations. Most agencies start with a small, well-defined use case and expand quickly once they see that the agent can be trusted with real customers and real transactions.

We’ve also worked with regional carriers and Medicare Advantage agencies, but P&C agencies remain our most consistent and successful segment.

What does your product do? 

Infer builds conversational voice agents that handle policy servicing and quote intake for insurance organizations. Think of it as a digital CSR that can:

• Answer every inbound call immediately, without hold music.

• Have a natural, back-and-forth conversation instead of forcing “press 1, press 2” IVR menus.

• Capture all the details needed for routine changes, like adding a vehicle, updating a driver, or processing an address change.

• Document the interaction and push it into your existing systems, so your team doesn’t have to re-key information.

More than 80% of our workload is voice because most insureds still prefer to pick up the phone when they want something done on their policy. That’s also where agencies feel the most pain—missed calls, long hold times, and overwhelmed service staff.

As usage grew, we added email and text follow-ups so that, for example, a customer can receive a confirmation or a document link automatically. But voice remains the core of the product because that’s where we resolve the biggest bottleneck for agencies.

How much capital have you raised? 

We have raised 1.35 million dollars so far.

Was the company born from within or outside the industry? 

The company brings a technology-first background into the insurance industry, but everything we do is grounded in real P&C operations. We’ve built Infer hand-in-hand with agency teams who live this work every day - producers, CSRs, and operations leaders - and we’ve designed the product specifically around their servicing and quote workflows.

Personally, I’m also obtaining my insurance license to deepen that understanding even further. Our goal is not to “disrupt” agents, but to give them an always-on teammate that handles routine calls so licensed staff can focus on higher-value conversations.

What growth metrics have you accomplished over the last 12 months? 

Over the last several months, we’ve maintained strong, consistent growth, with revenue increasing by roughly 20% month-over-month. We have processed more than a million calls over the last year. 

We keep the metrics simple and very operational:

• Revenue growth – as a proxy for product-market fit and expanding usage at agencies.

• Live call volume handled by our AI agents – which tells us we’re taking real work off human desks.

We are not trying to grow at any cost. The focus is on sustainable, repeatable deployments with agencies where the conversational AI voice agent becomes part of day-to-day operations rather than a short-term “pilot.”

Within your domain, what is the current challenge that the industry is facing? 

The biggest challenge we see is service capacity.

In some cases customers often spend 30-45 minutes on hold for simple tasks:

• Adding or removing a vehicle

• Updating a mailing address

• Making a small change to coverage

• Asking a basic billing or ID card question

By the time they reach an agent, they may have already repeated their information to multiple people or IVR menus. It’s a poor experience and, over time, it hurts retention. On the agency side, leadership wants to grow the book and provide great service, but:

• Hiring and training licensed staff is difficult and expensive.

• Service teams are buried under routine work and documentation.

• Missed calls and long hold times are seen as “just the cost of doing business.”

Agencies need a way to increase service capacity and protect retention without continually adding headcount. That is the core operational problem we’re addressing.

How does Infer take a unique approach to providing value? 

We made a conscious decision to specialize in voice automation for insurance, rather than building a generic chatbot or IVR platform. A few things make our approach different:

1. It’s not an IVR: There are no “press 1, press 2” menus. Customers speak naturally, and the agent adapts. It listens, confirms key details, and handles a full conversation from start to finish.

2. Insurance-grade workflows: Our AI agents are trained specifically for insurance servicing and quote intake. They know how to gather information for common P&C changes, ask clarifying questions, and format notes so human staff can trust and act on them.

3. Tight integration with agency operations: Our conversational AI agent doesn’t live in a silo. It’s designed to work alongside your existing phone system and AMS/CRM, so information isn’t stuck in a separate portal.

4. Human control where it matters: For more complex situations or where judgment is required, the voice agent hands the call off to a human—often with a complete summary of what’s already been captured—so licensed staff can focus on advising, not data entry.

   
   

The result is that agencies can answer more calls, reduce wait times, and support more customers with the same number of people. In many cases, once a team sees the quality of calls and documentation, they expand usage quickly to additional lines of business or locations.

What inspired the team to start this company? 

The idea came from something that happened in my own home. I was living in Boston, and a friend who had just moved from Colorado needed to update his address with Progressive. I watched him spend about 45 minutes on the phone, giving the same information over and over as he was transferred across different departments. It made no sense to me. A customer should be able to share their information once and then let the company process the update within a reasonable time. Seeing how painful that experience was convinced me that the problem was real and worth solving.

Can you share any goals for the next 12 months? 

Our main goal is to work with at least 100 P&C agencies within the next eight-twelve months. We are a team of seven right now delivering superb product & customer service, and we can hire if we need to, but we want to stay efficient and focused in this new AI era.

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