Scout InsurTech Spotlight with SG Galgali

Sudheendra “SG” Galgali is the Vice President, Head of Strategy, Innovation & Digital at American Modern, a widely recognized specialty insurance leader that delivers products and services for residential property – such as manufactured homes and specialty dwellings – and the recreational market, including boats, personal watercraft, classic cars and more. SG was interviewed by Deniz Isik, Sales Leader - Insurance Vertical at Newgen Software.

SG, how do you see the role of agents evolving in the next 3-5 years, and how can digital tools help agents manage through the changes?

“Agents have always been a trusted partner to policyholders, and I believe that role will become even more important in the coming years. Insurance can be quite complex as it’s highly regulated with a lot of legalese. Policyholders often need someone who can translate what they're getting into, what they need and how the legal language applies to them. From my perspective, agents have always been those trusted partners, and they will continue to be.

As a result, agents are going to need easier ways of doing business. Ease of use means faster processing times, the ability to make decisions quickly and also self-service options. The more digital tools we provide that give power and control to the agents, the better they're able to deliver the service they want to their customers. In fact, a 2023 McKinsey study talks about how customer experience is a strong predictor and driver of financial and organizational outcomes. Carriers that are considered customer experience leaders outperform their peers in shareholder value, premium growth and employee and agent satisfaction.”

What should carriers keep in mind as they deploy digital solutions? What role does Artificial Intelligence (AI) play in the digitization strategy for carriers?

“Today’s customers expect personalized advice, omnichannel experiences and seamless end-to-end journeys. But, insurance often falls short of these expectations, especially on the sales and distribution side. It becomes even more problematic in the P&C industry, where a carrier generally only has one or two key touch points each year with the policyholder.

To drive a better experience, we have to create personalization and convenience that makes it easier for the agent to work with us and with the policyholder. The agent can only be that trusted advisor that I spoke about earlier, if they can navigate the system easily.

Meanwhile, as our business grows, we have to ensure that experience is scalable. That’s where AI can play a significant role. While many strategy papers talk about AI in terms of new products and dynamic pricing, we are focusing it on efficiency and quality. We want to see immediate, tangible benefits especially in how we scale and also to focus our human talent on more meaningful work. Of course, we want to enable responsible and ethical AI usage with the human in the loop.

For instance, AI can support self-service capabilities and enable omnichannel experiences. Think of a policyholder who asks a question verbally and receives a clear, understandable response from a chatbot. If things get complex, the customer is seamlessly transferred to a human agent, and that agent can continue the conversation or direct the customer back to the bot for more information. The entire journey should feel seamless and tailored. That’s the kind of experience AI can help orchestrate, and it's where we see real value.”

How can agents add more value at the policyholder level, and what can carriers do to make it easier for agents to improve the experience?

“I recently attended a presentation by the Insurance Information Institute, and one of the key points highlighted was how little most consumers know about insurance. Many don’t understand why insurance is important or what they need. In fact, about 40 percent of insurance customers considered canceling their policy in the last year because they felt it wasn’t necessary or valuable. This is where agents can provide real value – through education. 

Policyholders are going to look to agents for sound advice, but it also helps if the customer is more educated themselves. Why is insurance necessary? What do they need? How do they use it in a way that benefits them? We as carriers need to support that education. We should be giving agents tools, materials and content to help them educate their customers. 

Then, when you think about climate change and the increasing severity of weather events, education also needs to include home fortification and mitigation efforts. It's about the full lifecycle: predict, prevent, mitigate, indemnify. Agents can help with all of that, and carriers can enable them to do it more effectively.”

What can carriers do to maintain relationships with distribution partners – from a tech as well as a non-tech perspective?

“We all know that over the last 18-24 months, the P&C industry has been in a hard market. Every carrier, including American Modern, had to make a lot of tough choices. But, what our agents told us that we did really well, was keeping them in the loop. We communicated constantly, gave them lead time and helped them prepare for the changes.

At last year’s Wholesale & Specialty Insurance Association conference, our partners told us that even though the changes were difficult, they appreciated how we kept them informed. That allowed them to better support their customers. 

On the tech side, we’ve implemented tools that help us communicate surgically and act efficiently. We’re using technology to enable better segmentation, faster reactions and better alignment with our partners. That’s how we maintain and strengthen those relationships.”

If we fast forward five years, what does success look like for American Modern in terms of innovation as it applies to your business model?

“In five years, success looks like a company that’s growing profitably, operating efficiently and delivering scalable, high-quality experiences through continuous innovation.

Sustainable growth requires scale. Over the past decade, we’ve transformed internally. We no longer have any legacy technology, and we didn’t stop there. We’re now in the midst of a digital transformation, adding digital capabilities for both policyholders and agents.

Going forward, we want to build on that foundation by leveraging emerging technologies like AI to drive personalization, enable omnichannel experiences and strengthen our relationships. It’s all about knowing our customer better, knowing our partner better and serving them both more effectively.”

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