Purviance: Al is helping Amwins access the small business market

AI is making small business insurance more efficient by refining data handling processes, according to Amwins CEO Scott Purviance.

"Small businesses are one area that we've invested heavily in. I think we have the best small business platform for our internal underwriters to do business. When it comes to speed of execution and efficiency, it's providing our retail clients with choice and options, even for small accounts," said Purviance.

“We continue to invest in our small business platform. We are using AI to make the process more efficient and end up with better data.

“We certainly don't think AI will replace the human element, judgement, or relationships, so we're not at all worried about that. But we think we can leverage it to make our team even better,” he added.

Speaking to The Insurer TV at this year’s WSIA conference, Purviance also emphasised that Amwins, despite making three acquisitions this year, remains focused on organic growth.

“We really pivoted probably five or six years ago to really focus on organic growth. Listen, M&A was an important part of our history. We wouldn't be where we are today without the partnerships and some of the firms we've acquired over that time period. But at our scale, there's not as many opportunities that actually move the needle.

“We've never set an M&A target going into a year. If you'd look at 2023, we didn't do any deals. This year we've done three so far, it's been pretty opportunistic over the last couple months.”

Earlier this year, Marsh began placing risks through its new wholesale platform, Victor Access. While some in the E&S space have expressed concerns that retail giants may aim to become third-party wholesalers, Purviance remains unconcerned about the prospect of retail brokers encroaching on the wholesale market.

“Marsh is a big firm with a huge balance sheet. I think they can incrementally make progress with Victor Access and build something they can use internally. But I don’t think their ambition is to build a third-party wholesaler,” said Purviance.

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