The Future of Broking - Why Humanity, Not Technology, Will Decide Who Wins

At the BIBA Conference, I participated in a lively seminar on “The Value of an Insurance Broker.” We had underwriters, brokers, Insurtech founders, and even a data scientist in the room. Yet, every story that resonated with the audience had one common thread: people remember brokers for how we make them feel, not how quickly we can generate a quote.

AI Is Inevitable - Commoditisation Is Not

There is no point pretending artificial intelligence won’t streamline policy wording, triage claims or even negotiate standard placements. It will, and that’s a good thing. The real danger isn’t AI itself; it’s what happens if we allow the efficiency it delivers to squeeze the human moments out of the process. When broking becomes nothing more than a sequence of clicks, an algorithm should replace us. Our job is to make sure it never gets that boring.

Augmented, Not Automated, Intelligence

Think of today’s tools as “augmented intelligence.” They clear the administrative fog so we can concentrate on empathy, creativity, and judgment, which clients value. Use the bot for the data-crunching; spend the saved minutes ringing a customer who’s just had a kitchen fire or rewriting a policy schedule, so it finally makes sense to a café owner. That’s differentiation; no price comparison site can mimic it.

The Trust Equation: Four Numbers That Keep You Relevant

Charles Green’s Trust Equation (read his book The Trusted Advisor) gives us a handy way to check whether we’re behaving like the brokers of the future:

• Credibility - Do I speak enough that my client’s grandma would understand?
• Reliability - Do I always call back when I said I would?
• Intimacy - Have I listened more than I talked today?
• Self-orientation (kept low) - Would I buy this recommendation for my business?

Score high on the first three and keep the last one low, and you become indispensable, no matter how smart the machines get.

Playing the Infinite Game

Simon Sinek reminds us in “The Infinite Game” that business is not a season but an endless test match. Brokers who chase this quarter’s rate cut will eventually lose to a cheaper algorithm. Brokers who invest in lifetime trust build a moat no robot can cross. Your scoreboard is simple: renewals without tender, unsolicited referrals, and the number of clients who ring you first when something frightening happens.

Three Things to Start Tomorrow

1. Listen like a human, not a form. Replace one scripted question with: “What worries you most about your business right now?”
   
   
2. Show up at the claim’s moment. A ninety-second call during a claim is remembered for years and costs nothing.
   
   
3. Turn insight into outreach. You already sit on more market data than most clients could read. Email one personalised nugget a month to your top twenty accounts, an Account-Based Marketing habit that proves relevance without spamming.

Measure What Matters

If you want behaviour to stick, measure it. Track:

• Time to first proactive contact after a claim is logged
• Client NPS before renewal discussions start
• Percentage of communications that include a customised insight

Those numbers focus the team on actions that compound trust rather than erode margin.
Technology will continue to accelerate. The question is whether we let it diminish us or empower us. If we embrace AI as the back-office muscle that frees our front-of-brain humanity, we’ll still be here decades from now, winning the infinite game, one authentic conversation at a time.