If you were unable to take part in Week of Webinars 2023 (WOW), and more specifically the “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence” course that I hosted, I want to share some highlights with you. (Part I of my overview appeared in September 2023 in the Tech blog category.)
 
As I mentioned before, Artificial Intelligence – which is often abbreviated as AI – is growing by leaps and bounds. An article in Forbes noted Grand View Research’s forecast more than 37% annually growth of AI during the next seven years. An Accenture study found insurers could save up to $7 billion over 18 months using AI-driven technologies to streamline processes.
 
While there is increasing concern about how AI could affect employment, my view is that AI will likely change the roles of some in today’s workforce. However, it will not replace a substantial number of jobs. The need for insurance professionals will continue. AI will level the playing field, but it may also create new jobs across a range of roles. (Read more in McKinsey’s report.)
 
I am going to pick up where I left off in my last presentation summary post. I’ll share AI tools designed to help you in your everyday activities. This article focuses on Calendar Management, In-Box Management, Meeting Management, Data Organization, Lead Generation, and some so-called No Code tools.

Calendar Management

There are three excellent resources that can help you with your Calendar Management. I know this is a challenging area for many, including myself. It can get very nutty. I sometimes get triple-booked for things. On top of that, I have tasks for the day. For example, did I reach out to a broker or a client to follow up on something? Did I have this conversation that I wanted to have? Did I submit this transaction to a carrier on schedule?
 
There are three excellent AI tools that can help with your calendar management in different ways:

• Reclaim.ai’s biggest features are around smart time blocking, automatic task planning/management, and managing team schedules. It also offers a suite of features including integrations with other communication and task tools.
• Clara from Claralabs.com is an AI assistant focused on scheduling for you – all via copying Clara in an email. This tool does not have as many extras as other tools in the space, but it essentially functions as a scheduling assistant, using your calendar to converse with others to schedule meetings and send invitations.
• UseMotion.com features automatic schedule building based on tasks, task prioritization and optimization, and deadline tracking. Its Meeting Assistant features make scheduling meetings simple with scheduling links auto generated to send to contacts based on your preferred times as well as automatically drafted emails with your available times. It can even tell you if you’re overbooked, which happens for me from time to time.

These are just the introductory applications; more are expected. Microsoft has announced that it is going to be incorporating Copilot into Outlook, which will revolutionize email.

In-Box Management

We need tools now that can help us with managing all of the messages coming into our in-boxes.

• Shortwave.com is one of the most powerful AI in-box management tools I have found. With its Smart Summaries feature, users can quickly summarize long emails and receive AI-generated key points. Shortwave also allows users to send these summaries to others if they are not already using the tool.
• Microsoft’s Copilot for Outlook is not widely released yet, but it essentially looks like the ultimate AI-powered Outlook designed for business and enterprise users already leveraging Microsoft tools for their businesses. You can expect updates in the future.

 

Meeting Management

Meeting Management is something we all have to deal with – especially with so many folks working remotely. Two tools that you can invite into your meetings are available to help. They will give you a record of the meeting, assign tasks, and more.

• Vowel transcribes and then automatically takes meeting notes and pulls out action items. You can search prior meetings to get context on calls you weren’t in or to recall specific decisions. Vowel also integrates with Zapier. This lets you automate secondary processes to meetings like automation email follow-up drafting, and automatically sending follow-up tasks to task management software like ClickUp or Asana.
• Otter.ai is an AI meeting assistance that offers a range of features like recorded audio, transcription, automatic meeting notes, automatic slide capture, and generated summaries.

 

Data Organization

One of the biggest use cases for AI is data organization. It’s taking data from different resources, compiling it, and presenting it in a useful format. Using it to compare contracts is extremely helpful. You can copy materials from different PDFs and have a conversation with the AI engine about what you need to focus on. You can ask it to develop a series of bullet points from a large volume of data – making it easier for you to understand and compare information.
 
Three useful data organization tools to consider are:

• Get.Mem.AI’s best feature is that it is available where and when you’re gathering information (i.e., via text, mobile app, desktop, directly with Google, and other productivity tools like

Gmail and Gcal). Mem’s Smart Search feature shows similarities and connections between documents and tasks to users, suggesting where information can be connected. Smart Write and Smart Edit features, which offer text generation tasks like summarization and editing of existing, are coming soon.

• Collato.com is essentially super-powered business search. It allows users to connect files or entire knowledge bases to Collato and find answers instantly across the organization’s information. With a robust data privacy policy, users can trust that data is secure.
• Notion.so AI is a feature within Notion’s base offering that provides users with language-based tasks directly within the Notion workspace, allowing them to write, summarize, and edit based on their own notes and data already within Notion.

 

Lead Generation

AI is also useful when it comes to lead generation – a vital topic for health insurance brokers. Three tools are now available and have a huge amount of promise for you:

• Seamless.ai is an AI-powered tool that focuses on B2B leads sourcing and information gathering. It leverages AI to crawl through the web in real time and find, verify, and validate contract data (email addresses, cell phone numbers, direct dials, etc.). It integrates directly with Salesforce and Zapier and also has a data enrichment process to build and keep your list up to date. It has Pitch intelligence feature that shows your prospect’s Tech Stack. But they’re not leveraging generative AI as much as traditional AI methods such as web crawling, predicting, and NLP (natural language processing).
• Qualifier.ai is a tool for automatically finding leads and their contact information. It utilizes AI to search and leads that match specific criteria input by the company, such as industry, location, and number of employees. Once a lead is found, Qualifier doesn’t help with outreach. It would be great if it did. Qualifier also does not appear to use generative AI, but rather traditional AI for predictive qualification.
• Kalendar.ai leverages generative AI to source leads and facilitate personalized outreach. It sources potential leads from public data and uses GPT to augment those leads before businesses can sign up and get automatically matched with potentially qualified leads. Once a match is made, personal emails are sent to those leads, using GPT. It integrates with existing sales and customer relationship management tools.

AI, in this context, will personalize your communications to prospects. As I mentioned before, it’s important to remember that AI will only do about 80% of the work for you. You still have to finesse your message.
 
Rover AI is another platform that can provide an end-to-end health care data retrieval solution, predictive analytics, and a marketplace for small fully insured employees to shop for alternative and affordable health plan options for employees and their families. By secure collecting and carefully analyzing health care data from group members, Rover AI gives employers the opportunity to make informed, affordable health care decisions that improve everyone’s bottom line.

No Code Tools

You don’t have to know code to get started with AI. The following tools are a terrific way to get your feet wet with this evolving tech:

• Hubble: The simplest option to bring your AI idea to life is to use a no-code app builder. One in particular that we’ve seen users have great success with is Hubble. No code products like Hubble focus on letting users create customized interfaces to engage with large language models for a specific use case.
• Bubble: Another great, but slightly more involved option is to build a no-/low-code web app and bring in AI separately. This option is best for adopters whose ideas are a but too complex for the rigidity of no-code builders (which do lack significant customizability, but those who do not want to develop an entire app. Bubble is a tool that focuses on customization and design with functionality easily addable.
• Retool: In addition to Bubble, another great no-/low-code tool is Retool. This is a web app builder primarily aimed toward quickly developing functional, internal tools. While Retool offers significantly less visual customization, users are instead given more structure and out-of-the-box functionalities for developing their idea.

Major organizations are beginning to embrace AI tools to increase efficiency. More are expected in the months and years ahead. Don’t be afraid to begin to check out AI and decide how the programs and platforms I’ve mentioned in my two articles can help you and your business. Be sure to watch for other presentations on AI that my colleagues and I may be doing in 2024.
 
Also consider these additional links to Forbes articles discussing AI:

• 24 Top AI Statistics and Trends in 2023
• Beyond the Hype: What You Really Need to Know About AI in 2023
• The Future of Artificial Intelligence
• The Future of AI: 5 Things to Expect in the Next 10 Years
• Advantages of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 2023

 
About the Author: Scott Diehl is Vice President of Product and Digital Strategy at the Word & Brown General Agency. He has more than 23 years of experience in the insurance industry, including work as an independent broker before joining Word & Brown as a Regional Sales Manager in 2004.
 
Editor’s Note: To access Scott’s complete WOW presentation, follow this link. No CE Credit is available for online viewing of recording.