A New Commercial Lines Market Demands a New Playbook

• August 3, 2026

By Kasey Connors

The commercial lines insurance market is changing again. But as carrier appetite shifts, the agencies best positioned for growth are adapting their workflows—not just relying on experience.

After years of navigating a hard market, independent agencies developed habits that helped them navigate less appetite and higher prices. Producers learned which carriers preferred certain classes of business, anticipated underwriting questions and relied heavily on experience and relationships to place accounts.

Those instincts still matter, but as the market softens and carrier appetite changes more frequently, change is needed because competitive advantage is moving beyond institutional knowledge. Now, the agencies positioned for growth are the ones with clean data, consistent workflows and technology that helps them respond in real time.

“Carriers can now adapt in real time and see where their targets need to be,” said Michael Rabinowitz, lead product manager at EZLynx.

It’s not enough to just have past experience as a guide. “You need to be looking at carriers in real time,” he says.

This reality represents a meaningful change for agencies. What worked during the hard market is becoming less reliable as underwriting strategies, once again, evolve quickly.

The challenge isn’t simply that the market is softening. It’s that change is accelerating. Carrier appetite is becoming more dynamic and agencies are expected to respond just as fast. That puts greater pressure on agencies. Workflows built around institutional knowledge alone can create unnecessary friction. From avoidable declinations to duplicate submissions and hours spent remarketing accounts.

It’s a theme that continues to surface in conversations around technology. Agencies that can quickly connect accurate data with the right market will be best positioned to capitalize on the opportunities created by a changing commercial market.

Technology alone, however, isn’t the answer. The foundation is data. How information is entered at the beginning of the submission process affects everything that follows. And data hygiene highlights another important reality: As agencies race to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), it can accelerate work, but it cannot compensate for inconsistent processes or poor-quality data. In many cases, it simply amplifies existing inefficiencies.

For example, a simple error, such as classifying an ice cream shop as an ice cream manufacturer, can trigger a chain reaction that affects carrier eligibility, product recommendations, coverage options and the customer experience.

“If you have disjointed workflows or if you’re piecing together your submission process, AI won’t be able to have a holistic view of what it is you’re doing,” Rabinowitz said.

The agencies seeing the greatest success in commercial growth are not necessarily those with the largest technology budgets. Instead, they have built repeatable processes that produce consistent outcomes regardless of which producer or account manager handles the submission. Standardized workflows create better data, better decisions and ultimately better customer experiences. Consistency positions agencies to take greater advantage of emerging technologies as they continue to mature.

Wondering where to begin? The opportunity may already exist within their own agency management system (AMS). “I would start where agents have the most data right now: their existing book of business,” Rabinowitz said.

Commercial accounts with coverage gaps or clients whose operations have evolved represent untapped growth opportunities that only require better visibility in their AMS—not entirely new prospecting efforts.

As commercial lines becomes increasingly dynamic, success will depend less on remembering how the market used to work and more on building operations that can adapt as it changes.

The agencies that thrive over the next several years won’t necessarily be those with the longest carrier relationships or the biggest technology budgets. They’ll be the ones that have invested in the fundamentals: quality data, connected workflows and consistent processes that enable people—and technology—to make smarter decisions, faster.

In a market where change is becoming the norm, operational agility may be the most valuable asset an independent agency can build.

 Kasey Connors is executive director of the Big “I” Agents Council for Technology (ACT).