ACT Ecosystem Exchange on AI, Connectivity and Change

• October 28, 2026

By JP Pritchard

Insurance distribution isn’t short on technology. Tools to cut duplicate work, speed up service and put artificial intelligence (AI) to work largely exist today. The harder part is getting people, processes and partners to use them well and to make them work together across organizations.

That message surfaced again and again at the Big “I” Agents Council for Technology (ACT) Ecosystem Exchange, held in Washington, D.C., at Ivans Connect at Applied Net 2026. The ACT Ecosystem Exchange brought every seat in the independent insurance channel into one room: agencies, carriers, technology providers and standards organizations.

The goal was to pinpoint the friction that matters most, understand how it looks from each seat and identify where the industry should move forward together. What attendees shared will also help shape ACT’s direction for 2027.

The Exchange opened with a panel moderated by ACT Executive Director Kasey Connors, featuring Traci Taylor, chief operating officer of Shafer Insurance Agency; Kristi Metsch, agency technology liaison at The Cincinnati Insurance Companies; Bob Whitis, chief operating officer of BrightFire; and Jason Hoeppner, head of enterprise implementations and integrations at Cara.

The discussion set up the day’s themes: balancing the pace of change against the capacity to absorb it, rising customer expectations for speed and convenience, where AI is changing work fastest, how AI raises the stakes on data governance and trust, and where connectivity still breaks down.

Attendees then moved into roundtables, each organized around one of three topics: AI across the ecosystem; connected distribution; and change, capacity and customer expectations.  

Here are 5 of the major themes that emerged across the roundtable discussions:

1) Agencies absorb much of the friction. Agent attendees described entering the same information in multiple systems, touching a single renewal several times and juggling carrier differences in workflows, coverage codes and download timing. Commercial lines submissions came up as a persistent pain point.

The effects don’t stop at the agency. Customers ultimately feel the delays, and ease of doing business increasingly influences carrier selection.

2) Adoption is the sticking point. A common view was that many solutions already exist, but the challenges are adoption, standardization and training. As one attendee put it, “None of my salespeople care about the standards.”

The most consistent recommendation was that training cannot be one-and-done. Roundtable participants also stressed visible leadership support, a clear answer to “What’s in it for me?” and the advice to “address the fear first.”

Incentives help, too. “We chose an incentive approach with a $500 bonus for adoption—and it worked,” one participant said, while others cited gamification and recognition.

3) AI is delivering, but verification and governance are essential. The AI-focused roundtables pointed to legitimate gains from AI in commission reconciliation, document management, policy reviews, quote comparisons and data entry. They also said governance is lagging, with employees using AI tools before formal policies exist. Many agencies lack the IT or cybersecurity resources to vet a fast-growing field of vendors.

One table summed up its key action in a single word: “Verification.” The group warned that AI can create a false sense of confidence when no one checks its output. Another recurring question was how to keep people thinking critically while still capturing AI’s benefits.

Workforce questions loomed as well. “Service roles are going to change,” one participant noted.

4) The customer remains the goal. Across tables, attendees cautioned against treating efficiency only as cost savings. They discussed reinvesting time savings into more proactive customer service and keeping human interaction where it adds value. In one participant’s words, “AI use should strengthen relationships rather than replace them.”

5) Positive progress has been made. The conversation wasn’t only about problems. The connectivity-focused tables credited personal lines standards, rating and prefill, downloads and uploads, and direct bill commission processes as genuine progress. They also said solutions improve when agencies give feedback and providers listen.

Future gains will depend less on new tools than on consistency, ongoing training and closer collaboration across the ecosystem.

ACT will compile the notes from the Ecosystem Exchange into its upcoming Roundtable Report, which will take a deeper look at these findings and provide guidance and next steps for agencies looking to improve their technology strategy in the coming year.

To keep the conversation going, explore ACT’s free resources and join an ACT work group to take part in discussions like these throughout the year.

A Special Thank You

ACT thanks the panelists and moderators who gave their time and expertise to make the Ecosystem Exchange possible.

Panelists: Jason Hoeppner, Cara; Kristi Metsch, The Cincinnati Insurance Companies; Traci Taylor, Shafer Insurance Agency; and Bob Whitis, BrightFire.

Moderators: Angela Adams, Angela Adams Consulting; Manny Barbosa and Shannon Chatman, Liberty Mutual Insurance; Brett Cleveringa, Zywave; Ilya Filipov, Cogneesol; Angela Ford, Big I Texas; Jerry Fox, HawkSoft; Jon Gorman, NetVU; Anshu Jain, Outmarket AI; Kristi Metsch, The Cincinnati Insurance Companies; Michelle Middleton, Fall Line Specialty; Gina Sapp, Encova; Alvito Vaz, ID Federation; and Vic Yeh, Cara.

Thank you to the Ivans and Applied Carrier teams for making the ACT Ecosystem Exchange part of their programming.

JP Pritchard is program manager of the Agents Council for Technology (ACT).