- Key Insight: Learn how broker roles are shifting from benefits administrators to AI-driven strategic advisers.
- What's at Stake: Failure to adopt AI risks losing advisory relevance and employer clients.
- Supporting Data: 46% of brokers report client AI-insight requests; 58% report rising compliance demand.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
There's a growing disconnect
The resulting stalled promise of
One key finding is that while 46% of brokers say their clients are actively requesting insights on AI tools and automation trends, most report that they lack the infrastructure to adopt them. Also, as many as 58% of brokers see an increase in
"The broker plays a critical role not just being a trusted business adviser, but also in recommending technology, driving and supporting AI," says Jura Slattery, chief customer officer at isolved, noting that she spent more than a decade working at Marsh & McLennan Companies and Arthur J. Gallagher where she learned how to be a customer support and success leader.
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Compared with other industries, she says it's "a huge lift to innovate and drive AI" for insurance companies, which places broker somewhere in the middle of trying to support their customers while also working with insurers and benefits companies to drive success.
Noticing a flurry of M&A activity in the race to be at the forefront of AI, Slattery suggests that brokers connect their employer clients with unified or holistic systems that offer well-rounded employee experiences.
Game-changing capabilities
She describes embedding AI into
"To me, that innovation is really exciting to witness," she exclaims. "It helps ensure that their employees are taken care of and making the right decisions." The end result is that AI can help drive employee engagement, but also take better care of dependents when more appropriate coverages are chosen.
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Having 24/7 access obviously is a key selling point of AI. "We have customers that need us beyond office hours, and so the benefit of AI is that it can be available anytime they need it," she explains. Knowing the chat-enablement feature will only go so far, however, she says AI can always hand off to a live agent for further assistance as needed. The trick is making sure consumers are able to spot the correct icon to enable that conversation.
Embedding compliance components into AI is another area where the technology can elevate mundane or strategic functions. For example, team leaders who write a performance review may be guided to using certain language that avoids potential liability.
"It protects the company and that leader, but you also want to make sure that performance review is written in such a way that it resonates appropriately with the employee," she says.
AI also can help proactively identify and
Explaining that Gen Z workers will not stick around with an employer unless they feel like they belong and are recognized, she says AI-generated surveys can help drive employee engagement and identify whether or not they are satisfied in their job.
"There are predictive-analytic elements or indicators that AI can produce in the form of reports that will tell us whether managers are checking in a little bit late or productivity isn't quite as high," she explains.
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Slattery says there's still a lot to learn about this technology considering "we're all neophytes in the AI age." What's important is to ensure that a proper strategy to educate and upskill everyone on what AI is and how to use it in a compliant way with guardrails to prevent the technology from being used for nefarious purposes.
"Our world has just become so much more complicated," she observes, noting that "technology can help our HR partners stay out of trouble, run their business properly and be predictive."
