OIP: Tech tailored for the E&S industry

Speaking to The Insurer TV on the sidelines of WSIA Annual Marketplace 2023 recently, OIP’s president and CEO Martina Seferovic explained how clients can utilise technology like artificial intelligence, and OIP Robotics – the firm’s specialty lines insurtech – to boost efficiency.

“AI, and technology in general, is a little scary. So that's what we hear a lot during this conference and in our conversations with clients. But it's only scary if it's not being understood.”

Seferovic said OIP works to humanise the technology experience, and explain its benefits, specifically for E&S industry clients. When clients are hesitant about tech’s place in their business, she reminds them how it has already solved many industry issues.

“Think about the risk modelling and predictions for all of the cat events. Would we be able to do that without technology? Not really. And also missed opportunities – do we know what we are writing? And do we know what we are not writing? This is how the new lines of coverage are being identified,” said Seferovic.

OIP employs software developers, data architects and data scientists that have insurance industry backgrounds, according to Seferovic.

The firm provides E&S-specific products and services, like customer relationship management, data scraping software, back office processing and custom-made agency management systems, while being mindful of what clients don’t need.

“For our customers, they don't need to pay for something that they're not going to use. They don't need a fancy system that is, you know, not applicable, that may be applicable to their customer or to their competitor or their client, but it's not applicable to them,” said Seferovic.

“We are very reactive. But what I would like us to be is [to] be proactive, and use technology to solve all the problems that we're talking about at this conference and over the past couple of months,” she added.

The company works with a diverse client base, from wholesalers, MGAs, retail agents and inspection companies to certified public accountants and insurtechs. Applying the right technology for each can eliminate tasks that bog down departments, added Shawnae Bentley, OIP’s vice president of global sales. Underwriters are one example:

“When you apply the technology… it does free them up to where they are able to be more creative and figure out, okay, it's not that I have to stop writing this entire class of business or line of business, but it's this characteristic that is adverse to it being profitable,” said Bentley.

Watch the 10-minute interview with OIP’s Martina Seferovic and Shawnae Bentley to hear more on: