Brokers dominate AI talks in Barcelona

Technology has changed almost every role in insurance, but the impact has not been uniform across the sector. While some departments have adopted digital tools rapidly, others have lagged behind, creating a patchwork of efficiency within organizations. This uneven progress was a focal point at ITC Barcelona, where industry professionals gathered to discuss the practical realities of insurance technology.

Holm Schimanski, tigerlab’s partner and chief AI officer, addressed this disparity directly during a session focused on implementation. He did not speak in hypotheticals.

Instead, the expert shared lessons from a live, multi-country broker management system rollout. The presentation provided a look at how software functions when deployed across borders rather than in a controlled test environment.

The Reality of Live Rollouts

Deploying a broker management system is a significant undertaking for any firm. Doing so across multiple countries adds layers of complexity involving different regulatory frameworks and languages. The rollout discussed by Schimanski is currently active, meaning the platforms are handling real client data and transactions.

Live environments are unforgiving.

They expose integration issues that simulations often miss. The tigerlab executive used these examples to illustrate where technology succeeds and where it struggles under pressure. For the audience, the value lay in seeing the gap between the promise of software and its daily operation.

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In practice, launching a live system across multiple jurisdictions forces brokers to standardize their data entry methods in ways that isolated software does not. This standardization is often the hidden hurdle in digital transformation, as it requires changing human behavior alongside upgrading technical infrastructure.

When done correctly, however, it creates a foundation where automation can actually function reliably rather than being a constant source of error.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence

As the chief AI officer, Schimanski connects these operational deployments to the broader capabilities of artificial intelligence. The session highlighted that AI is not a standalone solution but a component that relies on the quality of the underlying systems. If the broker management system is fragmented or incomplete, AI tools cannot function effectively.

The discussion at ITC Barcelona moved away from the idea of AI as a futuristic concept.

It focused on utility. The lessons from the multi-country rollout suggest that successful AI integration depends on the boring work of data management and system architecture.

Technology has undoubtedly changed how the insurance sector operates. However, the experiences shared in Barcelona indicate that the “how” matters more than the “what.” The industry is moving past the phase of buying technology for technology’s sake and is now demanding that tools deliver measurable results in complex, live environments.