Underwriters Don't Need Copilots, They Need Autopilot

We sat next to an underwriter last month watching her use Google Street View. She was measuring the distance from a commercial building to the nearest fire hydrant.

Fifteen minutes of zooming in, scrolling down the street, trying to estimate footage. She needed it to complete a submission to a carrier. The broker hadn’t included it. The insured didn’t know. So she was doing it herself.

Her company had just bought an AI tool to make her more productive.

The AI helped her write emails faster. Draft summaries quicker. Fill forms with fewer clicks. And she was more productive, by that measure. Each individual task took less time.

But she was still working until 7pm most nights. She’d just gotten faster at work that shouldn’t exist.

Making a bad process faster doesn’t fix it. It’s like optimizing your technique for bailing water from a leaking boat. Sure, you’re bailing more efficiently now. But you’re still bailing.

Why was she writing 47 emails yesterday? Most were asking brokers for missing information. Or following up with carriers who hadn’t responded. Or clarifying things that were unclear in the original submission. Or, apparently, providing fire hydrant distances that nobody bothered to collect.

Every AI tool we’ve seen sold to underwriters follows this model. It sits beside you and helps. You’re still opening the emails. Still copying the data. Still sending the follow-ups. Still tracking every status. You’re just slightly faster at each step.

Which means you can do more of them. Great.

What Autopilot Actually Looks Like

You open Underflow in the morning. There’s a card for ABC Manufacturing. $2M property risk, metal fabrication in Minneapolis. Eight years operating, no losses. Modern building, sprinklers, standard welding plus a spray painting booth with ventilation. Distance to nearest hydrant: 120 feet.

Risk scored. Three carriers ranked by appetite and pricing. Three buttons: Decline, Review Later, Approve.

That’s it. You didn’t extract any of this. Didn’t look up the business. Didn’t research carrier appetites. Didn’t hunt for the fire hydrant. You read a card and made a judgment call.

Thirty seconds.

How Autopilot Gets Information

Traditional underwriting software can’t do this because it doesn’t control the pipeline. It receives whatever the broker sends. Sometimes complete, usually not. It can’t follow up. Can’t ask clarifying questions. Can’t request photos or documentation. Just processes whatever arrives.

We built something different. Our agent starts by pulling everything it can find publicly. Property records. Building characteristics. Distance to fire stations. Historical data on the location. Most of what used to require manual research gets populated automatically.

Then it looks at what carriers actually need for this type of risk. Not generic fields on a form. Specific things. We’ve processed thousands of submissions. Our agent knows that for metal fabrication risks, Hartford always asks about the spray painting setup. That Travelers wants to know about welding certifications. That Chubb cares whether the building has a monitored fire alarm.

It also knows what information brokers typically forget to include. And for many of those gaps, it knows what the answer usually is based on similar risks. Building age and construction type? Already pulled from property rolls. Fire hydrant distance? Calculated automatically. Sprinkler inspection date? Our agent checks if it’s in a previous submission for this insured.

For everything else, we have the magic link. Retail brokers send it to their insureds. When the insured opens it, they describe their operations in plain language. “We do metal fabrication: welding, cutting, some spray painting.”

Our agent already knows to ask about the painting setup. Not because it asks about everything, but because Hartford is going to want that detail and we don’t have it yet. The insured shoots a quick video on their phone. Shows the booth, the ventilation, how they do it.

That video becomes structured data. Enclosed booth: yes. Ventilation: adequate. Coatings: water-based. The underwriter never watches the video. They just see “spray painting operations with enclosed booth” on the risk card, already scored as green or yellow depending on which carriers they’re considering.

The underwriter is making decisions. Our agent is gathering what’s needed to make those decisions. Different jobs.

How Autopilot Coordinates

Say you click Approve and select Hartford. What happens?

Our agent generates the ACORD forms. Fills them correctly. Submits through Hartford’s portal. Emails the broker that it’s out for quote. Sets up tracking.

You made one decision. Everything downstream executes automatically.

Two days later Hartford comes back with questions about the sprinkler system. In the old world, you’d email the broker. The broker would email the insured. The insured would try to find their inspection report. Email it to the broker. Broker forwards it to you. You read it, extract what Hartford asked for, format it properly, send it back to Hartford. Update your tracking.

That’s six people touching this, minimum.

Here’s what actually happens: Our agent sends the retail broker a whitelabeled link to forward to their insured. “Hartford needs details about your fire suppression system.” The insured uploads their inspection report. Our agent extracts what Hartford asked for. Formats it. Sends it back. Updates your tracking card.

You see a notification: “Hartford follow-up complete.”

You never touched it. The entire negotiation happened while you were working on other decisions. You’ll see Hartford again when they come back with a quote. Then you get another card: “Hartford quoted $4,200 annual premium. Accept or counter?”

That’s the only time you need to think about Hartford.

Post-Binding on Autopilot

Policy binds with standard subjectivities. Signed application required within 30 days.

Copilot tools help you track this. Better reminders. Cleaner dashboards. You still have to chase it down. Email the broker. Wait. Follow up. Wait more. Finally get the signed application. Review it. Clear the subjectivity. Update your files.

Or our agent just does it. Sends the retail broker a link to forward to their insured: “Your policy needs a signed application.” They complete and upload it. Our agent extracts the data, compares to what was underwritten, checks for material changes. Generates a decision card: “Signed application received. Information matches quote. Material change: No. Approve to clear subjectivity.”

One click. Subjectivity cleared. Carrier notified. Retail broker can now issue the certificate.

You made a decision. Everything else ran automatically.

We think the distinction is simple. Copilot helps you fly the plane. Autopilot flies the plane and asks if you want to change course.

For someone who’s drowning in coordination work, who’s spending their day measuring distances on Google Street View instead of underwriting risk, that distinction is everything.