Artificial Labs (Artificial), a provider of digital brokerage and underwriting technology to specialty and commercial insurance companies, has launched AgLabs, a new division dedicated to research and product innovation.
AgLabs will focus on the future of specialty insurance, examining how agent artificial intelligence (AI) can transform interactions across the market. The unit combines long-term research with immediately deployable practical tools to enable brokers and underwriters to streamline workflows immediately while enabling agent-to-agent (A2A) coordination over time.
A2A capabilities allow broker and underwriter agents to autonomously share, review and refine information within strictly defined parameters while retaining human authority over the final decision. The program focuses on the stages of risk data transmission, interpretation, standardization and negotiation.
Although insurance companies have invested heavily in digital systems over the years, this part of the process still relies heavily on email and manual processing, leading to delays and inefficiencies. According to original research conducted by AgLabs among London market professionals, 88% of broker submissions reach underwriters without being fully decision-ready.
“AgLabs was built for a human-driven market. It is designed to remove administrative friction that consumes time and slows down decision-making,” commented David King, co-founder of Artificial Labs.
“Insurance professionals are compensated for their expertise, not for hunting for lost data in endless email chains. AgLabs puts people at the center of the process while removing the friction that slows the market. Our agents can do the legwork of coordination and clarification in the background, but the decision-making and responsibility always lies with the human.”
These agents are designed to function across organizational boundaries. Each operates on behalf of a specific broker or underwriter, subject to that firm’s rules, data frameworks and operating environment. With autonomous communications, brokers and underwriter agents can resolve routine inquiries and information gaps, and escalate results for human review and sign-off when needed.
Alexis Renaudin, head of AgLabs, added: “Most AI initiatives in insurance stop at making individuals faster. AgLabs is focused on making markets faster.”
Renaudin continued: “We achieved this by initially fixing the pre-bound interaction layer where brokers and underwriters were wasting time converting formats, validating data and tracking documents. Over time this will become a 24/7 Laying the foundation for an agency insurance ecosystem where day-to-day market interactions occur continuously and humans only participate where judgment is required, this approach supports a pragmatic transition to faster, always-on large-scale markets without forcing disruptive change or removing people from the loop.”
Other survey data underscores the scale of the problem. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of complex risks required at least six communications via email or phone before a quote could be issued. Meanwhile, 81% of teams say they spend too much time manually collecting and correcting data rather than applying their expert insights.
