Salesforce Inc. said today it’s bringing artificial intelligence technology into the insurance industry vertical with a new platform called Financial Services Cloud for Insurance Brokerages, with tools for automating manual tasks such as commission processing and policy servicing.

The new platform will become generally available in February 2025. It’s built atop Salesforce’s flagship customer relationship management platform and designed to help account managers and others at insurance brokerages deepen their relationships with existing clients. One way it does this is by expediting and improving processes around annual insurance plan renewals. It can also help to identify coverage gaps in customer’s policies.

According to Salesforce, Financial Services Cloud for Insurance Brokerages can help to streamline or accelerate various existing processes for insurance sector clients. For instance, the platform’s integrated AI can leverage data from the Salesforce Data Cloud to build up more compelling profiles of each client, unifying all of the relevant structured and unstructured information pertaining to each one.

That information might include the client’s policy details, claims history and previous interactions with the customer. The AI works by analyzing this data to try to understand patterns and trends that might reveal where the client is missing coverage, or areas in which they can prioritize new prospects.

The Commissions Management module helps with managing commission splits, which is a complex process that involves allocating a portion of the commission relating to a new client to one or more producers. Salesforce makes it easy to set up a library of the rules that define how these commissions should be split between producers in various situations, for instance if a broker leaves the company or if there’s an acquisition.

Other capabilities pertain to employee benefits servicing. Salesforce said Financial Services Cloud for Insurance Brokerages can help with the renewal of employees’ benefits plans renewals. It does that by consolidating plan tracking data into a single platform, and will also provide recommendations on possible plan adjustments or additional coverage options for clients exploring a plan renewal.

In addition, it helps provide a consolidated view of a client’s property details and their policy details across multiple insurers, so brokers can provide more personalized support. A brokerage focused on maritime insurance would be able to track any changes in a client’s inventory of vessels and captain’s credentials, so they can be more proactive in helping them as they look to expand their business operations or add to their fleet.

Salesforce said the biggest advantage it’s offering users is consolidation. The company points out that most insurance brokerages typically use three or more computer systems to engage with their clients. That leads to fragmented experiences and disconnected workflows, with client data spread across multiple sites where it effectively becomes useless.

By consolidating everything into a single workflow, Salesforce can combine traditional CRM with real-time data and AI. That in turn helps insurers improve the efficiency of their operations, provide better coverage to clients and reduce their operational expenses.

Eran Agrios, Salesforce’s senior vice president and general manager of financial services, said most insurers are bogged down by using multiple platforms, and claims their employees are tired of constantly switching between them.

“Financial Services Cloud for Insurance Brokerages gives brokers, producers and account managers the tools needed to enhance collaboration and automate previously labor-intensive tasks,” Agrios said. “It offers a holistic view of clients’ journeys to ultimately help them build deeper and more meaningful client relationships.”

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