Applied acquires AI insurance company

Insurance tech vendor Applied Systems has acquired Planck, an artificial intelligence (AI) company for commercial insurance.

The strategic acquisition will “significantly expand and accelerate the delivery of AI capabilities across Applied’s global product portfolio,” Applied said in a press release announcing the deal last week.

As one of the world’s largest providers of agency and brokerage management systems, Applied serves customers throughout Canada, the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The acquisition will help Applied discover how AI can reduce the inefficiencies of redundant tasks and unlock the value of data to create a more accurate and holistic view of business to fuel growth, the vendor says in a FAQ document. This will enable the building of solutions for customers “that improve the speed and quality of critical business processes spanning marketing, sales, underwriting, renewals, servicing and advisory services.”

Steve Whitelaw, senior vice president and general manager at Applied Systems Canada, told Canadian Underwriter the tech vendor “will be working on incorporating Planck’s AI capabilities throughout our entire portfolio, including products for our Canadian brokerage customers.

 

Identifying integration areas

“We are still in the early stages of identifying integration areas, but the teams are actively working on new product ideas that will be focused on both growth, like smart renewals and prospecting, and efficiency, taking time out of manual tasks today,” Whitelaw says. “We are evaluating a host of ways that this acquisition can accelerate Applied’s ability to build AI into its product portfolio and further support the next generation of the digital roundtrip of insurance.”

Planck’s data allows carriers to automate many processes in the policy lifecycle, such as AI underwriting, renewal audit and exposure monitoring. Founded in 2016, Planck has more than 80 employees and is based out of New York and Tel Aviv, Israel.

“By acquiring Planck, we will be investing behind a world-class team of AI and data science experts to accelerate the application of leading AI capabilities to insurance workflows,” adds Applied CEO Taylor Rhodes in a press release.

Over the past 18 months, Applied has released its first versions of AI-powered features in select Applied and EZLynx products. The tech vendor has also experimented with various AI capabilities through its Applied AI Lab in collaboration with some of the industry’s largest agents and carriers.

“This acquisition will further expand opportunities to harness AI’s value in secure and practical ways, delivering intelligent automation throughout the insurance lifecycle.”

Applied reports customers and partners will experience no immediate impact to their primary services or support contacts. “We believe the combination of Applied and Planck will provide significant benefits and greater choice to both companies’ customers, partners, and other industry stakeholders.”

Applied has made numerous acquisitions over the years. In April 2019, it acquired Tech Canary, a cloud-based insurance CRM system built natively on the Salesforce platform for brokerages, managing general agents, wholesalers and insurers. In October 2019, it acquired Policy Works, a major platform for commercial lines business in Canada. Less than two months later, Applied entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Indio Technologies, a software company that digitized the insurance application and renewal process.

 

Feature image by iStock.com/Parradee Kietsirikul