According to PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Global CEO Survey, 86% of insurance CEOs believe technological advances will transform their businesses in the next three to five years. For commercial lines organizations, the underwriting organization is one of the prime areas under consideration for combining technology solutions and data to increase efficiency and improve decision-making. Leading carriers are finding ways to take advantage of technological advances to deliver the right information at the right time in the process to provide targeted guidance in the context of individual accounts.

Technology solutions, such as integrating third-party data in application information or utilizing underwriting rules and account characteristics to guide process flows, can simplify fundamental tasks and accelerate an underwriter's analysis. Providing targeted data, analytics, and qualitative information in the context of a given producer, client, policy, or submission allows an underwriter to understand and apply the whole company's experience to underwrite an account, limiting underwriter bias and improving each decision. Steve Wittmuss, commercial vice president at Farm Bureau Financial Services, explains, "Maybe an underwriter got hurt on one specific loss and decided never to underwrite that again. But when you look at the whole universe of losses, it could be good risk. When you start using analytics, you get to use all that data out there." See, "Thinking Inside the (Black) Box." When thoughtfully designed, these enhancements allow the insurer to seamlessly deliver guidance in line with the underwriting strategy and foster consistency in underwriting decisions across the organization.

However, given the complexity of most commercial accounts, these methods do not replace the need for human judgment. Commercial underwriting continues to require desk-level underwriters to ask the right questions, catch unique exposures, select the right risks, and appropriately tailor the coverage and pricing to the client's needs. While process improvements and technology enablement can go a long way in improving efficiency, the best decisions will result from pairing these enhancements with critical thinking and questioning. Careful attention is needed in designing and implementing underwriting processes and tools to ensure they continue to empower underwriters to apply their judgment.