A major theme throughout the conference was the growing complexity and scrutiny of regulatory data requests. As data calls become more detailed and frequent, insurers are being pushed to strengthen internal processes for tracking, validating, and submitting accurate information across jurisdictions. Best practices emphasized by panelists included submitting data promptly and accurately, proactively clarifying parameters with the issuing authority, and being transparent about any errors. When issues arise in state-issued data calls, requesting a resubmission can help minimize follow-up scrutiny or potential consequences. Panelists also recommended maintaining a calendar of annual and quarterly data calls to get a head start on data collection and planning, and using visual boards, such as whiteboards or bulletin boards, to organize upcoming requirements and communicate workload to leadership. Strong communication, transparency, and documentation practices were consistently highlighted as essential to building and maintaining regulatory trust.

Another key takeaway was the industry’s increasing attention to climate resilience and the regulatory response to catastrophe risk. Resilience is no longer solely a policyholder concern—it is a regulatory and operational imperative that directly influences how insurers price, underwrite, and manage portfolios. In 2024 alone, the U.S. experienced 27 individual climate-related disasters, resulting in more than $200 billion in economic losses—a 36% increase over the last five years.

States are approaching the issue in varied but coordinated ways to reduce exposure and promote long-term market stability. Louisiana highlighted its Fortified Roof Program, which provides funds to help homeowners strengthen roofs against hurricane-force winds, reducing storm-related losses. Nevada discussed increasing wildfire risks near Lake Tahoe, where limited mitigation actions by homeowners have contributed to insurer nonrenewals. The Nevada Commissioner plans to address these gaps to help control potential wildfire losses and stabilize the market.

Technology’s expanding role in compliance and underwriting also sparked significant discussion, particularly the use of aerial imagery. With guidance now issued by 12 states in response to rising consumer complaints, insurers are being urged to ensure transparency and fairness in how aerial images inform decisions. The bulletins emphasize that imagery should be recent, consumers must be able to access and dispute it, and cosmetic issues should not influence underwriting outcomes. Since implementation, states have reported a decrease in related consumer complaints, reflecting a broader trend toward balancing innovation with responsible data practices and consumer protections.

Finally, conversations around adjuster consistency and the oversight of Managing General Agents (MGAs) and Delegated Underwriting Authority Enterprises (DUAEs) underscored the need for standardized performance metrics and strong accountability frameworks. As delegated authority arrangements grow, regulators are placing greater focus on visibility and control to ensure compliance remains strong across all functions.

The insights shared at the 2025 AICP Annual Conference reinforced what many in the industry already recognize—compliance is no longer a reactive requirement but a strategic driver of operational integrity and resilience. At AAIS, we continue to monitor these regulatory developments closely, helping Members as they anticipate change and strengthen their compliance frameworks through data-driven insights and collaborative engagement.

If you have questions about regulatory developments, data calls, or emerging compliance trends, AAIS is here to help. Our team is committed to supporting Members with timely insights, guidance, and resources to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. To continue the conversation or learn how AAIS can support your compliance initiatives, reach out to us at membership@AAISonline.com.

The post Evolving Insurance Compliance: Data, Regulation, and Climate Risk first appeared on AAIS.

AAIS hosted the webinar AI Exploitations: How P&C Insurers Can Protect Themselves, featuring insights from Joseph Petrelli, President of Demotech, and Todd Kozikowski, CEO of 4WARN, with Werner Kruck, President and CEO of AAIS, moderating. The session explored operational, legal, and reputational implications of AI-driven threats, giving insurers practical guidance to identify exposure, implement safeguards, and stay ahead of evolving fraud techniques.

Lessons From Insurance Market and Carrier Failures

Petrelli opened the conversation by examining recent trends in claims and litigation, pointing to Florida’s wave of insurer insolvencies in 2020. Several carriers collapsed despite strong financial ratings, adequate reinsurance protections, capital contributions, and unqualified audits. “The safeguards were in place, but the issue was claims, not solvency,” Petrelli explained.

He pointed out that litigation surged to unsustainable levels, overwhelming even well-managed insurers. New technologies accelerated solicitation and claim manipulation, allowing opportunistic actors to reach policyholders faster and at greater scale. What might once have been a localized or manageable challenge quickly cascaded into systemic risk for the market.

Petrelli emphasized that this historical perspective carries an urgent lesson: vulnerabilities in operations and claims handling can undermine carriers regardless of their balance sheet strength. As AI becomes more prevalent, he cautioned, insurers face similar dynamics—only now the risks are amplified by the speed, automation, and reach of digital manipulation.

The Evolution of Fraud with Digital Risk

Digital fraud in insurance has shifted from opportunistic scams to highly organized, scalable operations. Kozikowski explained that one of the most concerning developments is Ghost GPT—malicious, customized AI models sold on the dark web. These tools have effectively created a “fraud-as-a-service” market, enabling even non-technical actors to launch sophisticated attacks.

He noted that by flooding the internet with manipulated content, bad actors can influence multiple AI platforms simultaneously, producing consistent but false responses that shape consumer perception and behavior. “These tools are lowering the barrier to entry for fraud,” Kozikowski emphasized. “Insurers need to understand the external attack surface just as well as their internal systems.” As fraud becomes more organized, AI itself has emerged as a new attack surface for these coordinated campaigns.

AI as a New Attack Surface

AI has introduced entirely new vectors for exploitation. Fraudsters are no longer limited to internal systems—they can manipulate public data, SEO strategies, and digital channels to amplify attacks. From generating fake content to influencing search engine results, AI-enabled threats are faster, more sophisticated, and increasingly difficult to detect.

Kozikowski explained that coordinated fraud campaigns are rarely confined to a single tactic; instead, they operate as layered operations designed to overwhelm insurers from multiple angles at once. He pointed to black hat SEO campaigns as a growing threat, where fraud actors flood search engines with fake websites and keyword-optimized content that impersonate legitimate insurers or legal resources.

At the same time, Kozikowski said, these groups deploy AI-generated articles, reviews, and social posts to reinforce the false narrative, ensuring that consumers and even automated systems encounter consistent—but misleading—information across platforms.

He also noted the rise of coordinated litigation solicitation efforts, where fraud networks use AI-driven digital ads, text campaigns, and robocalls to push policyholders toward opportunistic lawsuits. By automating outreach and scaling rapidly, these campaigns can generate litigation volumes that overwhelm carriers, regardless of their financial strength.

“What we’re seeing is a lifecycle of propagation,” Kozikowski said, “where fraudsters create content, amplify it through multiple channels, and then reinforce it with claims or legal action. The digital ecosystem gives them a playbook to move faster than insurers can respond if we’re not paying attention.” Understanding these external and internal vulnerabilities is critical, and 4WARN has developed strategies to help insurers respond proactively.

Mitigation Strategies and Industry Collaboration

4WARN was founded to help insurers understand and defend against emerging digital threats, focusing on how fraud campaigns spread and take root across the internet. By tracking the propagation lifecycle of fraudulent content and analyzing claims and litigation patterns, 4WARN enables insurers to anticipate and address risks before they escalate. “Our goal is to see the threats early, understand how they’re evolving, and work with the industry to stop them before they cause real damage,” Kozikowski said. Through continuous monitoring, trend analysis, and close collaboration with industry partners, insurers can proactively strengthen their defenses rather than simply reacting after the fact.

Kozikowski also stressed the importance of education and awareness, equipping internal teams to recognize early signs of AI-driven manipulation—such as brand impersonation or black hat SEO tactics, where fraud actors deliberately game search engine algorithms to elevate misleading or malicious content. He pointed to the growing role of third-party litigation funding networks, which can magnify the reach and financial impact of AI-enabled fraud. According to Kozikowski, this evolving threat landscape underscores the need for insurers to adopt proactive, layered defenses and integrate AI risk monitoring into their core risk management frameworks.

Staying Ahead of AI-Driven Fraud

As AI technology continues to advance, so too will the methods of bad actors. Insurers are encouraged to build robust internal governance structures, invest in advanced monitoring tools, and foster industry collaboration. “Understanding the AI attack surface—inside and outside the organization—is essential to protecting operational integrity, compliance, and consumer trust,” Kozikowski concluded. By taking a proactive approach, insurers can safeguard their operations and maintain confidence in an increasingly complex digital environment.

To view the full webinar, click on the video above.

Questions? Please reach out to any of the featured speakers through the contact information below.

Werner Kruck
President & CEO, AAIS
wernerk@aaisonline.com

Joseph Petrelli
President, Demotech
jpetrelli@demotech.com

Todd Kozikowski
CEO, 4WARN
todd@4warn.com

The post Webinar: AI Exploitations: How P&C Insurers Can Protect Themselves first appeared on AAIS.

These updates arrive with frequency, often from multiple bureaus at once, and require detailed attention to state-specific filing nuances and organizational adoption profiles. The sheer volume of updates, compounded by variations in state requirements and bureau affiliations, creates an administrative burden that strains internal resources and increases the risk of falling behind or slipping out of compliance. For insurers seeking to maintain speed to market and operational efficiency, this challenge is not simply procedural—it has direct implications for competitiveness, compliance risk, and the ability to deliver value to policyholders.

The Impact of Manual Bureau Adoption Management

Managing these adoption filings manually only compounds the difficulty. Identifying, reviewing, and filing required adoptions often takes longer than expected, especially when processes vary by state or product line. Manual workflows are prone to human error, increasing the chance of missed filings or late submissions that can trigger regulatory scrutiny. Even well-staffed compliance teams can find their resources stretched thin, as time that should be spent on strategic initiatives is consumed by repetitive administrative tasks.

Carriers that feel “on top” of bureau updates can still be caught off guard when multiple bureaus issue circulars simultaneously, state-specific exceptions require unique filings or disallow auto-adoption, or a key team member is unavailable during a critical window. In today’s competitive market, these challenges do more than threaten compliance—they slow operational efficiency and speed to market, creating ripple effects that can ultimately hinder growth.

Bureau Maintenance: Automation That Keeps Insurers Compliant

To address these challenges, Perr&Knight developed Bureau Maintenance, a fully automated service built on the StateFilings.com platform. Bureau Maintenance combines the firm’s long-standing Bureau Monitor subscription—which centralizes and tracks loss cost, rule, and form circulars for all lines of business—with automated filing capabilities to provide a single, streamlined solution for keeping adoption filings current.

Here’s how the service works:

1. Perr&Knight’s experts continuously monitor circulars from AAIS, ISO, NCCI, and other bureaus, publishing them to Bureau Monitor.
2. Each insurer’s unique adoption profile—including lines of business, state programs, and filing preferences—determines which updates require action.
3. The system sends automatic notifications, and Perr&Knight’s team submits the filings on the insurer’s behalf, reducing the risk of missed deadlines or non-compliance.
4. A real-time online dashboard provides full visibility into which adoptions have been filed and which are pending.

Bureau Maintenance is designed to manage the routine, detail-intensive aspects of bureau adoption filings, freeing in-house teams to focus on higher-value compliance and product initiatives. Even insurers with manageable filing volumes benefit from the assurance that no required updates are overlooked, particularly in states that prohibit auto-adoption or when regulatory changes trigger mandatory updates.

By delegating this process to a dedicated, automated system, insurers achieve:
• Reduced compliance risk and fewer manual errors
• Faster speed to market through real-time adoption management
• Improved operational efficiency for internal teams
• Peace of mind knowing all filings remain current and compliant

In today’s regulatory environment, automating bureau adoption management is an effective way for insurers to maintain compliance, enhance efficiency, and remain competitive.

To learn more about how Perr&Knight’s Bureau Maintenance service simplifies bureau adoption filings and protects against compliance risks, visit perrknight.com.

The post Automate Bureau Adoption Filings and Ensure Insurance Compliance first appeared on AAIS.

If you’ve been in the industry long enough, the current AI conversation may feel reminiscent of the Agile revolution that swept through IT departments in the early 2000s. Back then, Agile was the hot topic. Today, AI has taken its place. But the parallels are more than superficial. The missteps many insurers made in their Agile transformations offer cautionary lessons—and opportunities—for how we approach AI implementation now.

Agile: A Cautionary Tale of Incomplete Transformation

Agile methodology was born around the turn of the century out of a desire to overhaul the pre-existing Waterfall methodology known for rigid, documentation-heavy development processes. It promised more alignment with the customer, faster delivery, higher quality, continuous feedback, and more customer-centric outcomes. The Agile Manifesto, published in 2001, was a rallying cry for a better way to develop software—one rooted in iteration, collaboration, and adaptability.

Fast-forward to today: ask any insurer if they’ve adopted Agile, and most will say yes. But peel back the label, and the reality is more nuanced. What many organizations call Agile is, in practice, Hybrid Agile—an undefined blend of Agile and traditional Waterfall practices.

Why Did This Happen?

Because most companies didn’t fully commit. They adopted Agile ceremonies—standups, sprints, backlogs—without embracing the cultural and operational changes required to make Agile truly work. Agile wasn’t just a process shift; it demanded new ways of thinking about leadership, accountability, team structure, and value delivery. But many insurance organizations never invested in the change management necessary to drive that deeper transformation.

The result? Agile became a buzzword. A checkbox. And many of the benefits it promised—greater speed, higher quality, better alignment with customer needs—were never fully realized. Project failures, delayed implementations, and disappointing outcomes became common, despite “Agile” being the official methodology.

Human Resistance to Change

To understand why Agile adoption fell short, we need to acknowledge a simple truth: change is hard. Humans are wired for comfort and predictability. Even when change is necessary—or desirable—it can be deeply uncomfortable. As anyone who’s ever tried (and failed) to stick with a new diet or exercise routine knows, sustaining change is exponentially more difficult than starting it.

Now multiply that resistance across an enterprise. You’re not just asking individuals to change; you’re asking teams, departments, and entire business units to work differently. And if only some adopt the new approach while others resist, the result is friction and dysfunction.

This is why true transformation requires more than just new tools or processes—it requires a deliberate, strategic approach to people and culture. In other words: change management.

Change Management: The Missing Link

Change management isn’t about IT, or even methodology. It’s about people. It’s about psychology, motivation, leadership, and learning. It’s a discipline in its own right—just like finance, operations, or claims.

Agile transformations that succeeded had one thing in common: they were supported by formal change management strategies, often led by dedicated teams that reported directly to the C-suite. These teams didn’t just roll out new software practices; they enabled deep organizational change. They aligned HR, finance, operations, and leadership to a shared vision. They provided training, coaching, communication, and cultural reinforcement. In short, they treated transformation as a human endeavor.

AI: A New Era, Same Story?

Today, we’re on the brink of another transformation—this time driven by AI. And once again, the signs are familiar. AI is everywhere in the headlines. Executives are eager to say their company is “doing AI.” Vendors are marketing AI-powered solutions for every pain point. But in many cases, the implementation is superficial. AI, like Agile, is not a plug-and-play solution. It’s a capability that must be aligned with real business problems. It requires not just technical infrastructure, but organizational readiness. It requires oversight, governance, ethical considerations, and cultural adaptation. And, most critically, it requires humans—skilled, empowered, and change-ready humans. Without that, AI risks becoming yet another buzzword. Another checkbox. Another opportunity squandered.

Learning from the Past to Succeed in the Future

If the insurance industry is to harness the full power of AI, we must treat its implementation not as a technical rollout, but as a business transformation. We must invest in the people side of change—just as we should have with Agile.

That means:

• Appointing change leaders who report into the C-suite and have the authority to drive cross-functional alignment.
• Training managers and teams not just on AI tools, but on new ways of working, decision-making, and collaboration.
• Defining success criteria that go beyond technical deployment to include adoption, impact, and cultural fit.
• Creating space for learning and iteration, understanding that transformation is a journey, not a sprint.

At INFORCE, we’ve seen firsthand how critical the human element is to technology implementation success. Effective systems integration implementations require more than IT know-how; they need seasoned leadership, effective change management, and client-centric people. That’s why we created our INFORCE Academy: to train our team on systems integration and to develop the cultural, technical, and behavioral skills needed for transformation. We specialize in building high-performance teams that can lead and sustain change, from Agile to AI and beyond.

Final Thoughts

As we enter the AI era, the stakes are high. This technology has the potential to redefine how we serve customers, manage risk, and create value. But it won’t succeed on its own.

To unlock its promise, we must lead with intention. Let’s learn from our past. Let’s prioritize people, process, and purpose. Let’s approach AI not just as a tool, but as a transformation. That’s how we’ll turn AI from a buzzword into a breakthrough.

The post Digital Transformation in Insurance: From Agile to AI first appeared on AAIS.

Today, change in insurance is not only necessary but inevitable. As customer expectations grow and technology advances, insurers must rethink how they handle policy verification, lienholder updates, and compliance notification processes. Automating policy information in real time can reduce administrative burdens and enhance efficiency across the industry.

The Industry Challenge — Inefficiencies in Lienholder Communications

The Burden on Insurers

For decades, insurance carriers have been overwhelmed with thousands of daily policy verification requests. Banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders continuously seek confirmation of policy details, creating a relentless administrative burden in the form of unnecessary phone calls, emails, faxes, and postal mail. Without automation, insurers must rely on human capital to manually handle these inquiries, leading to wasted time, excessive costs, and the potential for compliance risks. Conservative estimates claim that the insurance industry handles over 500 million phone calls annually. The sheer volume of requests diverts attention from more critical business functions, making it difficult for insurers to focus on their primary objective—providing high-quality service to policyholders.

The Cost of Existing Solutions

Many traditional industry solutions, such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, outsourced call centers, and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) data sharing, require significant resources to maintain. Despite their widespread use, these approaches still contribute to operational inefficiencies. One of the largest burdens that both the insurance and banking communities face is managing millions of daily tasks, processes, and deliverables via paper documents and spreadsheets. The costs associated with printing, postage, and processing physical paper disrupt the ability to adopt more cost-effective, agile, and scalable digital solutions. Insurers relying on legacy systems often find them inflexible, unable to support real-time updates, and ineffective at addressing the growing demand for seamless communication between financial institutions and insurance providers. Without an efficient digital solution, insurers remain stuck in a cycle of administrative burden, missed opportunities for growth, and declining customer satisfaction.

The Roadblocks to Digital Transformation

Breaking into a modernized approach to lienholder communications comes with challenges. The sector operates on deeply entrenched legacy systems, and insurers have historically been hesitant to deviate from familiar technologies. Concerns about workflow disruptions, outdated IT infrastructures, and the complexity of integrating new solutions have made digital transformation a slow and cautious process. Additionally, regulatory and compliance considerations add another layer of complexity, making insurers wary of adopting new technologies without proven security and efficiency measures. But, these challenges, while significant, should not deter insurers from embracing automation – especially when the right solutions can seamlessly integrate with existing workflows.

A Digital Solution for Lienholder Process Automation

As the demand for efficiency and automation increases, insurers must rethink how they handle policy verification, lienholder updates, and compliance notifications. Implementing a fully digital, real-time system can significantly reduce administrative burdens, improve response times, and enhance operational efficiency across the industry.

LenderDock addresses this issue by providing a SaaS platform that automates lienholder communication and the exchange of policy data. By eliminating manual processes, LenderDock streamlines policy verification and ensures real-time updates for financial institutions. Their key features include:

• VERiFi™ – Allows banks, lenders, and financial third parties to self-serve online policy verification requests in real-time, eliminating the need for phone calls, emails, and faxes.
• LIENSure™ – Provides digital updates and correction requests for mortgagee clauses and loss-payee information, ensuring process efficiency and data integrity.
• LENDERDocs™ – Enables mortgagees and lenders to access policy documentation instantly, including proof of insurance and paid receipts, fast-tracking information sharing.

The shift toward automated lienholder communications isn’t just an operational upgrade—it’s a strategic necessity. By reducing administrative overhead, insurers can lower costs, ensure compliance, and reallocate valuable resources to higher-value initiatives that drive growth and innovation.

As technology continues to advance, solutions like LenderDock will play a critical role in shaping the future of insurance operations. The industry is at a turning point—those who embrace digital transformation will lead the way, while those who resist may struggle to keep up.

Learn more at LenderDock.com.

The post Automating Lienholder Communications to Boost Efficiency first appeared on AAIS.

Why AI Is a Hot Topic Across the Insurance Industry
While predictive modeling has long been a part of insurance operations, the rise of advanced AI technologies, including generative models such as GPT, has created new possibilities. Habayeb shared, “Once we got into the world where GPT and generative happen, you now had non-technical people, non-actuaries, and business leaders, saying, ‘I want to build a model to do this thing.'” This democratization of AI technology has sparked growing interest in how AI can solve insurance’s unique challenges, especially in a low-margin, often manual environment. Aufenthie further emphasized AI’s mainstream rise, noting that as AI becomes more accessible, it signals a significant shift in its potential across the industry.

Regulatory Perspective of AI in the Insurance Industry
The growing role of AI in insurance has caught the attention of regulators. This can be proven by the NAIC Innovation Cybersecurity and Technology (H) Committee, which was created to address AI and its potential to transform the industry, Block explained. “Insurance is an industry that is sort of perfect for the use of technology,” she noted. Regulators are focused on ensuring AI is applied within existing frameworks, though the complexity of integrating emerging technologies with traditional regulations remains a key challenge.

Consumer-Facing Applications of AI in the Insurance Industry
Regulators are particularly concerned with AI’s consumer-facing applications, such as in underwriting, fraud detection, and claims processing. Block referenced surveys in the auto insurance sector, highlighting a significant gap between the intention to use AI and its actual implementation. “The numbers went from… 80-90% are thinking about using it… to 20% are actually using it,” she revealed. Despite this, areas like claims, fraud detection, and marketing are seeing more widespread AI adoption.

Biggest Hurdles That Insurers Face in Advancing Their AI Journeys
One of the largest obstacles for insurers, especially smaller carriers, is the reliance on third-party vendors for AI solutions. While large insurers may have the resources to build and tailor their own AI systems, smaller companies often lack the infrastructure to do so. Habayeb advised smaller carriers to manage relationships with external vendors to implement AI solutions effectively.

The AI Bulletin: Its Purpose and How It Hopes to Protect the Consumer
The AI Bulletin, passed about a year ago, serves as a crucial step toward regulating AI in the insurance industry. Block explained that the bulletin is not a statute but provides clarity on regulators’ expectations for AI use within the context of existing laws. “It aims to ensure that AI is used responsibly and transparently, focusing on protecting consumers,” she explained. The bulletin addresses concerns such as AI-driven pricing, ensuring fairness, and avoiding discriminatory practices in line with established regulations. However, Block noted that this is only the beginning. Future legislative efforts may further refine AI governance, particularly around third-party data and models.

Managing State-by-State Differences With AI Compliance
Habayeb explained that navigating AI regulations is complicated by the different approaches taken by individual states. “If a state establishes their AI risk management program in 2025, the degree to which you have robust testing, validation, and continuous monitoring of the high-risk things… might take a little bit more time,” he said. States like New York, Colorado, and California have already implemented their own policies that differ from the AI Bulletin’s guidelines, creating additional challenges for insurers trying to maintain compliance. Habayeb advised insurers to develop a consistent, repeatable structure for managing AI compliance, with a focus on the highest-risk use cases in 2025. “Have some consistent structure for knowing that it’s happening, proving that you evaluated its appropriateness, and that you’re keeping an eye on it,” he said.

NIST: Finding a Framework and Importance of Investing in AI Now for the Future
The NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) offers a critical tool for companies seeking to ensure responsible AI use. While Habayeb noted that the framework is still evolving, he praised its structure as a valuable guide. He emphasized that insurance companies should start aligning AI governance with existing industry standards, such as actuarial practices.

Steps for Insurers to Align With the Bulletin’s Goals
To align with the AI Bulletin’s guidelines, Block emphasized that insurers must assemble the right team to build a practical governance structure. “You need all the people in the room to build a practical governance structure so that it makes sense,” she said. After the team is in place, insurers should focus on defining clear internal policies that outline the roles, responsibilities, and risk management strategies related to AI. Habayeb added that insurers should be ready to explain how their AI systems align with corporate policies and regulatory expectations. “You want to see those connected, right? How have you affected that policy?” he asked, reinforcing the need for transparency and clear communication with regulators.

To view the full webinar, click on the video above.

Questions? Please reach out to any of the featured speakers through the contact information below.

Chris Aufenthie
Director of Regulatory Filings, AAIS
chrisa@aaisonline.com

Anthony Habayeb
Co-Founder & CEO, Monitaur
anthony@monitaur.ai

Mary Block
Director of Insurance Regulation, Vermont Department of Financial Regulation
mary.block@vermont.gov

The post Webinar: Advancing AI in Insurance: Navigating Regulatory Trends first appeared on AAIS.