I don’t know about you, but it seems I can’t read any tech news, or any news for that matter, without coming across the buzzword AI. 

Sure, AI is in a hype cycle. It’s a little scary because, depending on who you talk to, it will either empower you in crazy new ways, replace you, or be a flop and do nothing except attract billions of dollars in marketing spend.

However, I believe AI has the potential to be an even more powerful force in technology innovation than the cloud, offering the opportunity to make the next generation of insurance better for everyone.

I can say that because much of my earlier career was spent at the company Rackspace, where we were true cloud pioneers. The explosion of world-changing opportunities that came from the application of cloud technologies to traditional and brand-new business models was palpable.

That feeling in my bones then feels very similar to what I am feeling now as artificial intelligence (AI) presents new potential to bring more intelligent automation and insights to the insurance industry.

At Applied, we believe it’s our obligation to customers and partners to lead and understand how we can bring the power of AI to our industry in safe and practical ways.

That’s why over the past 18 months, we’ve been experimenting and learning about AI, and we’ve worked with many of our customers to get input on how they want AI to empower them to further their business strategies.

Through work in the Applied AI Lab, we’ve become convinced that it was time to bring a world-class set of AI capabilities – at scale – into the Applied family so we can accelerate bringing the advantages of AI to insurance.

We put our conviction into action, and made a big, bold move by joining forces with one of the world’s most advanced AI companies that also just happened to be focused on the insurance industry.

Please join me in welcoming Planck to the Applied family!

Why Planck?

So you might be asking, “Taylor, with all the AI hype and companies starting to pop up, what stood out about Planck?” That's a good question.

We looked at Planck in three ways: their tech, their people and the “better together” opportunity that just became so obvious to us over time.

First, their proprietary technology is very advanced and hard to replicate. It’s built to take advantage of several large language models (LLMs) and has been solely focused on learning about insurance use cases. Their proprietary technology platform and Applied’s unique insurance data assets, coupled with our software products, will position us to build the best AI capability in the insurance industry.

Second, the Planck team are experts in data science and AI capabilities, with extensive experience building successful products. Before founding Planck, the founders Elad Tsur and Amir Cohen built an AI platform for sales management that was acquired by Salesforce and became the foundational technology behind Salesforce’s Einstein AI. When we talked with Planck’s customers, they would say without pause, “These folks are geniuses.”

Finally, we always think about acquisitions with a “better together” lens. Does their technology complement our own? Will their expertise help us go faster? Will our values and our cultures mesh? Do we see this as a 1 + 1 = 10 opportunity? With our unique set of insurance technology assets, our 40+ years of expertise in insurance software and services, and the benefit of close relationships with our customers, we will be able to scale and amplify Planck’s unique and differentiated AI capabilities in ways neither of us could do alone.

What This Means for Our Customers

With Planck's AI magic in our arsenal, here’s what’s coming your way:

• AI-Driven Value: Get ready for the next generation of the digital roundtrip of insurance, where you'll know more, do more of what sets you apart, and stack those wins.

• Reduced Inefficiencies: Say goodbye to redundant tasks and unlock your data’s full potential to get crystal-clear operational insights that fuel some serious growth.

• Boosted Business Speed and Quality: From marketing to sales, underwriting to renewals, everything’s about to get faster and sharper.

• Intelligent Automation: Expect smarter solutions at every corner of the insurance lifecycle.

A Shared Vision for the Future

Bringing Planck into the Applied family was a no-brainer. We share a vision of a tech-driven insurance industry that empowers our customers to not just keep up but lead the charge. Together, we’re not just navigating the future; we’re shaping it.

And let me tell you, we’re wasting no time! We have some exciting news that we’ll be sharing at our annual Applied Net conference next month – so stay tuned!

Our product teams have been in the market testing our early thinking, and we are encouraged by the excitement we are hearing. We really couldn’t be more thrilled to have Planck join Team Applied and help us expertly guide our customers past the hype and into the reality of how AI will create a lot of value in the next generation of insurance.