What if the insurance industry teaches consumers they don't need brokers?

In the race to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), one objective seems to have gained widespread support: making the insurance process faster and simpler for clients.

Automated data collection, fewer interactions, information synchronization... AI is already accelerating this trend by making it possible to replace or automate certain tasks performed by brokers.

But caught up in the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and the desire to streamline transactions as much as possible, the industry could make the strategic mistake of treating advice itself as a source of friction.

Yet every time a brokerage removes the broker from a step in the process without redefining their contribution elsewhere, it implicitly sends consumers a message: that human intervention was not really necessary.

The danger of an overly seamless process

In insurance, not all friction is unnecessary. Some friction is essential because it often involves moments when professional judgment must come into play.

I call these interactions productive friction: moments that slow down a transaction slightly but improve understanding, uncover a risk or prevent a poor decision.

This is not always an easy position to defend in an industry that measures the efficiency of a transaction by its speed rather than by the quality of the decision.

Overlooking the advisory role in favour of a faster transaction often means cutting short a thorough assessment of the client's actual needs.

But are policyholders still willing to invest the time required for professional advice and, more importantly, do they still see its value?

Policyholders better equipped with AI

As new opportunities emerge for brokerages to optimize processes and reduce low-value-added tasks, consumers' capabilities are evolving as well.

Already, policyholders with no insurance expertise can use AI to understand a policy in plain language, compare coverages, identify certain exclusions or prepare questions ahead of renewal.

Supported by their AI agent, which has details about their financial situation, habits and consumer preferences, policyholders who question their broker will no longer be satisfied with a generic answer. They will want to understand what the professional sees, understands or anticipates.

Before long, policyholders will become more critical and informed consumers, and their AI agents will become direct competitors to brokers.

Will the skills that have made us successful so far enable us to succeed tomorrow?

Invisible expertise has no perceived value

Once clients have developed stronger instincts and greater capabilities through AI, will they still be able to recognize the broker's value?

What is not visible becomes difficult to defend.

With its ability to transform client relationships, AI is forcing a rapid change in practices. Much of the industry is not ready for this change.

In an environment where AI instantly provides structured and convincing answers, simply claiming that humans have a better understanding will no longer be enough. Brokers will have to make their judgment visible: ask better questions, explain trade-offs, point out blind spots and demonstrate how their recommendations take the client's specific circumstances into account.

The broker's value will no longer rest on access to information. It will rest on the ability to question that information — including information generated by AI.

Don't just automate: redistribute value

Before automating an interaction, brokerages should ask themselves three questions:

1. Are we eliminating a source of frustration or a moment when professional judgment is required?
2. What professional value needs to reappear elsewhere in the process?
3. How will clients be able to recognize that value in concrete terms?

Without a clear intention, the time freed up by artificial intelligence risks becoming nothing more than additional transactional capacity, representing a missed opportunity to reinvest those efficiency gains in the broker's advisory role: more relevant conversations, more comprehensive analyses and recommendations that are easier to understand and defend.

This transformation requires developing "augmented brokers" who can use AI, question its conclusions, interpret what the data does not reveal and take responsibility for the final recommendation.

Artificial intelligence may not make insurance brokerage disappear. But poorly conceived automation could gradually make its value invisible.

In seeking to eliminate all friction, we must be careful not to eliminate precisely those moments when the broker becomes indispensable.