Client
Hiscox
Tech stack
Google Cloud
Solution
Automated Underwriting
Service
AI + Machine Learning
Transforming Underwriting with Hiscox and Datatonic
Hiscox is a leading international specialist insurer, underwriting a diverse range of commercial and personal risks. Their commitment is to provide market-leading insurance expertise and seamless service, helping businesses and individuals safeguard what matters most through precise risk analysis and robust coverage.
The Vision
To maintain its competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market, Hiscox wanted to improve its risk assessment process. The vision was to replace time-consuming, manual triage with a modern, automated platform that could significantly accelerate decision-making, increase operational capacity, and enable underwriters to focus on face-to-face time with clients and strategic broker relationships.
The Challenge
Hiscox faced operational friction in scaling its submission processing with its existing workflows. This included:
- Highly Manual Process: Evaluating new applications was a labour-intensive process, as underwriters manually ingested emails and extracted data from multiple different sources.
- Capacity Constraints: The sheer volume of daily incoming applications outpaced capacity, creating backlogs and artificially capping Hiscox’s processing potential.
- Siloed Pre-Underwriting Research: Underwriters needed to conduct manual background research and cross-reference multiple internal guideline frameworks before beginning the pricing process.
This resulted in misallocated expertise. Highly skilled underwriters spent the majority of their time on data-entry and manual validation loops, rather than focusing on complex risk negotiation. Hiscox needed to eliminate this friction and compress the hours-long process to accelerate the total end-to-end review time.
The Solution
To solve this, Datatonic partnered with Hiscox to build S2Q (Submission to Quote)—a groundbreaking, automated underwriting solution. The project integrated Datatonic’s data and AI expertise with Hiscox’s underwriting experience to deliver an advanced underwriter platform.
The solutions starts with end-to-end pipeline automation driven by Gemini on Google Cloud to automatically ingest emails, extract complex fields, and classify documents.
Additionally, we developed specialised AI agents to handle intricate pre-underwriting tasks, including:
- Research Agent: Conducts deep online company background checks and leverages Google Maps data to flag high-hazard proximity risks.
- Validation Agent: Cross-references applicant data and finds out information about the customer which has not been included in the original submission.
For end users, this can all be accessed within a newly-built Underwriting Workbench where underwriters can review, edit and finalise the quotes.
The Impact
The project delivered immediate, transformative value, acting as a force multiplier for the existing underwriting team:
- Efficiency Gains: S2Q successfully shifted the needle from hours of manual data aggregation to under 10 minutes of automated insight delivery, lowering total end-to-end review time, and accelerating total time to quote by 90%.
- Tripled Processing Volume: Liberated from repetitive manual tasks, underwriters are now able to process around triple the volume of submissions per day, directly boosting pipeline capacity and driving top-line growth
- Restored Focus on High-Value Tasks: Eliminating hours of screen-heavy administrative work (65% faster reviews) allows underwriters to refocus their energy on face-to-face market interaction and deepening broker relationships.
Additionally, the project co-authored a brand-new blueprint for AI-driven underwriting. Built entirely around employee augmentation rather than headcount reduction, the scalable Google Cloud foundation allows Hiscox to continuously refine its risk models and seamlessly expand intelligent automation across other business segments.
