Client
Hiscox
Tech stack
Google Cloud
Solution
Automated Underwriting
Service
AI + Machine Learning
Transforming Underwriting with Hiscox and Datatonic
Hiscox is a global specialty insurer, headquartered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange. With roots dating back to 1901, 2026 marks 125 years of Hiscox and they are proud of their long heritage in insuring specialist and complex risks. Their ambition is to continue to be among the world’s most respected specialist insurers, with a diverse portfolio by product and geography.
The Vision
To maintain its competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market, Hiscox sought to modernise its lead underwriting process. The ambition was to automate the submission-to-quote journey, reducing manual effort, accelerating decision-making, and increasing underwriting capacity, while allowing underwriters to dedicate more time to clients and strategic broker relationships. Hiscox wanted to build a market-first AI-enhanced lead underwriting model for its S&T (Sabotage & Terrorism) team.
The Challenge
Hiscox identified an opportunity to enhance its underwriting processes and increase efficiency at scale. This included:
- Highly Manual Process: Evaluating new submissions was a labour-intensive process, as underwriters manually ingested emails and extracted data from multiple different sources.
- Siloed Pre-Underwriting Research: Underwriters needed to conduct manual background research and cross-reference multiple internal guideline frameworks before beginning the pricing process.
To maximise the value of its underwriting expertise, Hiscox sought to reduce the administrative effort associated with submission processing. Automating data capture and validation would enable underwriters to focus on complex risk analysis and broker relationships, while significantly accelerating the end-to-end review journey.
The Solution
To deliver this ambition, Hiscox partnered with Datatonic to build S2Q (Submission to Quote). Combining Datatonic’s data and AI capabilities with Hiscox’s underwriting expertise, the platform was designed to accelerate submission processing, improve operational efficiency and enable underwriters to focus on complex risk assessment and broker relationships.
The solution starts with end-to-end pipeline automation built on Google Cloud and powered by Gemini models to automatically ingest emails, extract complex fields, and classify documents. Building on Google Cloud ensured enterprise security, data privacy, and scalability right out of the box.
Additionally, we developed specialised AI agents to handle complex pre-underwriting tasks, such as reviewing submission information, validating data and identifying risks that required underwriter attention:
- 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 Hiscox underwriters, this can all be accessed within a newly-built Underwriting Workbench where underwriters can review, edit and finalise the quotes.
Our Impact
The project delivered immediate value, enabling the existing underwriting team to handle a greater volume of submissions while maintaining focus on complex risks and broker relationships:
- Productivity 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%.
- Enhanced Efficiency: By removing manual elements of the underwriting process, underwriters can provide quotes faster while dedicating more time to complex risks where human expertise is critical.
- 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-enhanced underwriting. The scalable Google Cloud foundation allows Hiscox to continuously refine its risk models and seamlessly expand intelligent automation across other business lines.
