Interview with Pranav Pasricha, Intellect SEEC CEO: ‘Creating the Tesla of InsurTech’

It is easy to preach ‘Disruption’, ‘Reinvention’, ‘Unlearn’, etc., but it is very hard to do in practice for established people and established companies. With three decades of experience, Intellect SEEC is a prime example of a firm that has truly changed itself first before enabling its clients to disrupt one of the most traditional industries – insurance.

Intellect SEEC helps its clients tackles some of the biggest challenges by leveraging next-generation technologies such as Cloud, Big Data, Machine Learning (ML), and Internet of Things (IoT) to take a holistic view of risks, eliminate redundant processes, make better underwriting and pricing decisions and most importantly, give better advise to their clients.

Smaller insurers have never had the same access to enterprise IT budgets or talent or data as larger insurance companies. The sheer volume of data and the time and cost of developing Machine Learning Models would put them out of mid-sized insurers’ reach. However Intellect SEEC’s SaaS delivery model combined with their industry leading work onbig data to offer insights at a fraction of the cost of traditional data players makes the company an industry-leading provider to insurers.

“Intellect SEEC is on a path to ‘making insurance simple yet insightful” according to Pranav Pasricha, Intellect’s CEO, “Just like an autonomous car makes really critical and complex driving decisions safely and simply in milli seconds – we deploy the power of cloud, big data, and machine learning to make the task of brokers and underwriters extremely simple yet a lot more insightful and accurate. Our applications are designed to be simple for the user, fast and easy to deploy, andremove cost or IT skills as a deterrent to adoption. We have spent years building the technology and the lift models, so that our  clients can deploy with confidence and gain underwriting results in months, not years.

Pranav Pasricha, Intellect SEEC CEO, spoke exclusively to

The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Intellect SEEC: Synopsis

“We have been working with insurers across the globe for over 20 years. From the early internet, to mobility to now cloud and machine learning, we have led the deployment of each wave of technology into the insurance sector. Despite our vast experience and global footprint, we always consider ourselves as challengers. The pace of change in our world is only increasing, and if you have to be a leader and pave the way for the industry, you always have to look forward, cut through the hype and find ways of making new technology solve problems you could not before. You have to continue to not just learn, but also unlearn. Despite massive investments in core systems, digital programs and other traditional technology, the industry COR has only deteriorated in the last 4 years. We work to enable both traditional insurers and insurtechs to fundamentally improve underwriting and also enable new business models.”

Carriers are faced with stagnant top lines, shrinking margins, uncertain risk exposures – particularly with new lines such as cyber, and extraneous activities like data loss and hacking. And that’s why Intellect is perfectly positioned to help insurance carriers with contemporary technology that can go to work almost immediately, improving performance, lowering risk and reducing threats. Furthermore, as a technology partner and leader, Intellect has helped its customers’ set and execute on their cloud strategies, become agile and help them overcome the hurdle of technology obsolescence.

Intellect Xponent: “Bring Your AI Game”

The insurance industry relies on data to measure what matters and Intellect Xponent eliminates the risk of outdated or stale data making it possible to harness big data and use it effectively and efficiently.

Intellect SEEC’s underwriting workstation, Intellect Xponent, is a unique AI-based underwriting platform that reinvents the ‘heart’ of insurance–data, risk analysis and underwriting, all in one suite.

Underwriters, brokers, and experts can exchange information in real-time. Agents can automatically and quickly get the right data to fill complex submission forms, collaborate with underwriters easily and check status of applications. The overall cost of business solicitation, submission and turn around time are all drastically reduced with Xponent. Carriers can now develop and deploy new products, even complex packages that may require to be written across multiple legacy policy admin systems in weeks without spending millions and years on legacy transformation. Until Xponent was released, there wasn’t a single solution available that could handle all of these issues.

Technology is quickly changing underwriting and the important role of underwriters: Own the Underwriting Game with Intellect Xponent

The success of carriers depends in large part on the critical work that the underwriter performs. The company spent the past five years fine-tuning the algorithms that drive the Xponent engine powered by AI and machine learning.

Underwriters now have a highly-configurable and intelligent underwriting process, while eliminating redundant processes, taking a holistic view of risks, and employing decision-optimization technology. Underwriters should focus on their core task – assessing complex risks, exercising judgement, advising brokers and clients. Xponent effectively breaks down siloed information and communication to form stronger relationships throughout the entire underwriting process and gives the underwriter the ability to quickly and accurately cover risks based on verified data from many sources.

One fundamental advantage underwriters’ now have with Xponent is that they have the ability to take different types of forms and submissions from the agencies allowing intake to be a fluid conduit within the process as opposed to a roadblock with questionable data. Xponent’s intake process minimizes the reliance on paper with Al-powered eSubmissions and vastly improves underwriting decisions using  8000+ data sources. This enriched data can then be analysed and measured for risk so that the underwriter makes an informed decision in a short amount of time.

By taking away the over head of data entry, data checking, back and forth cumbersome communication and complex systems and processes, the product can liberate as much as 70% of an underwriter’s time every day. The outcome is betterdata-backed decisions by the underwriter and improved profitability and stability for the carrier. All of this is in an effort to positively impact the customers’ operations and createa mutually beneficial relationship.

The industry is taking notice in a big way as Intellect SEEC has achieved notoriety.

These impressive performance results have allowed Intellect SEEC to win four prestigious industry awards recently, including ‘Celent Model Insurer of the Year 2017’ (won by StarStone), ‘SMA Innovation in Action’, the ‘Golden Bridge Awards’ and the ‘Best in Business Awards’. Additionally, Intellect SEEC’s CEO Pranav Pasricha, was invited to speak about the use of AI and machine learning in insurance at many industry events.

StarStone named Celent model insurer of the year 2017

StarStone, the global specialty insurer was named the Model Insurer of 2017 by industry analyst, Celent in the Data Mastery and Analytics category. Celent recognized the insurer’s exponential leap in using AI through the Intellect Risk Analyst platform to materially reduce loss ratios and improve profitability across key portfolios. StarStone’s underwriting time dropped by an astounding 70% after partnering with Intellect and their cost of premium data sources decreased by 40%.

Intellect SEEC has also been an early-adopter of cloud-native software and embraces it to deliver highly configurable, agile and scalable solutions. An Amazon Web Services (AWS) case study designated Intellect SEEC’s ability to reduce IT costs by 60% and IT management time by 85% as a benchmark for the insurance industry. The case study also highlighted the company’s ability to speed up an insurer’s time-to-market by 10-fold while allowing it to scale on demand.

“We have been pioneering cloud, big data and AI solutions in insurance since 2014. The industry has struggled to improve loss ratio or expense ratio because traditional core systems projects do not add business value despite their high cost and the long period of time required to implement them,” said Mr. Pasricha. “On the other hand, cloud-native solutions driven by AI and big data can go live in months and significantly improve underwriting and pricing, automate distribution and improve loss ratios by three to five percent. We are proud to have delivered such efficiency to our clients and can see our initial vision of transforming the industry turning into a reality.”

Pasricha continued, “Born out of core system modernization, we have matured into a technology partner that can help you leverage next-generation technologies to make insurance truly about the most important stakeholder—the insured. We pride ourselves in working with our customers to overcome the barriers of new technology adoption and create a pathway for success. But most of all, we are proud of our ability to create the dream team that dares to envision the future, does not hesitate to question the norm but has the humility to get down and get the work done. Our vision is to work with clients and partners to deliver intelligent software that redefines insurance.”

Based on the game-changing technologies Intellect has developed over the last 5 years, they are certainly leading the pack in the use of AL, big data, and machine learning and their products will no doubt continue to reshape the industry.

Client Testimonials: Going Above and Beyond

“The Intellect Risk Analyst initiative very quickly improved our view of risk, risk selection, and efficiency; leading to anticipated increases in underwriting profit. I would like to thank our team and Intellect SEEC for their dedication to this initiative. We are only just scratching the surface in terms of what this technology can do for our business in the future.” –Norman Brown, CEO of StarStone US.

Pranav Pasricha: A Formidable Leader

Pranav Pasricha serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Intellect SEEC. He’s a pioneer in deploying AI, big data, and IoT technologies in the insurance industry. Mr. Pasricha is a widely recognized thought leader, widely published in prestigious publications and sought-after speaker at industry events. Under his leadership, Intellect SEEC is creating the singular insurtech marrying cloud-native software with big data and ML – to make complex autonomous decisions for insurance a reality.

"We have matured into a technology partner that can help you leverage next-generation technologies to make insurance truly about the most important stakeholder—the insured.”