How AI Is Moving Insurance from Reactive to Proactive
In this Insurance Journal TV "Between the Lines" episode, Kristen Nunery, CEO of myCOI (now illumend), joins host Elizabeth Blosfield to explore how artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming risk management from reactive crisis response to proactive loss prevention—helping insurance professionals, risk managers, and businesses across industries uncover coverage gaps and prevent losses before they happen.
From Chaos to Clarity: The AI Revolution in Insurance Compliance
For over a decade, certificate of insurance tracking has operated as an administrative afterthought—spreadsheets tracking expiration dates, emails chasing missing endorsements, and compliance teams scrambling to compile documentation when audits or claims surface. This reactive model creates vulnerability that compounds across construction projects, commercial real estate portfolios, property managementoperations, and business ecosystems managing third-party relationships nationwide.
Nunery, whose personal experience with insurance inadequacy following a devastating house fire inspired her 15-year mission transforming compliance management, explains how AI-powered platforms are reinventing this equation. Rather than waiting for problems to emerge, intelligent systems now identify coverage gaps, flag policy deficiencies, and surface risk indicators in real time—shifting the entire insurance compliance paradigm from reactive verification to proactive protection.
Making Risk Management Simpler, Faster, and Smarter
The "Between the Lines" conversation explores three critical dimensions of AI's impact on insurance risk management:
Simplicity: Traditional COI verification requires insurance expertise most businesses lack. General contractors managing subcontractor insurance, property managerscoordinating vendor networks, and facility managers overseeing maintenance contractors typically don't have dedicated compliance specialists. AI translates complex insurance policy language into clear, actionable guidance—enabling nonexperts to manage compliance confidently without becoming insurance professionals themselves.
For businesses operating across Texas, California, Florida, New York, and nationwide, this simplification removes barriers that previously prevented effective risk management at scale.
Speed: Manual compliance processes move at human pace—documents reviewed sequentially, questions answered asynchronously, renewals tracked manually. AI operates at machine speed, instantly validating certificates of insurance against contract requirements, identifying missing endorsements, and delivering real-time feedback to vendors and subcontractors. Projects no longer stall waiting on paperwork. Construction timelines don't slip due to compliance delays. Operations maintain velocity while managing risk effectively.
Intelligence: Beyond automation, AI provides predictive insights that anticipate problems before they materialize. By analyzing patterns across millions of compliance interactions, intelligent systems identify vendors at risk of coverage lapses, flag emerging trends in policy exclusions, and surface indicators that traditional review processes miss entirely. This intelligence enables risk managers to shift resources proactively rather than reacting to crises.
Uncovering Coverage Gaps Before Losses Occur
The interview emphasizes AI's unique capability to detect hidden vulnerabilities in third-party insurance coverage. A certificate of insurance might appear compliant on its face—proper dates, adequate limits, required endorsements listed—yet contain exclusions or sub-limits buried in policy language that create devastating exposure when claims occur.
AI-powered compliance platforms read policies line-by-line, comparing actual coverage against contract requirements with precision human reviewers cannot match at scale. For commercial construction firms managing dozens of subcontractors, retail chainscoordinating maintenance across multiple locations, or property owners overseeing vendor networks, this capability prevents the nightmare scenario where apparent compliance proves illusory when tested by actual loss.
Practical Applications Across Industries
Nunery illustrates how AI transformation applies across sectors:
Construction: General contractors gain confidence that every subcontractor maintains proper workers' compensation, general liability, and required endorsements throughout project lifecycles—protecting against liability exposure that can derail developments or trigger devastating claims.
Commercial Real Estate: Property managers and real estate owners ensure maintenance vendors, janitorial services, and contractors accessing tenant-occupied spaces maintain adequate insurance coverage—reducing risk exposure while streamlining vendor coordination across portfolios.
Retail Operations: Retail businesses managing temporary labor, warehouse operations, and store maintenance verify third-party insurance compliance without expanding compliance staff—enabling growth without proportional increases in administrative overhead.
Manufacturing and Industrial: Facilities coordinating contractors, suppliers, and logistics providers maintain comprehensive visibility into vendor insurance status—preventing operational disruptions caused by coverage lapses.
The Strategic Imperative
The "Between the Lines" conversation underscores that AI-powered insurance compliance isn't merely operational improvement—it's strategic transformation. Organizations adopting intelligent systems gain competitive advantages through superior risk management, faster vendor onboarding, and reduced liability exposure that translates directly to improved financial performance.
For insurance professionals, brokers, and agents serving clients across industries, understanding this transformation is essential. Clients increasingly expect proactive risk insights rather than reactive verification. AI enables this shift while positioning insurance professionals as strategic advisors rather than administrative processors.
From Applied Intelligence to Applied Prevention
The interview title—"How AI Is Moving Insurance from Reactive to Proactive"—captures the fundamental paradigm shift. Traditional compliance asks "are we covered?" only when problems surface. AI-powered platforms continuously ask "where are we exposed?" and "what gaps exist before they trigger losses?"
This shift from applied intelligence to applied prevention represents the future of insurance risk management across construction, real estate, retail, manufacturing, and every industry where third-party relationships create compliance obligations and liability exposure.
Organizations embracing this transformation position themselves to prevent losses, strengthen partnerships, and build competitive advantage through superior risk management that operates at the speed and scale modern business demands.