We still see the same challenges in underwriting that were experienced by underwriters more than 10 years ago, according to Mia Paulsen, Principal Product Manager at Guidewire, and Joseline Lajara, Director of Product Management at Guidewire.
Speaking during the Guidewire Connections 2025 breakout session - Underwriting Vision & Roadmap: Leveraging AI for Efficiency and Profitability - Joseline outlined that, having spoken to more than 120 carriers, the challenges they face see the same patterns persisting along the submissions lifecycle - and they relate to how data is processed and the insights extracted from it. Joseline explained that these challenges fell into four categories.
Right data, wrong time
Critical information can often be scattered across silos. Once it’s gathered, the next hurdle is accessing what’s needed to make decisions.
Mia explains: “When you're trying to triage, for example, you may be looking at 6-10 data points in order to determine a yes or no. You will be looking at maybe a 1000 data fields at that time. For some commercial lines, triage doesn’t need 1000 data fields.”
Ultimately, decisions are slowed from lack of context when it matters the most.
Endless re-keying across systems
This is also a symptom of siloed working. In many cases, systems are not interconnected or interoperable, leading to endless re-keying. Currently, underwriters may be using 8 to 12 systems at any given point in time. Underwriters spend hours re-keying data across policy admin, rating engines, and third-party portals. This is not only a slow and error-prone activity, it also takes away from evaluating the actual risk.
Systems force underwriters to change their process
As well as the systems being numerous, they are not built with the underwriter in mind. Instead, they are transaction-based. Joseline adds that many carriers “have to adjust their secret sauce” and change the way they do this to accommodate the systems.
Missing context, experience and intelligence layer natively
It is not uncommon for underwriters to track and manage in-progress submissions using everything from spreadsheets to sticky notes. The audience expressed agreement when Mia highlighted the amount of intelligence lost in email folders: “You don't have the intelligence of why you declined specific submissions a year ago, how many specific submissions you're getting from a broker, [or] what are the things you need to be upselling.”
Both Mia and Joseline outlined that these challenges lead to fragmented underwriting and missed opportunities.
During the session, Joseline outlined Guidewire’s vision to support underwriters in tackling these challenges. At the heart of this vision is UnderwritingCenter, Guidewire’s intelligent and flexible underwriting application. UnderwritingCenter is redefining underwriting through intuitive, agentic intelligence. The first element of Guidewire’s strategy - Underwriting Assistant - speaks directly to the key challenge of triage.
Mia added that Guidewire’s underwriting solutions are “built to serve underwriters, and our goal is to keep underwriters in the driving seat at all times”.
Joseline added that Guidewire intends to release more products and services in the coming years to support the industry in addressing these challenges and elevating underwriting.
Click here to view a recording of this session, and look out for more breakout session reviews in our Guidewire Connections 2025 blog series.