Legacy insurance systems can create challenges for insurance carriers; outdated technology and disconnected systems can make it difficult to integrate new technology and products, and automate workflows. As a result, modernization has become a priority for many insurers.
Adam Ibrahum, founder and CEO of the insurtech ForceAI, shared with Digital Insurance how his company addresses these pain points with its unified platform that aims to simplify and automate operations.
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What is your name and title?
Adam Ibrahim, CEO and founder of ForceAI.
How did you come into your leadership position?
I founded a company that purchased mostly student housing near Binghamton, New York, where I attended college. My company eventually bought over 60 buildings; in the process, we became close with a regional P&C carrier.
I then sat on the board of this carrier for five years. Eventually, they asked my partner, a full-stack engineer, if we could help them modernize their core system. Our review determined that, in short, we could best help by building a modern, AI-native platform from scratch.
The core systems and connected tech that carriers are using to run their business have become increasingly fragmented and dated. Similar to problems with legacy auto makers and other capital heavy legacy industries, legacy insurance core system providers have an innovator's dilemma and sunk cost in old infrastructure, technical debt and talent gaps — all of which makes it hard for them to redesign and ship modern core systems that run the entire insurance business in one unified environment and works well with AI to automate work and improve underwriting.
I started Force with my partner to fill this gap. We have successfully rebuilt the core systems that power carriers with an enhanced level of automation, customization and functionality. Now, we need to transmit what we have built further into the industry.
What advice would you give to other insurtech leaders or to yourself 5 years ago?
Focus on building something that is actually useful in a provable way, even if the scope is narrow. Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of chasing narrative themes and building in crowded spaces around what is cool and popular. The most valuable innovations, however, come from building to solve a problem that one uniquely sees as important and that not many others are addressing. An example of this in the insurance space is the prevalence of wrappers and bolt-on AI insight tools. These are not very valuable long term, because they do not do useful work inside of core systems and are quickly disintermediated by the frontier models, which do the work better without a middleman.
How do you see AI changing insurance over the next 5 years?
Our sense is that AI will continue to help automate workflows and improve data enrichment in underwriting and claims on the margin, but that it will happen more gradually than many expect.
It is under-appreciated how much existing technical debt and maintenance sit in the core systems and infrastructure that powers the industry. It is also underestimated how much human and change management it takes to reliably automate a workflow in a highly regulated and trusted industry like insurance. There will be transformation, but it will happen incrementally, in the form of single digit improvements in efficiencies and the product over time in those carriers who are most proactive and willing to drive change.
What is the biggest opportunity for insurtechs over the next 6 months?
Getting useful work in core systems, using AI to a high level of consistency and reliability, even if it is only with simpler tasks. AI cannot create any real value until it gets to a high enough level of accuracy that the productivity is not outweighed by the cost of monitoring, governing and maintaining the system.
Presently, the equation is net negative, which is why we are not seeing any of the economic benefits flow through the financials of carriers yet.
What is the biggest mistake insurtechs make these days?
The biggest mistake is bolting on untested tools with nice looking demos rather than thinking from their existing core systems and infrastructure outward.
This method invariably leads to over-promising, and then failing to deliver results in a timely, cost-effective way.
The real downside is even worse: carriers are increasingly skeptical of any claims insurtechs make given how ubiquitously carriers have been previously burned. This makes it exponentially more difficult for those insurtechs with a product that actually works to convince a carrier to try that product.
Does the company name have any meaning?
"ForceAI" is intended to be a descriptor of a powerful platform whose foundation, architecture and engineering are revolutionary.
What is your primary line of business?
Force's platform allows P&C and health carriers to manage all of their systems on a single connected platform, custom-built to each carrier's needs. Through extraordinarily engineered modules and microservices, Force's clients can modernize on their own timeline.
When was it founded?
2024
What pain points is the technology trying to solve?
Force is solving multiple legacy problems, like speed of implementation, for example. Force typically integrates in months—not years—through AI-assisted implementation. The platform is built from the ground up to safely support automation and AI as the business is ready to apply it. Data security can also be a concern, but Force does not train models on a carrier's data. Force only calls to models when absolutely necessary, and each carrier has its own isolated environment.
Force also tackles disconnected systems by unifying underwriting, claims, billing, reporting, origination and policyholder experiences into one system. Through configurations, Force has made it incredibly easy to launch new lines, adjust processes and evolve as the business changes. Difficulty in learning new processes is another legacy challenge, but Force is designed for fast adoption across carrier teams, agents and policyholders.
What funding rounds has the company had?
None. ForceAI is self-funded.
What's ahead?
Force continues to meet with and demonstrate our system to carriers with legacy tech. As the market adapts to using a relatively new company like Force, change will come more rapidly.
We also meet with consultants who understand why the system we have created is needed for carriers looking to modernize and thrive.
How many employees does your company have?
10
Where is the company based?
Florida
