Commercial underwriting in 2025 is no longer a back-office function. It’s a competitive differentiator. But as submission volumes rise, risk complexity grows, and experienced talent retires, carriers are beginning to realize that automation alone won’t solve what’s next.
That’s where Agentic AI comes in. Unlike traditional automation, it doesn’t just follow rules—it thinks. Agentic AI enables dynamic triage, orchestrates decision-making, and adapts to appetite in real time. It’s the intelligence engine behind connected underwriting.
This blog explains what Agentic AI is, why it matters now, and how it is helping Chief Underwriting Officers (CUOs) unlock speed, precision and profitable growth at scale.
1. The Commercial Underwriting Crunch
Commercial underwriting is reaching an inflection point.
- Submission volumes in mid-market and E&S lines are up 35% YoY
- Underwriter capacity is flat or declining due to retirements and burnout
Over 50% of underwriter time is still consumed by low-value tasks like data extraction and email follow-up¹ - Less than 25% of complex risks are handled through straight-through processing³
While automation has improved efficiency, it hasn’t solved for context, decision quality, or scalability. That’s where Agentic AI comes in.
2. What Is Agentic AI?
Agentic AI refers to intelligent systems that can act with context, not just follow instructions. It’s designed to:
- Interpret data in real time
- Prioritize and route work based on business objectives
- Make next-best-action recommendations
- Adapt and evolve based on outcomes
In underwriting, Agentic AI means more than just auto-classifying emails or extracting fields. It scores submissions for appetite, win potential and portfolio fit—then orchestrates workflows accordingly.
This is not automation for the sake of speed. It’s intelligence for the sake of strategy.
3. Why Traditional Automation Isn’t Enough
Most automation in underwriting today is linear: extract, validate, route.
But commercial underwriting isn’t linear. Appetite shifts. Broker relationships matter. Some risks need deep manual review, others don’t. Basic automation can’t adapt to this.
Agentic AI does. It replaces fixed rules with dynamic prioritization. It understands the interplay of risk, opportunity, and underwriter capacity. It lets your organization decide what to act on, not just how fast to act.
The payoff? A 30–50% efficiency gain, reduced quote turnaround, and better alignment with portfolio strategy.
4. Agentic AI in Triage and Intake
One of the most transformative uses of Agentic AI is in submission triage. Historically, triage was rule-based and rigid. Submissions were processed first-in, first-out or routed by basic line-of-business logic.
Agentic AI changes that.
Using data from prior submissions, broker behavior, underwriting outcomes and appetite shifts, the model can evaluate each deal based on: Propensity to bind, Fit with strategic appetite, Alignment with underwriter bandwidth and expertise, and Portfolio saturation or exposure limits.
Agentic AI evaluates submissions at intake based on:
- Appetite alignment
- Completeness of data
- Historical win rates for similar risks
- Underwriter bandwidth and specialization
It then triggers real-time actions:
- Auto-decline with instant broker notification
- Route to a specific underwriter based on complexity
- Request missing information or documents
- Prioritize high-winnability submissions for immediate review
Carriers using this model have seen:
- Up to 40% improvement in hit ratios by focusing on the right deals
- 30% time savings by avoiding unwinnable submissions
- “Clear-ready” deals routed within minutes, not hours
This is how underwriting scales—by deciding what not to underwrite.
5. Agentic AI and Connected Underwriting
Agentic AI is the engine behind connected underwriting—a model in which triage, intake, risk assessment and decision support all flow through a unified intelligence layer.
Connected underwriting powered by Agentic AI enables:
- Data unification across legacy, broker and third-party sources
- Automated ingestion with 99.9% data accuracy at intake
- Real-time orchestration based on risk appetite and portfolio goals
- Configurable workflows without rip-and-replace system changes
- Continuous learning from bind outcomes, declinations and quote-to-bind ratios
The result is a live, learning system that delivers on what commercial carriers need most: profitable growth, underwriter leverage and speed-to-quote without compromise.
At Sutherland, we have successfully built and deployed Agentic AI in connected underwriting workflows for our clients.
6. Learning From Outcomes: The Feedback Loop Advantage
Unlike static models or rules engines, Agentic AI is designed to evolve. Every outcome—whether a bind, decline or quote—is captured, analyzed and used to improve the next decision.
This feedback loop drives:
- Smarter triage and prioritization
- Improved submission scoring
- Better appetite calibration
- Adaptive automation logic based on market trends
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 60% of underwriting decisions will be shaped by adaptive AI models, not hard-coded business rules³. The competitive edge lies in how quickly and effectively a carrier can learn from its own outcomes.
7. What CUOs/ Underwriters Should Prioritize Now
For CUOs and Underwriting heads, Agentic AI isn’t a future investment. It’s a present-day strategic lever.
Key actions CUOs must prioritize:
- Operationalize selection strategies: Embed triage logic that enforces appetite and portfolio goals
- Break submission bottlenecks: Automate data cleanup, clearance and triage workflows
- Track win/loss data: Use bind outcomes to train scoring models
- Integrate decision support: Give underwriters real-time context on appetite, exposure and saturation
- Avoid rip-and-replace: Choose AI that works across legacy systems through APIs and federated data
This is not a tech project. It’s a business performance strategy. Sutherland’s connected underwriting solution helps underwriting teams bring these capabilities to the forefront and become future-ready today!
8. Conclusion
Commercial underwriting is at a turning point. Automation has delivered efficiencies—but intelligence is what drives advantage.
Agentic AI enables carriers to:
- Quote faster
- Target better
- Underwrite smarter
- And scale with confidence
It connects what matters—people, data and strategy—into a living underwriting system.
To learn more about connected underwriting in the age of AI, visit our solution center or connect with us for an expert briefing!
References
- Everest Group. Digital Underwriting: How to Drive Intelligence and Speed Across the Underwriting Life Cycle, 2025
- HFS Research. Top 10 Insurance Trends for 2025
- Gartner. Top Strategic Technology Trends in Insurance 2025
