Going into 2025, opportunity abounds in the commercial lines market. According to Statistics Canada, there are more than 1.3 million Canadian businesses, with approximately 98% of these being small (1-99 employees). The broker channel currently serves a large percentage of this business.
Small business owners are influenced by experiences and purchasing models outside of insurance, such as their banking or e-commerce buyer journeys. This means brokers must deliver their differentiated value propositions by means of fast and simple experiences to remain competitive in the year ahead.
Talent is another major trend affecting the broker channel going into 2025. Successfully attracting and retaining professionals that specialize in growth areas will be critical for the long-term success of all brokerages. Success will require a strong partnership with technology providers that offer modern, intuitive platforms that can easily be taught to new recruits.
In that light, digital transformation will accelerate in 2025. Technology adoption is fundamental to further investment in platforms that connect industry professionals to consumers, while simultaneously increasing industry efficiency and profitability. We see technology advancing in four ways that will make an impact in personal and commercial lines in 2025:
Open ecosystem – broker management systems will integrate with other stakeholders and technologies to create seamless workflow automation.
End-to-end BMS experiences – brokers will do more in their management systems. From front-office sales and marketing to back-office accounting and policy management, broker management systems will continue bringing each stage of the customer journey into a streamlined workflow, while minimizing E&O risk and enabling compliance with appropriate regulations and licensing requirements.
Operational efficiency – collaboration between brokers, software houses and industry bodies such as CSIO and IBAC will enable greater modernization, standardization and efficiency in brokers’ businesses.
Business Intelligence – brokers will have greater access to their data through easy-to-understand analytics and artificial intelligence. We see these helping brokers in three ways:
- They will know what’s happening now and what’s previously happened in their business.
- They will make decisions and recommendations based on data within their management systems.
They will be able to automate their next steps with assistance from technology.
