Paul Carroll
To start out, can you tell us a bit about your role at Conner Strong & Buckelew and how it has evolved?
Taruja Deshmukh
I joined the firm about 12 years ago working on the P&C account management side. I started as an account analyst and eventually moved into an account executive role, managing a book of business. About four or five years ago, I raised my hand to get more involved in projects focusing on data and new technology platforms. It was clear to me that there was going to be a lot of opportunity in that space, especially at a brokerage.
From there, I helped to form an internal insurtech practice group. I now lead our “labs. by Conner Strong” initiative, which is focused on improving operational efficiencies, enhancing the customer experience and creating an innovative and inclusive culture. I support the firm's relationships with external partners, both in the insurtech community as well as our initiatives with BrokerTech Ventures.
Paul Carroll
Twelve years is basically a lifetime in the insurtech world. How have you seen things evolve in those 12 years in terms of the technology you're able to use and what you're able to do with it?
Taruja Deshmukh
It's definitely come a long way. Usage has accelerated rapidly.
One of the reasons we decided to help launch BrokerTech Ventures was that, when we saw new technologies rolled out, those solutions were typically geared toward insurance carriers, consumers, clients or risk managers. They weren’t designed for brokers. Over the last couple years, we've been able to participate more to actually create and help scale solutions for brokers.
Paul Carroll
Can you tell us a bit about the work the lab is doing and how you identify and support those insurtechs that are relevant to brokers?
Taruja Deshmukh
With BrokerTech Ventures, which is the first broker-centric, broker-led insurtech hub of scale, we have created an ecosystem across the country—really the globe, considering the international outreach with our Israel and Latin American partners. Within that ecosystem, we attract insurtech start-ups by providing access to forward-thinking brokers, the ability to reach POCs [proofs of concept] and pilot with different partners, and by providing hands-on mentorship. The support we provide is both financial and strategic, and the wide distribution that we represent really appeals to insurtechs as they look to scale their companies.
Outside of the BTV accelerator program, we focus heavily on collaboration and employee engagement. We're looking at what the pain points are within different departments and ways to solve them. We are continually evaluating both start-ups and established insurtechs and providing the ability for employees to test out solutions to see what’s going to actually help our operations and our clients, and we engage with our external partners in sharing experiences and feedback on what has and has not worked.
Paul Carroll
What are people finding useful? What's the secret sauce?
Taruja Deshmukh
A big focus for us has been on data. The ability to extract and aggregate data in a scalable way and reduce our reliance on manual and time-consuming processes has had a big impact on our operations. We're better able to leverage unstructured data, including PDFs and handwritten documents, to enhance our analytical capabilities. We've also used RPA [robotic process automation] technology quite a bit over the last couple of years to incorporate more efficiencies into day-to-day processes. When it comes to our clients, we've also been able to elevate their experience by doing things like implementing a digital application platform and connecting them with tech-forward risk management tools like wearable devices and sensors.
Paul Carroll
There's so much unstructured information out there. Eventually, AI will get to the point where you can get a recommendation that is much better for the underwriter or you can handle the claim or whatever. In the meantime, you can certainly amass all the information more efficiently.
Are you doing anything with ChatGPT?
Taruja Deshmukh
We're in the early experimental stages right now. There are some folks who are embracing the technology and others who are more skeptical, especially considering data security issues. But, overall, we understand the potential it has and are testing use cases using non-proprietary and non-confidential information to see how ChatGPT can help teams perform certain tasks quicker with a head start from AI. We're also looking at long-term ways that we can harness the power of generative AI to have an even bigger impact on our operations, including with training and development and accelerated data analysis.
Paul Carroll
With the lab, you find yourself collaborating with other brokerages on technology, That must be a little weird.
Taruja Deshmukh
It actually works very well. One of the main objectives in creating BrokerTech Ventures was that we can have a greater impact on the industry working together rather than any one firm working on its own. The collaboration with like-minded brokers has been invaluable. And the access to insurtechs through
the accelerator program has definitely helped us with our innovation objectives. The partners in BTV have been very open. Many of us are trying to solve the same pain points, and it's allowed us to leverage the collective innovative thinking of brokers and carriers from across the country.
Paul Carroll
You're one of the people who deliberately went into insurance, I talk to so many people who say they just fell into it as a career, but you actually studied it at Temple. Could you ever have imagined yourself evolving into this sort of role? Tell me a little bit about that journey.
Taruja Deshmukh
No, I would not have pictured myself where I am today. When I decided to major in risk management and insurance, my main objective was just to get a job when I graduated. I started college in 2007, and then in 2008 the economic crisis happened. Seeing all of those people struggling to find jobs scared me a little. I was in the business school trying to figure out what to major in when I happened upon risk management. I liked the material that we were studying, and Temple University has a really great risk program that had some unheard-of, like 90-something percent, job placement rate upon graduation.
Paul Carroll
People talk a lot about the war for talent, and it seems to me that when you start talking about doing the kinds of things you're doing, that might be a way to get people more revved up than they would have been about the industry.
Taruja Deshmukh
I 100% believe that. I think embracing technology and innovation is critical when it comes to attracting and retaining the next generation of talent. Recruiting for the insurance industry is already a challenge. Not many individuals even know about insurance and all of the opportunities. And once we bring people in, we can't undermine our efforts by not giving them the tools and technology they need to excel in their roles.
Paul Carroll
If we have a conversation five years from today, what accomplishments will you tell me about based on the kind of work you're doing now?
Taruja Deshmukh
A longer-term goal is to change the mindset of the way we're doing business to be a much more data-driven process. That's a challenge. But data is key.
Today, we rely quite a bit on disparate, legacy systems. Ideally, I would like to see a more advanced foundation, where our data is connected, visible and easily accessible, which creates a better framework for standardization, increased automation and the reduction of time-consuming manual work.
If we can do that, then people can instead spend more time focusing on the important things: talking to clients, digging into exposures, building solutions and improving program design.
Paul Carroll
Thanks, Taruja.
About Taruja Deshmukh
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Taruja Deshmukh is the InsurTech Solutions Manager for Conner Strong & Buckelew. In this role, Deshmukh leads labs. BY CONNER STRONG, the firm’s centralized innovation hub, focused on improving operational efficiencies, enhancing the customer experience, creating an innovation and inclusive culture, and driving innovation forward in the industry. Deshmukh manages various projects designed to explore, evaluate, and implement insurtech solutions to achieve the firm’s innovation goals through collaboration with leadership across all departments and active engagement with employees. Deshmukh also supports relationships with external partners in the insurtech community, as well as the company’s initiatives within BrokerTech Ventures, the first broker-centric, broker-led insurtech platform. Deshmukh joined Conner Strong & Buckelew in June 2011, after graduating Temple University with her undergraduate degree in Risk Management & Insurance and International Business. While at Temple University, Deshmukh was actively involved in the Risk Management & Insurance program and completed internships with Travelers Insurance and Marsh USA. Most recently, Deshmukh earned her AIDA (Associate in Insurance Data Analytics) designation, which focuses on the conception and application of utilizing big data in the insurance industry and adopting innovation into the company culture. |
