By: Mark D. Milbrod, CLU, CLTC
Vice President, ASG
Walk into any financial services conference lately, and you’ll hear a lot of chatter about how Artificial Intelligence is going to revolutionize our industry. We are told that algorithms can underwrite in seconds, chatbots can answer complex policy questions, and robo-advisors can perfectly map out a client’s financial future.
As an independent agent who spends every day helping people secure life insurance, annuities, disability income, and long-term care insurance, I have a front-row seat to this evolution. And while I appreciate a sleek digital portal as much as the next person, I’ll let you in on a fundamental truth: AI does not sell insurance. People buy insurance from people.
When it comes to protecting a family’s future, data processing only gets you to the starting line. The finish line requires something a machine simply cannot replicate: a pulse.
You Can’t Code Empathy
No one wakes up on a Tuesday morning, clicks a link, and eagerly buys a long-term care policy just for the fun of it. People look into these products because something happened.
Maybe they just watched an aging parent exhaust their life savings in an assisted living facility. Maybe a colleague suffered a sudden stroke, or a close friend passed away, leaving a young family behind. These are emotional, often painful wake-up calls.
When a client sits across from me to discuss disability or long-term care insurance, they aren’t looking for an algorithm. They are looking for a guide. They need someone who will listen to their fears, validate their anxiety, and share a human moment.
AI can calculate the mathematical probability of a disability, but it will never understand the gut-wrenching worry of a primary breadwinner wondering how they’ll pay the mortgage if they can’t work.
The Illusory “Simple” Solution
The tech world loves to pitch the idea of a frictionless, “three-click” insurance purchase. That might work fine for a basic renters policy or a standard car insurance quote, but the core pillars of asset protection are rarely simple.
Take annuities, for example. An annuity isn’t just a commodity you throw in a digital shopping cart; it’s a customized retirement paycheck designed to ensure a client doesn’t outlive their money. Balancing accumulation, downside protection, and lifetime income requires a deep understanding of a client’s specific life goals, tax situation, and family dynamics.
A chatbot can spit out a product illustration, but it can’t read the subtle shift in a client’s body language when they realize they might not have enough saved for retirement. It can’t ask the nuanced follow-up questions that uncover a client’s true risk tolerance.
| What AI Sees | What a Human Agent Sees |
| Age, income, and zip code | A parent wanting to ensure their kids can go to college. |
| Actuarial life expectancy tables | A spouse terrified of leaving their partner financially stranded. |
| Standard health risk classifications | A survivor who fought back from a medical setback and needs a champion in underwriting. |
The Underwriting Champion
Speaking of underwriting, this is where the human element truly shines. Behind every medical history is a human story.
If a client has a pre-existing condition, a digital application might trigger an automatic, cold rejection based purely on data points. A dedicated agent, however, knows how to package that case. We know which carriers view certain risks more favorably, how to tell a client’s story to an underwriter, and how to advocate for the best possible rating. We fight for our clients. A line of code just follows a script.
The Bottom Line: Trust Over Tech
At the end of the day, our business isn’t built on lines of code, cloud storage, or automated email sequences. It is built entirely on trust.
When a client signs their name to a life insurance or long-term care policy, they are making a promise to protect the people they love most, often long after they are gone. They want to look the person who helped them make that promise in the eye. They want to know that when the worst happens, their family won’t be navigating a digital “Help Center” or talking to a synthetic voice — they’ll be calling a partner who knows them by name.
AI is a tool, and it’s a great one for clearing out paperwork and speeding up back-office tasks. But it is not an advisor. It doesn’t have a heart, it doesn’t have experience, and it can’t build a relationship.
Technology can help us process the paperwork, but it’s the human connection that protects families. And that is something an algorithm will never replace.