Next-level P&C Insurance Underwriting

In commercial underwriting, submissions rarely contain everything underwriters need to properly assess risks. Critical information such as SEC filings, cyber incidents, litigation history, or executive misconduct aren't in the application, and finding that data falls on the underwriter.

The stakes are high: miss one key detail, and underwriters are suddenly pricing a completely different risk. The research to uncover this information means hours going through public sources such as news archives and databases.

All while brokers demand quotes fast in an increasingly competitive market.

Why We Built it

With Research Agent, underwriters have a research partner who finds the gaps in the submission, locates the missing pieces, and brings back the insights that matter for the decision. 

The agent does the external research work on the underwriter’s behalf. By filling critical information gaps and applying research from the public web and connected third-party data sources into Sixfold’s overall risk assessment, underwriters are given a complete risk picture for more precise appraisal. Underwriters can view the exact origin of any piece of information, with clickable links that take them directly to the original source for verification or further detail.

The result? Quotes go out faster, underwriters make more consistent calls, and decisions get made without wondering what might have been missed.

“Research Agent has been one of our most anticipated features, especially for customers in specialty lines with complex cases where extensive research is needed to get a complete picture of the risk.

We expect the agent to save them at least two hours per submission.”
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- Alex Schmelkin, Founder & CEO at Sixfold

When Research Makes Or Breaks The Quote

Sixfold’s Research Agent is designed to support commercial lines of business where external data is essential in risk evaluation and quoting. Lines of business we’re seeing the highest demand for include:

General Liability - Public web research to capture OSHA violations, litigation history, and negative press coverage

Cyber - 3rd party cyber threat intelligence plus broader public web research for cyber breach disclosures and corporate litigation involving cybersecurity lapses

E&S Property - Public and/or 3rd party data on location and climate based risks (flood, wildfire, crime, etc.), permit history, and company mentions in the news

Directors & Officers (D&O) - News on executive misconduct, class-action lawsuits, SEC filings, and shareholder news

Healthcare & Life Sciences - Public records of malpractice lawsuits, regulatory actions, patient safety concerns, and news coverage related to clinical trials or product safety

While Competitors Prep, You Price

Research Agent delivers wins across the board, immediate time savings for underwriters and competitive advantages insurers. 

“We’re seeing growing demand for research-heavy underwriting. With this launch, we accelerate the time to quote while elevating decision-making with richer context.”
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- Lana Jovanovic, Head of Product at Sixfold

Focus on what matters: Those hours gained back per case? That's time underwriters can spend on what they do best: making smart risk decisions, strengthening broker relationships, and building customer connections instead of drowning in research tasks.

Speed wins deals: Reduced manual research burden means underwriters can respond faster to brokers, increase their quote volume, and capture more bound premiums. For carriers competing on both responsiveness and quality, this means winning more of the right business.

Same quality, every time: Every underwriter now has access to the same thorough research process. No more inconsistency based on who's handling the case or how much time they have to dig. Better decisions, whether it's one case or a thousand.

Improved portfolio performance: Sixfold’s comprehensive risk assessment, now with the added capability of public web research and connected third-party data, equips underwriters with a deeper understanding of each risk.

Contact Sixfold to see the Research Agent in action.

Over the past 2+ years, we've built an AI underwriting brain that evaluates risk based on each insurer's specific risk appetite, helping underwriters get better quotes out the door, faster.

Now we're expanding our capabilities with agentic research that provides deeper insights, intelligent risk synthesis that connects important patterns, and documentation that's actionable and audit-ready.

The result? Underwriting teams can operate at the speed their business demands, with the consistency and scale they need to stay competitive.

Underwriting AI: From Nice-to-Have to Business Critical

Commercial underwriting faces increasing complexity: rising costs from inflation and litigation, escalating risks from natural disasters and geopolitical instability, and mounting pressure from clients.

Meanwhile, 93% of business leaders believe companies that successfully deploy AI agents in the next 12 months will outpace their competitors¹. BCG identifies underwriting as the function where carriers will see the most measurable AI impact. The reason is clear: commercial underwriters spend hours daily on research, documentation, and repetitive tasks that AI handles expertly.

"Ask any underwriter how they spend their time, and they'll tell you: research and documentation.
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Sixfold now cuts through those two major components so teams can get back to the work that matters: making decisions, nurturing broker relationships, and building their portfolio."
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- Lana Jovanovic, Head of Product at Sixfold

What’s New? 

Research Agent: Agentic Detective for Hidden Risk Data

In commercial underwriting, submissions rarely contain everything underwriters need to properly assess risks. Critical information such as SEC filings, cyber incidents, litigation history, or executive misconduct aren't in the application, and finding that data falls on the underwriter.
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The Research Agent does the external research work on the underwriter’s behalf. By filling critical information gaps and applying research from the public web and connected third-party data sources into Sixfold’s overall risk assessment, underwriters are given a complete risk picture for more precise appraisal.

The impact? Saving underwriters at least 2 hours per submission which means faster replies to brokers, increased quote volume, and more bound premiums. 

Learn more about Research Agent here.

Narrative: Instant Case Notes That Fit Your Standards

Manual documentation drains productivity and invites inconsistency. With Narrative, Sixfold automatically generates case documentation aligned to your risk appetite, use case, and preferred format, whether for quoting, referrals, audits, or compliance.

The impact? Underwriters get clear, structured summaries to act on (and an average of 60 minutes time saved per case) and insurers gain consistent, audit-ready documentation.

Read more about Narrative, including the benefits the Zurich North America team has already seen. 

Deep Thinker: The Heavy Lifter for Complex Risk

Risk assessment isn’t just about data, it’s about understanding. Deep Thinker enhances Sixfold’s core risk assessment brain with a specialized AI model designed for complex reasoning, numerical calculations and trend analysis, and deeper operational considerations.

The impact? Delivers more accurate and precise risk signals.

For example, Deep Thinker can flag concerning cybersecurity practices such as a company's outdated SSL certificates, accurately calculate key metrics such as a 30% rise in phishing claims, and explain its rationale and calculations in plain language. Feeding nuanced facts into the underwriting brain for risk signaling.

"These features hit every major pain point that underwriters deal with on a daily basis: manual research, inconsistent documentation, and complex risk analysis. Instead of spending hours on these tasks, Sixfold delivers it in minutes."
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- Laurence Brouillette, Head of Customers & Partnerships at Sixfold

Benefits for Underwriters & Insurers 

Get quotes out the door faster: Insurers typically average 8 days from submission to quote³—Sixfold can turn that into hours, helping carriers beat out competitors and win more business.

Standardization built right in: 70% of insurers cite inconsistent underwriting decisions as a core problem⁴. The combined power of Sixfold’s AI risk assessment, advanced risk appetite, and automated case documentation ensure consistent, scalable (and audit-ready!) underwriting across individuals and teams.‍
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Moving beyond the back office: By eliminating manual research and documentation tasks, Sixfold gives underwriters more quoting capacity, plus the time and mental bandwidth back for thoughtful judgements, broker relationships, and portfolio building.
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To learn how Sixfold can help your underwriting team scale, schedule a demo.

No one became an underwriter because they love writing case documentation. But that’s where a huge amount of time goes today. Referral notes, peer review memos, audit documentation, written and rewritten, case after case. 

• A single case can take an hour, often several hours, to document.
• Multiply that across a typical team handling hundreds of submissions each week. The result is thousands of hours spent each year on documentation alone.
• Underwriters are doing this work while balancing dozens of other tasks: reviewing new submissions, responding to brokers, preparing quotes, and managing existing accounts.

80% Automation, 20% Judgment

Sixfold’s Narrative feature automates and standardizes how risk is communicated across the organization. It automatically generates a risk narrative that matches each insurer’s appetite, tone and format, while giving underwriters the flexibility to apply their own judgment where it matters.

See below for a quick product walkthrough from Shirley Shen, Senior Product Manager @Sixfold:

The Narrative feature is built to:

1. Align with the insurer’s unique risk appetite
2. Surface key facts and risk insights that matter most
3. Adhere to required documentation standards and formats

“Think of all the documents underwriters have to create for administrative purposes. Anything that requires them to synthesize the risk overall. Sixfold is doing 80% of that now: bringing together all the facts. Then the underwriter just adds the last 20%, the judgment call.” 
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- Laurence Brouillette, Head of Customers and Partnerships @Sixfold

Proven with Zurich’s North America Team

The Narrative feature was developed and validated through the 2024 Zurich Innovation Championship (ZIC).

Over a 6-week sprint with Zurich’s North America Middle Market team, Sixfold:

• Partnered with 16 underwriters and was used in 80%+ of their live submissions
• Processed nearly 4,000 pages of submission and web data
• Achieved an average of 60 minutes time savings per submission

Following this success, Narrative is now rolling out across Zurich’s U.S. offices.

"We launched with four Zurich Middle Market offices in January 2025 and are now expanding Sixfold to dozens more offices countrywide.”

- Amy Nelsen, Head of Underwriting Operations, U.S. Middle Market @Zurich North America

How Zurich gives underwriters time back with Sixfold — featured in The Insurer.

AI That Actually Gets Used

Narrative is a great starting point for insurers looking to bring AI into underwriting workflows today. It takes the repetitive parts of the job off underwriters’ hands without requiring them to change how they already work. 

“Sixfold streamlines the way underwriters receive information on new submissions, offering a holistic and simplified overview of a business’s operations and exposures right from the point of entry into our workflow.”

- Madison Chapman, Senior Middle Market Underwriter @Zurich North America

How Sixfold is transforming underwriting for Zurich’s U.S. Middle Market team.

When underwriters experience that impact immediately, with fewer hours spent writing up cases and fewer rounds of revisions, adoption happens easily. AI becomes part of the flow of work because it genuinely makes the day-to-day tasks so much easier.

Get in touch to see how Sixfold fits your underwriting workflow.