“AI should mean impact. It can’t just be a buzzword or a checkbox. The question is: does it make your underwriting or claims teams faster, more accurate, and more efficient? If AI helps reduce manual effort, improves automation, supports self-service, and helps customers move faster with confidence, then it’s valuable. If it doesn’t drive those outcomes, it’s just noise.”
– Siddharth Kotwal, SVP of Delivery & Quality
This article is an excerpt from the P&C Insurance Leaders’ Outlook 2026.
As head of implementation for Cogitate, Siddharth Kotwal is focused on continuous improvement of the implementation process. He leads the charge to deliver the highest quality solutions, while meeting the rapid delivery demands of the market.
Michael: Looking ahead, what’s the biggest shift in insurer and MGA demands from technology?
Sid: Customers are demanding more speed and higher velocity to reach the market for ‘early bird advantage.’ This means a continued rise in expectations around speed and delivery from implementation teams. In addition, customers want capabilities quicker so they can extract the outcomes faster. They’re expanding into new markets, moving into new states, launching new products, and trying to scale efficiently. That puts pressure on technology to keep up.
To respond to this in 2026, Cogitate is about increasing velocity: delivering value faster, improving the user experience, and making sure customers can get results without long cycles or heavy manual effort.
Michael: When you say “velocity,” what does that actually translate into for a customer?
Sid: Michael, it translates into reducing the time between “we need to do this” and “it’s live!” A lot of insurers lose momentum because implementation takes too long. Velocity means fewer blockers. It means making it easier for customers to configure, launch, and iterate – and doing it in a way that still feels controlled and reliable.
Michael: What’s one thing you think customers will care about more in 2026 than they did in prior years?
Sid: They’ll care more about self-sufficiency. Customers don’t want to depend on support for everything. They want to be able to move quickly on their own, whether that’s making configuration changes, launching enhancements, or adjusting workflows. That’s why self-service and automation and AI matter so much. If customers can handle more of the process themselves, they’ll be able to respond faster to market conditions and grow without friction.
Michael: So where do you see the biggest opportunities to remove friction?
Sid: Manual work is still one of the biggest slowdowns. Anywhere customers are doing repetitive tasks – re-entering data, moving information between systems, relying on people to complete steps – that’s an opportunity. In 2026, technology should reduce that burden. Automation and AI should take care of the predictable steps so teams can focus on decisions and exceptions. That’s what unlocks speed without compromising quality.
Michael: A lot of teams are also thinking about AI. What should AI actually mean in 2026 for an insurer or MGA?
Sid: AI should mean impact. It can’t just be a buzzword or a checkbox. The question is: does it make your underwriting or claims teams faster, more accurate, and more efficient? If AI helps reduce manual effort, improves automation, supports self-service, and helps customers move faster with confidence, then it’s valuable. If it doesn’t drive those outcomes, it’s just noise.
Michael: If you had to define what “success” looks like by the end of 2026, what would you point to?
Sid: Success looks like customers being able to scale without feeling slowed down by their tech stack. They should be able to expand, launch, operate efficiently, and feel like technology is helping them move faster, not creating more complexity.
That’s what we’re aiming for: improving speed, increasing autonomy, and making the experience better and more reliable as customers grow.
Would you like to connect with a member of our team? Reach out to our experts today.
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