Managing general agents are being pushed to overhaul their pricing and underwriting operations as commercial insurance rates soften and competition tightens, according to independent research commissioned by pricing and underwriting insurtech Optalitix. The study, Pricing Transformation in MGAs, found that more than four in five MGAs have either already modernised their pricing capabilities or plan to start projects within the next 12 months, marking a shift from planning to

By Karsten Ries, CEO at ONICS Five lessons from the Nordics where insurers are using IoT sensors to reduce losses, gain insights, and drive growth through enhanced customer loyalty. The UK home insurance sector has not made a profit since 2019, aside from Net Combined Ratio (NCR) of 98% in 2025, with a NCR for 2026 predicted at 103%, according to E&Y. Escalating claims severity, an ageing housing base, rising repair and materials costs, and aggressive price competition have a

Optalitix, the London-based pricing and underwriting insurtech, has added agentic AI to its Optalitix Quote platform, letting underwriters at insurers, reinsurers and MGAs query their pricing systems in plain English rather than navigating dashboards, filters and reports. The functionality ships disabled by default and inherits the platform's existing role-based permissions, meaning only already-authorised users can reach it once a client switches it on. The mechanic is a con

Underwriting professionals have flipped the script on artificial intelligence: rather than fearing it, 86% of underwriters now say AI has made them more optimistic about the profession's future, according to new research from Sixfold, the AI underwriting firm that raised $30 million in a Series B round in January 2026. The finding, drawn from a survey of 543 underwriting professionals across the United States and Europe, reframes a debate that until recently centred on whethe