At Applied Net 2025, Taylor Rhodes (pictured), CEO of Applied Systems, outlined how the insurance industry is moving beyond basic data management toward a new era of intelligent, AI-driven workflows. Addressing brokers and agency leaders, Rhodes reflected on recent changes in technology and the company’s evolving product suite, while also discussing Applied’s acquisition of Cytora and its implications for digital risk intake.
Rhodes began by reflecting on the momentum of the insurtech wave and the current surge in AI investment. “Back then in 2019, I remember joining Applied only a few short months before Applied Net, but the energy here was palpable,” he said. “Insurtech had hit the scene in a big way, challenging conventional thinking and pushing technology providers like Applied to be more innovative and to go faster.”
He compared today’s AI hype cycle to that earlier period, noting the influx of capital and startups targeting insurance workflows. “Applied is committed to being the leading specialist in insurance AI,” Rhodes said, emphasizing that the company’s investments are focused on delivering practical, insurance-specific solutions.
Rhodes referenced a recent article which divided agency work into three categories: hero work (the high-value, differentiating activities brokers pride themselves on), administrative work (the repetitive, non-differentiating tasks), and work not done (valuable work left undone due to lack of time or resources). “AI is uniquely positioned to automate the admin work and unlock the work not done, freeing brokers to focus on hero work – advising clients, winning new business, and delivering value,” he said.
He distinguished between horizontal AI – general-purpose tools that handle basic tasks – and vertical, insurance-specific AI. “In our case, insurance AI builds off these horizontal models but gets into the complex, insurance-specific workflows that require a real understanding of the work to be done and what good looks like as an outcome,” Rhodes explained.
Rhodes highlighted Applied’s dual AMS strategy (Applied Epic and EZLynx), designed to give brokers choice and flexibility. “We believe in choice for our clients, and so you’ve got Applied Epic and EZLynx to choose from,” he said, noting that EZLynx is the fastest-growing AMS by agency count.
Now, as Applied looks to expand further, central to its vision is the “digital round trip” – the end-to-end workflow from prospecting and submissions to policy management, financials, and servicing. Rhodes said, “The maturation of AI models allows us to turbocharge the round trip so that you can win more, create increasingly profitable revenue growth, and drive agency value.”
He introduced Applied Book Builder (ABB), a new prospecting and account rounding application built into Applied Epic. “ABB brings the power of insurance AI to the kind of work that differentiates your agency and helps you win more business,” Rhodes said. “It profiles the client or prospect’s business, identifies risk factors, suggests coverages, and provides evidence for recommendations - helping you improve renewal rates and identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.”
On the back-office side, meanwhile, Rhodes announced Applied Recon, an AI-powered reconciliation tool designed to automate the process of matching carrier statements and commissions. “Recon uses insurance AI to go from the mess of manual reconciliation to a fully automated and integrated experience,” he said. In testing, Recon processed carrier statements with 50,000 or more lines in about four seconds, with 100% accuracy on extracted data fields.
Rhodes also previewed Epic Max, a multi-year initiative to improve how brokers interact with Applied Epic. “Epic Max will deliver step-change improvements for users, making information within Applied Epic instantly and intuitively accessible, and giving you the ability to complete many of your daily tasks much more easily,” he said. The first phase, Max Search, is a global search experience that mimics Google, allowing users to quickly find and summarize documents, endorsements, or policy records. Future phases will introduce Max Assistant and Max Actions, enabling more automation and workflow guidance.
Rhodes emphasized that these innovations are being developed in partnership with brokers. “We want you to be part of the design and pilot phases and give us your feedback so that we make it right for you,” he said.
While the promise of AI is significant, Rhodes acknowledged that implementation brings challenges. “No AI works without data. If you don’t have good data for AI to work from, you’re going to get bad AI outcomes,” he said, also noting that change management and training are essential for successful adoption.
The keynote’s final section focused on Applied’s acquisition of Cytora, a specialist in insurance AI for risk digitization. “Cytora is the ultimate example of insurance AI,” Rhodes said. “They’ve built a highly intelligent, insurance-focused AI platform that delivers frictionless onboarding of risk for commercial lines underwriters.”
Cytora’s platform enables insurers, MGAs, and soon brokers and agencies to digitize the intake of insurance data across the round trip - from submission preparation to claims servicing and renewals. “It removes the friction, the cost, and the time that often hinders us as an industry from spending more of our capital, writing more premium, and delivering better coverage for the world’s growing risks,” he said.
Rhodes cited business results from carriers using Cytora: “They’re seeing time to process initial submissions reduced from days to hours, and conversion rates on the risks they most want to write up nearly 50%, with accuracy rates above 98%.” The acquisition positions Applied to compete more directly with other technology providers investing in digital risk intake and submission automation, and reflects a broader industry shift toward integrated, AI-powered workflows.
Looking ahead, Rhodes said the goal is to leverage AI on both sides of the commercial submission and underwriting process, creating real-time visibility and collaboration between agents and underwriters. “Our goal is not to replace you. The agent is the secret sauce of our great industry. Our goal is to serve you and equip you better so that you can be heroes without all the hard work and drudgery,” he said.
Rhodes closed by urging brokers to embrace the opportunities of the intelligent insurance era. “AI is moving that fast, folks. It really is. We are more committed than ever to help you adopt and benefit from insurance AI solutions in practical, powerful, and safe ways,” he said. “We are unashamedly insurance technology nerds. This is all we do. And we’re committed to leading the way for you into the intelligent insurance era.”
