• Published on: April 24, 2026

Las Vegas has a way of turning everything up a notch. This year’s Accelerate event in Las Vegas was no different. The Vertafore users we met were not there to just browse automation. They came with specific operational problems on their minds and wanted to see how automation could solve them.  

We were at Booth 912, and the conversations that came up are worth sharing.

The Context Vertafore Set

Vertafore made news at the conference with the introduction of their Velocity AI Platform. That set the tone for a lot of what followed. AI was everywhere at Accelerate 2026, in the sessions, in the conversations at the booths.  

The volume of AI messaging hitting small and mid-sized agencies right now is relentless. Every month brings a new solution, a new promise, and a new vendor claiming to have the answer. And some agencies we spoke with had already been through a bad experience with a vendor that overpromised and underdelivered. This shaped how people approached AI and insurance automation conversations and how they framed their questions.  

The Question Underneath Every Question

Before we get into specific workflows and conversations, there is a more fundamental question that came up in many interactions: “Does it actually work the way you say it does?” 

That question reflects something real about today’s AI automation space. Agencies have heard a lot of claims. The trust deficit in this space is growing, and it belongs to the vendors who created it. 

The way we answered that question was not with more claims. It was by showing them our intelligent assistants running inside their existing systems. When an attendee could watch vBots’ intelligent assistant handle a document retrieval process, the question answers itself. 

What Agencies Were Trying to Solve

The workflows that generated the most interest at our booth were: 

  • Document retrieval
  • Policy checking
  • Quote generation
  • Email categorization

Each of these reflects a different kind of operational pressure, but they share a common thread: they are all high-frequency, time-consuming tasks that are currently being handled manually. 

Document retrieval was the most immediate pain point: staff going into carrier portals one by one, pulling documents, and updating the AMS by hand. 

Policy checking: Manually cross-referencing policy documents against AMS records is meticulous work, and the consequences of missing something are real. 

Quote generation was the growth conversation. Agencies are not short on opportunity. They are short on the bandwidth to process it. Automating quote generation changes that equation without adding headcount. 

Email categorization: Unstructured, high-volume email creates daily friction that most teams have accepted as unavoidable. An intelligent assistant that classifies and routes emails automatically takes that burden off the team entirely.

Where to Start: The Real Challenge

The most recurring challenge we heard at the event was not about budget or the technicalities of insurance automation. Agencies are aware that they need to get on board with AI. The industry signal is clear that sitting on the sidelines is no longer a serious option. What they do not know is where to begin.  

The AI conversation in insurance right now can be quite confusing. Agencies are receiving more messages and more AI pitches. The result is a confused state where the urgency to act coexists with uncertainty about where to start.  

Our approach to that conversation was straightforward. We do not start with what vBots can do in its entirety. We start with what your agency’s biggest bottleneck is right now and work from there. This approach helped a lot of conversations move forward from uncertainty.

Why Compliance and Security Are Not an Afterthought

Businesses operating in regulated environments carry real risk when it comes to how client data is handled. The rise of AI insurance solutions has made that concern pertinent. If an automation tool is cloud-based or processes data through third parties, the agency’s control over sensitive client information becomes questionable.  

vBots intelligent assistants are deployed on-site. All processing happens within your agency’s network, and your data stays yours. For an agency that has compliance obligations and E&O exposure risk, on-site security is a foundational requirement. We lead with on-site security and governable AI instead of treating it as an additional feature, and that changed how agencies engaged with us.

How Agencies Responded to vBots

The conversations at our booth were well-received. Agencies that came in skeptical, particularly those that had prior experience with vendors who overpromised and underdelivered, responded to the product demonstrations and directness of our conversations. We were there to show how vBots actually works and let agencies decide whether it fits their operations.  

The agencies that engaged with us took home a clearer picture of where AI-powered automation could fit in and what a first step might look like.

What Accelerate 2026 Told Us

The insurance community is at a pivotal moment. AI is not on the horizon for small and mid-sized agencies; it is already here, and the best time to act is now. What agencies need right now is not another one-size-fits-all tool with a big promise. They need a partner that can show them what works, protect their data while doing it, and help them take a first step that actually delivers. 

That is the conversation we are built to have. If you were at Accelerate 2026 and we connected at the booth, we would be glad to continue the conversation. If we missed each other, schedule a personalized demo to see vBots in action.