Key Takeaways: MGA sector is a crucible for innovation - challenges and opportunities

The insurance sector is currently navigating volatile market conditions, trying to improve talent attraction and retention, as well as data quality - all against the backdrop of trying to leverage constantly evolving technology such as Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

But the MGA sector is a crucible for innovation, adoption and deployment due to its legacy restructure. 

A panel of industry experts at the MGAA Annual Conference 2025 in July discussed these challenges and opportunities at length, while pondering what constitutes a bright future interweaving the important role of MGAs in the sector.

PANEL SESSION: What Constitutes a Bright Future?

Panellists: 

Stephanie Ogden Chief Executive Officer, HDI Global SE

Amit Tiwari, Co-founder & President, Xceedance

Gavin Dollings, Chief Underwriting Officer, Rokstone Commercial

This session was moderated by Helen Wright, Managing Director of Lysander PR. 

Here are our key takeaways: 

Peaks and troughs 

In terms of challenges, the industry is experiencing both peaks and troughs. 

Stephanie Ogden, CEO of HDI Global said: “We are living through a volatile environment with lots of different changes to manage whether that’s within our industry, as we are today or the geopolitical environment. What’s really difficult at the moment is the unforeseen challenges that we can’t necessarily predict. The challenge then is - how do we manage the cycle that we are facing in the industry but also what’s happening outside of it. 

“It’s really easy to stay in our bubble but the reality is our environment is significantly more volatile than it has been historically perhaps.”

Meanwhile, for Gavin Dollings, Chief Underwriting Officer of Rokstone Commercial, there are also many opportunities ahead despite these challenges. 

Dollings listed four challenges - the granularity of data at MI, underwriting discipline such as consistency or profit delivery, talent attraction and retention and lastly harnessing the benefits of technology. 

Building on Dollings technology point, Amit Tiwari, Co-founder and President of Xceedance added: “This is more an inflection point, there might be a need for introspection and refinding business models, technology and data.”

But opportunities are on the horizon, but how can MGAs adopt a mindset to best navigate these over the next few years?

For Tiwari, being able to “pivot” is the key. He said: “[Businesses] need to figure out what’s working and what’s not.”

He explained that this is cyclical in nature and that it was important to learn from the past. 

Likewise, Ogden noted the potential impact of AI on the market. She added: “I think it’s worrying that a couple of months ago, Aon put out a report that revealed that between 60% to 70% of the sector do not believe that AI is going to impact people’s jobs.”

While she made the point that insurance as a sector is built on relationships, she urged people to “move away from this thinking” as with the onset of AI, it could look quite different. 

Dollings highlighted the impact of augmented underwriting. He explained: “Not to take the place of an underwriter but certain rules can be built into systems that are going to make it quicker and easier to quote and bind digitally. On top of this is rules based underwriting [could mean] faster competition, highly configurable model systems and that means [faster] speed to market.”

He added that different job roles were coming through such as Data Scientists and Technologists, as well as improving brokers service and distribution. Dollings gave the example of a seamless SME business with end-to-end technology, making the firm run more efficiently. 

More data, more problems?

With the onset of Gen AI and the popularity of Large Language Models (LLMs) growing, the industry now has access to more data, but more data isn’t always better. 

For Ogden, there are two main challenges in terms of data - where it comes from and what skill set is needed to interrogate it to make it useful for your business. 

She highlighted that with around 30% of people retiring, candidates with the skills needed to interrogate that data are scarce. 

Tiwari urged for a bigger effort “collectively” to attract top talent to insurance as “the newer generations are very savvy and technology comes as a default to them”. 

Ogden noted that while “money matters” “the reality is more important than that, and that is what are your values as a business? In this war for talent, it means standing by what you actually are. Nail the USP.”

Dollings noted the “strength in leveraging external partnerships” and “looking outside “ of your business. He acknowledged that MGAs due to their nimble nature have an advantage here. 

He said: “Open your mind to the potential to harness the benefits of technology, AI and augmented underwriting.”

Tiwari said: “What really makes the difference is how integrated your data is - the combination of LLMs and small language models and what partners are happy to share. All that put together would ensure real insights which would aid good underwriting. Rely on your core strength and double down”

A huge thank you to the MGAA for delivering an outstanding Annual Conference, attended by over 1,200 market delegates – what a buzz it created across the sector. The energy in the room reflected the dynamism and resilience of the MGA community. To find out more about this year’s event, visit the MGAA Conference page.