Build your 2027 plan around one proven workflow at a time. Budget for setup, review and training as well as software.
Planning for 2027 does not require guessing which AI feature will be fashionable next. It requires deciding which recurring tasks slow your agency down and what a better result would look like. Start with the work your staff and clients already do.
This is a forward-looking planning guide written in October 2026. It is not a report of 2027 results or a prediction of future software capabilities. Use it to build a plan you can test and adjust as your agency’s needs change.
1. Establish your baseline before buying more tools
Choose a few representative accounts and record the time spent on intake, retyping, clarification and review. Note where work waits between people. The objective is a usable baseline, not a perfect time-and-motion study.
Select one outcome you can check monthly: fewer missing documents, shorter preparation time or more reviewed submissions per staff hour. Avoid a goal such as “use more AI,” which says little about whether the work improved.
2. Make the client’s first step easier
Review your website on a phone. Can a prospect find the intake button immediately? Can they begin without finding an old policy? Can they tell which agent or agency will receive the request?
A useful first project is a branded page with a document drop and a manual path. Keep advanced questions for the appropriate point in the workflow. Test the whole journey with someone who did not help design it.
3. Agree on a shared set of field meanings
Define the common information your agency reuses: legal entity name, mailing address, contact person and the account-specific details your team needs. Record how the team distinguishes a missing value from an answer of “not applicable.”
These definitions make extraction review and form mapping more consistent. Start with a short, shared reference for one workflow, and update it when reviewers find an ambiguity. A large spreadsheet no one uses will not help.
4. Keep the source close to the answer
Require proposed AI answers to be reviewable against the original document or customer response. Make conflicts visible when two sources disagree. Record which answer the reviewer accepted and why a correction was made when it matters.
This creates a workable feedback loop. You can identify a recurring document issue or a field mapping problem instead of asking staff to trust a confident-looking answer.
5. Inventory the forms you actually use
List your most common applications and supplements, including editions and destination requirements. Prioritize supported, repeatable forms before pursuing every specialty workflow.
Access to a form and an automated field mapping are separate requirements. ACORD’s official Forms Portal is a starting point for authorized access to its forms. Confirm your agency’s access, the correct edition and your destination requirements before configuring production output.
6. Decide who reviews each kind of output
Define the difference between a proposed answer, a reviewed answer and an approved package. Assign the responsible person at each transition. Build a visible exception path for items the system cannot confidently complete.
For general governance background, NIST’s voluntary AI Risk Management Framework provides a way to think about risks across the use and evaluation of AI systems. It is a planning resource, not a product certification or an insurance compliance determination.
7. Sequence integrations by operational value
An intake page can be useful before every system is connected. Prioritize an integration when it removes a measured handoff or prevents repeated entry that your team encounters frequently.
Specify the failure behavior before activating a connection. A failed email, duplicate event or incomplete upload should produce a visible state and a responsible owner. Test access and routing with the actual roles that will use the workflow.
8. Budget for the full cost of adoption
Include configuration, template mapping, staff training and ongoing review in your plan. Understand whether pricing is based on submissions, documents, seats or another unit, and model your own expected mix.
Keep the business case simple: show staff time recovered separately from possible additional revenue. More capacity is useful only if your team has the demand and follow-through to put it to work. Treat revenue estimates as assumptions you can revisit.
9. Roll out with a small, representative pilot
Begin with the people who will own the workflow and include realistic exceptions: a scanned document, a missing photo, incomplete contact details or an unsupported form. Give staff a direct way to report problems.
Expand when the workflow meets your agreed review standard. A pilot should answer operational questions, not simply produce a successful demonstration with one unusually clean example.
10. Schedule regular workflow reviews
Review metrics and a small sample of completed requests each quarter. Check whether form editions, team ownership, customer instructions or connection settings have changed. Remove steps that no longer earn their place.
Use the review to choose the next small improvement. A manageable 2027 plan might establish branded intake first, add reviewed document reuse next, and only then expand integrations. The order should follow your agency’s evidence, not the length of a vendor’s feature list.
Leave the planning meeting with five decisions
A useful plan can fit on one page. Assign one person to maintain it, and give the team a date to decide whether to continue, change or stop the pilot.
- The first workflow and the accounts included in the pilot.
- The baseline and the outcome you will measure.
- The owner and reviewer for each handoff.
- The setup budget, dependencies and exception process.
- The review date and the criteria for expanding.
Common questions
Is this a prediction of what AI will do in 2027?
No. This is an October 2026 planning guide for improving agency operations in 2027. Validate specific capabilities and costs when you choose and deploy a tool.
Should an agency connect every system at once?
Sequence connections by the work they remove. Start with a useful workflow, then add an integration when its value and failure handling are clear.
What belongs in an automation budget?
Include software usage, setup, template mapping, staff training, review time and maintenance. Ask how submissions and source documents are counted.
Sources & further reading
NIST: AI Risk Management FrameworkBackground on voluntary AI risk management, use and evaluation.
ACORD Forms PortalOfficial access point for ACORD forms; access requirements apply.
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