Oscar Seikaly, CEO of Florida’s NSI Insurance Group, says the commercial insurance sector is still stuck in the past, dragging down brokers and agents who want faster service. Despite years of digital upgrades in the insurance world, commercial lines remain slow and manual, causing frustration across the industry.
Seikaly pointed out that while personal insurance has moved ahead with automation and quick online quotes, commercial insurance often takes days or even weeks to provide basic pricing. “A small business or restaurant owner might wait a week just to hear how much their premium will be,” he said. That delay happens because carriers use outdated systems requiring multiple approvals and manual data input.
This slow pace feels especially out of touch as more business clients want quick answers like they get from consumer apps. Brokers like Seikaly find themselves repeatedly apologizing for delays they can’t fix. “Our clients want speed and transparency, but the system isn’t built for that yet,” he explained.
NSI has invested a lot in technology to work around these issues. They run both traditional teams and tech-driven units. In personal lines, a single staff member can handle up to $2 million in commission thanks to automation. But when it comes to commercial lines, old carrier systems keep everyone limited.
Data from a 2025 J.D. Power study backs this up. More than half of commercial lines agents said their carriers barely meet basic needs. Many agents feel undervalued, and those who do are much more likely to pull business away from certain insurers. Ease of doing business is a big factor in agent loyalty, with those rating carriers as "very easy" to work with showing much higher satisfaction.
Seikaly says the biggest fix needed is better connectivity. He wants systems to instantly share key data, like geographical capacity or risk modeling results—right now, this info is buried in slow, separate processes that underwriters must check by hand.
Until the carriers speed up, commercial lines will remain a bottleneck. “In personal lines, data pulls and comparisons happen in seconds. In commercial, it still takes manual work and waiting,” he said. Fixing that gap is what needs to happen next for the industry to meet modern demands.