Sivan Iram Of Flow Specialty: How We Leveraged AI To Take Our Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Optimizing workflows, and
Digitizing insurance knowledge.
In the ever-evolving and never-ending landscape of business, staying ahead of the curve is a prerequisite for success. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic concept to a daily business tool that executives can’t ignore. In this interview series, we would like to talk with business leaders who’ve successfully integrated A.I. into their operations, transforming their companies in the process. I had the pleasure of interviewing Sivan Iram.
Sivan Iram Co-Founder and CEO of Flow Specialty, a next-gen specialty wholesale insurance brokerage. Sivan spent the first decade of his career as a software engineer, and then transitioned to business and strategy roles focusing on serving traditional industries. In 2021, Sivan co-founded Flow with the vision to provide businesses with better access to specialty insurance products through a mix of human expertise and innovative technology powered by GenAI.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! To set the stage, tell us briefly about your background. What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?
In my career I had the opportunity and challenge to sell to very different industries, so I developed my own playbook to learn a new industry and be able to manage successful teams, which basically boils down to surrounding oneself with the best experts, asking lots of questions, and thinking critically. A big part of it is setting a culture of low ego, where the team strives to move fast and get closer to the truth, regardless of who came up with the idea.
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one mistake that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
Earlier in my career, I was responsible for a dysfunctional operation I knew little about. I had to lead a reorganization project while ensuring more experienced people than me felt ownership and buy-in to the process. Initially, we brought in external advisors who worked in silos and presented their recommendations, but it was very poorly received. I realized I should have better involved our internal experts so we not only come up with a great recommendation but also get internal buy-in from key stakeholders. We re-did the reorganization and were able to turn the operation into a success story.
A.I. is a big leap for many businesses. When and what first sparked your interest in incorporating it into your operations?
First it’s important to understand that AI is how you do something, not what you do. Before we can even talk about utilizing technology, we have to start with the need, the pain point, or the opportunity to build technology that moves the needle on business performance. When the GenAI revolution started in 2022, we experimented with it and saw its incredible potential to better develop tools and workflows that serve our clients better, as well as empower our employees to be more effective and productive.
AI can be a game-changer for individuals and their responsibilities. Can you share how you personally use AI and what are your go-to resources or tools?
AI plays a core part in our ability to provide clients with the individualized service they need. In the mid-market and small commercial insurance segment, any account below $25k in premiums is not profitable for traditional insurance wholesalers because their processes are manual and require human oversight. With AI-driven efficiency, we can serve clients better by minimizing manual intervention, freeing up brokers to focus on insurance tasks. This not only enhances profitability but also enables us to provide more in-depth and insightful information to our clients.
On the flip side, what challenges or setbacks have you encountered while implementing A.I. into your company?
Adopting technology runs the risk of creating atrophy in human capability. A great example is people nowadays don’t have the same navigational skills as they used to — since we’re so reliant on Google Maps and the like. It’s almost like we stopped developing that muscle, so it wasted away. With AI, we must continuously qualify and criticize its work, not only to ensure it’s of the highest quality, but also to help it get better and better. At Flow, we’ve created built-in feedback tools, and expect our people to provide the AI with feedback on the quality of work it produces.
Let’s dig into this further. Can you share the top 5 A.I. tools or different ways you’re integrating AI into your business? What specific functions do they serve and what kind of result have you seen so far?
The two main buckets of value we build with AI are:
- Optimizing workflows, and
- Digitizing insurance knowledge.
A few examples of how we optimize workflows with AI are extracting submission information from emails and PDF documents to enter into the system. We place certain businesses with our insurance carrier partners via API and compile several quotes into a quote comparison report with the click of a button. Our focus isn’t just on efficiency. With AI digitizing insurance knowledge, we analyze each quote and generate recommendations. We never automatically send AI-generated content to our clients. Our brokers review, enhance, and update this material to provide clients with a clearer understanding of what to look for and their best matches.
There’s concern about A.I. taking over jobs. How do you balance A.I. tools with your human workforce and have you already replaced any positions using technology?
I’m not concerned about job displacement because of AI. Even with the remarkable technological advancements developed since the industrial revolution, unemployment rates have stayed fairly stable. The reality is that more jobs are created than taken away. It is true that jobs change, but rarely completely replaced.
In our organization, AI is a copilot alongside human oversight. This synergy empowers our brokers to serve clients more efficiently and with deeper insights. By automating tasks that detract from the essential human element, AI enhances the core aspects of our business operations.
Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon in the world of AI that people should know about? What do you see happening in the next 3–5 years? I would love to hear your best prediction.
I believe that AI based platforms will be the backbone of the most successful companies who are able to adapt to change and deliver for their clients. It’s more than developing a specific tool, but rather taking a different approach to building AI platforms that can perform whole tasks and workflows to make the organization smarter and more efficient.
If you had to pick just one AI tool that you feel is essential, one that you haven’t mentioned yet, which would it be and why?
On a personal level, I find ChatGPT to be very handy in revising written content. I like the fact that I give it my thoughts and main points, and it’s able to give it structure that takes my process forward. I never take it as it is, but it definitely makes it faster and more efficient.
For the uninitiated, what advice would you give someone looking to integrate AI into their business and doesn’t know where to start?
I think the better approach is to look at the business needs and the greatest opportunities to bring value to their customers. Once that’s established, then choose the right technology to make it a reality — whether AI or something else.
Where can our readers follow you to learn more about leveraging A.I. in the business world?
I’m pretty active on LinkedIn. I invite anybody to engage with me at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivaniram/
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and thought-leader. With over 25 years of business experience, Chad’s entire career has been dedicated to creating a positive social impact in all of his enterprises. His entrepreneurial journey began while in college at The Ohio State University, where he founded Choice Recovery, Inc., which earned national recognition and was twice ranked as the #1 company to work for in Central Ohio. Chad is now a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator and an Executive Leadership Coach with Built to Lead, where he recently launched an online community for leadership development.
To learn more and connect with Chad, visit www.chadsilverstein.io
