End of most Life Insurance Agents?

Sold Life Ins for 5yrs, a few with one of the big Mutual Companies then Independent. Last 6yrs was in Datacenter Infrastructure Sales – laid off in August. Was on tons of webinars for AI…. Blah blah…

I’m back in Life/Health Insurance – just ACA and possibly some Supps and Term Life…. My agency has Ads on FB (Prospect Clicks on it for more info – opts in) and then the AI Program WooSender starts texting the prospect effectively…. it’s awesome…. The Bot asks the Prospect Day/Time of Appointment – Prospect agrees…. The Bot texts the Prospect 24hrs, 1hr, 15 min Appointment reminder – then at time of appointment, calls me Cell and connects me to customer….. (I finally have a sales motion myself after a FB Ad and AI concierges the prospect to chat with me on phone) I’m selling ACA or a 15yr Term Policy or Critical Illness policy….. this is transactional….

My job is to identify the need for Term or Critical Illness and get the prospect to agree they have a problem – paint a picture what the social/economic outcome will be for them if they don’t have protection in place if something happens – get them to agree they have a problem – pain created, for them to take action and mitigate this risk they find unacceptable . The ole adage – Life Insurance is sold not bought…. Very true…. Hey look at me, I have a Sales process😆 standard sh*t…..

Here’s the apocalypse for most Life/Health Ins Agents…… – in an Industry where 90% Life/Health Agents fail in Year one, 95% by year 5 , (those in high net worth – Whole Life, IUL game…. These complex cases will always need advisory – your good)

There was a post on this forum by a consumer that would do anything for a quote without talking to a salesperson. Yes, Policy Genius and other sites…. That’s not a real catalyst though (yes, anybody younger than a Boomer will research something online for around 8 datapoints before ever speaking to Someone – whether it’s a Fossil Handbag or 20yr Term Policy) Couple this Consumer behavior with the widely known fact that Consumers despise Life Insurance Agents as much as Car Salespeople (not a fair sentiment) – I’ve been both. Look at Consumer Behavior – I just got on this Reddit forum, the consumer is wisely cross checking the Agent here in a transparent & judgement free forum.

I’ve already experienced how AI hooked a prospect (after prospect expressed interest – consumer must opt in) – which is great, I’m not stuck with burden of setting appointment, an Ad found a customer that is interested and delivered the prospect to a call with ehhh…. About a 40% show ratio which is good, again – I’ve done nothing until this point. The name of the game is being present in the digital universe, enough visibility on Social Media so when a consumer has the need they tap you on the shoulder – common sense right. What I have noticed recently is far fewer people are willing to even chat with a salesperson in a B2C sale…. Most folks just really don’t want to deal with a Salesperson. We can all make the case – from remote work during the pandemic to the ubiquity of texting to the way we approach dating…. Human Communication is changing….. plenty of other examples you can think of more than these…. A Boomer grew up with more Salespeople per capita pitching them stuff than any Gen younger than them… they love FB… lol… As a GenXer…. I’ve seen a decrease in Salespeople in last decade everywhere. You don’t need me to tell you Millennial and GenZ preference for purchasing online (more emotionally neutral ground – less pressure) versus the tension of a Salesperson that needs to close a case to pay their bills.

(Most importantly) The forthcoming death blow to most Life/Health Agents are these new AI Cold Calling LLMs…. I’ve spoken to a few of em in recent weeks…. Most people will say of course “well I’d rather speak to a person” …… they will talk to one of these AI Agents and initially be hesitant… will feel weird….. 120 seconds later…. They will begin to get a white glove concierge feel from the AI Agents…. The conversation will start to feel like they are being actively listened too as the Agent marvelously paraphrases what the prospect conveys… slowly the Prospect finds themself in a bit of purchasing safe space (like researching, shopping online) – very different than their fear of being Sold or Closed. The AI Agent exchange was a more constructive, peaceful, and private conversation I had in inquiring about a Product/Idea than feeling the slightest pressure from an Agent – “Oh jeez this guy has talked to me for an hour, I feel bad…. Umm …. I should yeah…. Hmm maybe just get a policy from him” when chatting with AI – there is no guilt with respect to wasting a salespersons time as you obtain information on your terms.

These AI Calls are not perfect, they’ve got some hiccups, but I believe once a customer has a good experience, they will prefer AI over a Salesperson in the acquisition of simpler Insurance planning.The right ACA, Life Insurance, or Supp…. Medicare and Permanent Life not so much – lotta moving pieces there. Selecting the right ACA or Life insurance can easily be done in a 3-5 minute fact finder for most people outside the advanced markets. If you watch Video, believe me you don’t need me to tell you it’s merely the beginning of AI Biz Dev Sales capabilities – constantly evolving LLM.

Who kind of Agent will be affected most..

Mortgage Protection Life Insurance Agent

Term Life young family

Business Owner that needs a Policy for 15yrs until retirement

These are pretty defined coverage amounts and AI Agent can easily go thru Non Med questionnaire and obtain more honest answers from Prospect than feeling embarrassed at their own Kitchen Table when they have to admit to a DUI four years ago.

Once Again, I don’t think more Advanced Markets will be affected too much. Will there always be a Prospect that wishes to deal with a person – sure. However as AI LLMs evolve – and they will quickly… you’re going to need fewer Life Health Agents to uncover Prospects that seek human connection. After a few encounters with AI and how pleasant, informative I saw it to be…. Game Changer… Can an Insurance Agent still make a living running around doing basic transactional Life Insurance Sales in a traditional way…. Yes… I just don’t think the juice will be worth the squeeze for most Agents…. as it becomes more difficult to due to change in consumer behavior and the evolution of AI.

I’ve experienced more nuanced and friendlier chats that this below as it does more convincing. You’ll see it’s not perfect, but the LLM will evolve and be recalibrated for a sentiment that is geared a bit more to serve and inform