Accelerant Members from across the globe recently gathered in St. Thomas for our Annual Member Summit under a simple but powerful theme: Built for This Moment.
It’s fitting for where the specialty insurance market stands today. AI is reshaping how businesses operate and the gap between well-supported MGAs and those operating alone is widening quickly as a result.
Arvind Sriram, Managing Director and Head of Insurance Investment Banking at TD Securities, spoke directly on how:
- AI acts as an accelerant for strong operators and exposing weaker ones
- The MGAs pulling ahead are using AI and real-time analytics to sharpen underwriting and improve performance
- Competitive advantage is no longer about access to tools, but how deeply technology is embedded into the business
- Growth and valuation are increasingly tied to underwriting discipline, technology leverage, and visibility into performance
That’s why events like the Member Summit are critical right now. As AI is increasingly influencing how business is done, the ability to share what’s working, challenge assumptions, and build together in real time is critical.
But despite the rapidly evolving tech landscape, the conversations and panels throughout the week pointed to how Accelerant Members are uniquely positioned to thrive..
As part of the Accelerant ecosystem, they are able to combine AI adoption, strong infrastructure, disciplined underwriting, and durable capital partnerships to operate with greater clarity and confidence.
From real-world AI success stories to the Freedom to Build panel, hands-on AI Agent workshops, the Risk Capital Partner panel, and the MGA achievements recognized, it was clear why Accelerant Members are ahead of the curve.
MGA AI Success Stories: From Theory to Practice
One of the most compelling parts of the Summit was hearing directly from Members about how AI is being applied in their businesses today.
Rachel Oldroyd (NBS Underwriting), along with Mark Haidar and Shane O’Sullivan (Class A), shared real-world examples of what it actually takes to move from concept to execution.
They spoke candidly about the specific challenges they faced, why those challenges were difficult to solve independently, and how working with Accelerant made it possible to build and deploy meaningful solutions.
More importantly, they detailed what changed as a result—how AI is now embedded into their workflows, improving underwriting efficiency, consistency, and overall outcomes.
The AI Agent Workshop: Building What Comes Next
Inspired by how their peers are operationalizing AI, about 90 Members joined three back-to-back workshop sessions to learn how to build their own AI underwriting assistant using Claude.
The practical, step-by-step demo was designed to meet Members where they are—no coding, no developer experience needed. As long as participants could describe a process in plain English, this tutorial showed them how to build an agent that can automate and integrate it.
The energy in the room was palpable, and the discussion and questions that followed underscored the fact that specialty insurance is ready for this.
The Freedom to Build Panel
In our Member Panel, leaders from WPBI, Seafarer Marine, and Novum Underwriting Partners spoke candidly about what changes when operating within the Accelerant Risk Exchange.
The discussion covered the realities of building a business in the Accelerant ecosystem: what becomes possible that wasn’t before, how decisions shift once the portfolio structure is in place, and what teams no longer have to worry about as a result.
Once again, we saw how Accelerant Members are able to operate more effectively and more successfully in the face of the changes AI is driving across the market.
The Risk Capital Perspective: Why the Model Works
The conversation then shifted to what this environment looks like from the other side of the Accelerant Risk Exchange—the people deploying the capital.
From Risk Capital Partner QBE’s perspective, the decision to partner with Accelerant reflects the fact that capital is increasingly seeking models that deliver predictability at scale.
AI is a crucial part of that equation.
It enables the real-time visibility and structured data required to understand how portfolios are performing as they develop, allowing capital partners to assess underwriting quality with greater confidence and consistency.
Celebrating Excellence Across the Network
The Summit also provided an opportunity to recognize Members who are setting the standard across the Accelerant network:
Profitable Expansion Award: For the Members who grew boldly and grew well
- NREIG: Supported a partner’s niche program resulting in $45M program consolidation to Accelerant
- Novum Underwriting Partners: A key multi-country partner with ongoing growth through multiple program expansions across North America
Risk Stewardship Award: For the Members who set the standard on underwriting quality
- Lynx Specialty: 25% ultimate loss ratio on $222M GWP, never having exceeded the expected loss pattern for its program since partnering with Accelerant
- Arden Insurance Services: Industry-leading performance in complex wildfire exposure
Digital Platform Accelerator Award: For the Members who didn’t just use the platform—they helped build it
- LPCA: Early beta partners who helped shape the AI Summary Generator for Members
- Rednil Insurance Brokers: Active analytics users, engaged in the community and ongoing collaboration
Accelerant Ambassador Award: For the Members who make the whole community stronger
- ARU & Lynx Specialty: Partnered to cross-refer business aligned to each Member’s risk appetite, collaborating to improve fit an outcomes across submissions
- Denali Specialty Group: Consistently supported other Members by helping with surplus lines filings and taxes, reviewing workflows, and acting as a trusted advisor
AI Leader Award: For the Members using intelligence to underwrite better and operate smarter
- Class A: Operationalized AI across the full underwriting lifecycle, driving faster, more consistent decision‑making, underwriting profitability, and improved aviation safety
- Rainbow: Scaled efficiently with a lean team and a 10,000+ agent network, thanks to AI-driven continuous underwriting
The Accelerant Fastest Starter Award: For the newest Members who hit the ground running
- Hill Country Underwriters: Exceptional speed to market, launching and gaining traction within months
- Balance Partners: Fast-tracked underwriting, guidelines, and forms within 2 weeks with strong cross-functional execution to meet the launch timeline
A huge congratulations to all of our winners!
The AI Opportunity
What we heard from Members throughout the week reinforced both the opportunity and the urgency of this moment. There is a clear understanding of the importance of AI adoption—but just as obvious, a drive to excel.
Members are looking to leverage AI to gain deeper and earlier insight into their portfolios, and are pushing for deeper integration, more seamless workflows, and more ways to act on data in real time.
That tenacity, combined with the Accelerant model, is what makes fixing a fragmented and inefficient value chain possible.