What I Learned About AI at ITC 2025 (And Why I'm Both Excited and Nervous)

What I Learned About AI at ITC 2025 (And Why I'm Both Excited and Nervous)

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at Insurance TechConnect 2025 in Las Vegas about our journey to a 4-day workweek at Foresight Insurance. [Photo from stage] 


 

Walking the expo floor and talking with fellow agency owners, one thing was crystal clear: AI is everywhere. Every booth, every conversation, every solution. The buzz is real, the promises are big, and honestly? It's both exciting and a little overwhelming. 

I'll admit something that might surprise you, I'm anxious about AI's impact on our industry. Just like many of you, I wonder what the future holds. The hype is intense, and it's hard to separate signal from noise. 

But here's what I know from the last two years of actually using AI in my agency: 

This has been the most creative and productive period of my career. 

Not because AI magically fixed everything. But because it helped me think more clearly about the problems I was actually trying to solve. 

With AI as my thinking partner, we've accomplished things I couldn't have done in the previous decade: 

  • Implemented our 4-day workweek (the topic I spoke about at ITC) 

  • Built a shared inbox system that actually works for email and task distribution 

  • Redesigned how our team collaborates on client work 

  • Identified bottlenecks we couldn't see before 

  • Documented our SOPs at scale and created a real knowledge base 

  • Built performance dashboards that give us visibility into what's working 

  • Built a Learning Management System (LMS) to onboard new staff at scale 


Here's my honest take after being in the arena for two years: 

AI still has a long way to go. The tools have limitations. They won't solve problems you haven't clearly defined. They can't replace strategic thinking. 

But here's the opportunity: Right now, the most valuable thing you can do isn't rushing to automate everything. It's using AI to understand your business better, where you are, where you want to go, and what's actually holding you back. 

When you combine that clarity with AI tools, that's when things start to move. 

My advice to fellow agency owners? Don't be afraid. But also, don't stay on the sidelines. Instead: 

Stay curious. Keep learning. Understand your problems deeply. Then let AI help you solve them. 

I believe AI will make us more productive, more purposeful, and free us up to do the creative, meaningful work we got into this business to do in the first place. 

The future's uncertain, but I'm optimistic. And if we all stay committed to learning and adapting, we're going to be just fine. 

Keep pushing forward. 

-Michael