Aon

Aon plc, a global professional services firm with approximately $12.4 billion in revenue (2022) and 50,000 employees, is the world's largest insurance broker. The commercial insurance placement process — matching client risk profiles with carrier appetite, preparing submissions, negotiating terms, and binding coverage — was heavily manual. Brokers spent an estimated 30-40% of their time on administrative tasks: data entry into multiple carrier portals, document preparation, compliance checks, and internal approval workflows. Each commercial insurance placement involved 15-25 discrete process steps across multiple systems, with significant rework when carrier requirements changed mid-placement. This manual overhead limited the number of placements each broker could manage and compressed margins on smaller accounts where the broker time cost approached the commission revenue.

Between 2021 and 2023, Aon deployed workflow automation across its commercial insurance brokerage operations:

• Aon Client Treaty (ACT) platform: Expanded its proprietary placement platform that automated carrier submission processes, routing client risk data to multiple carriers simultaneously rather than requiring brokers to manually enter data into each carrier's portal. ACT reduced per-placement administrative time by approximately 40%.
• Document automation: Deployed AI-powered document generation tools that automatically produced placement slips, policy summaries, and compliance documentation from structured data, eliminating manual document drafting that previously consumed 2-4 hours per placement.
• Automated compliance workflows: Built rule-based compliance engines that automatically checked placements against regulatory requirements, sanctions lists, and internal risk policies, replacing manual compliance reviews that created bottlenecks in the placement process.
• Straight-through processing for renewals: Implemented automated renewal workflows for standardized commercial lines (property, general liability, workers compensation), enabling straight-through processing of routine renewals without broker intervention for accounts meeting predefined criteria.
• Data integration layer: Built API integrations with major carriers that enabled real-time quote comparison and automated binding for standardized products, reducing the back-and-forth communication that extended placement timelines.

• Broker productivity: Automated workflows freed an estimated 30-40% of broker time from administrative tasks, enabling each broker to manage more accounts and focus on high-value advisory activities.
• Placement speed: Average commercial insurance placement cycle time decreased as automated submissions, compliance checks, and document generation eliminated manual bottlenecks.
• Revenue per broker: Higher broker productivity translated to increased revenue per broker, improving the operating leverage of Aon's brokerage business.
• Operating margin: Aon's adjusted operating margin expanded from approximately 27% (2020) to over 30% (2023), with workflow automation contributing alongside other efficiency initiatives.
• Renewal efficiency: Straight-through processing for routine renewals reduced the cost-to-serve on smaller accounts, making them profitable at commission levels that previously did not justify broker time.
• Timeframe: Workflow automation scaled over 2021-2023.

• Aon's scale as the world's largest insurance broker provided sufficient placement volume to justify automation investment
• Standardization of commercial insurance data formats (ACORD standards) enabled API-based carrier integrations
• Aon's proprietary data assets (risk analytics, pricing models) provided a foundation for automated underwriting and placement decisions
• Broker resistance to automation was overcome by framing tools as productivity enhancers that freed time for client advisory rather than job replacements