Process Improvement for the Win:
How Shafer Insurance Agency Built Team Adoption Around AI

Please describe how you are currently leveraging the AI tool above at your agency. What was the main goal or friction point you were trying to solve for when implementing it?
We implemented Cara to help with:

• Policy comparison
• Policy checking
• Emails and client communications

These challenges impacted several areas of our agency, including new business, renewals, marketing, and client service.

Today, we use for writing, summarizing, and brainstorming content, automating and speeding up internal workflows, extracting and reviewing information from documents, and supporting our marketing and prospecting efforts.

How did you find the tool or approach you chose, and what made you pick it over other options?
We had the opportunity to use the tool before purchasing it, and it performed as promised.

We evaluated multiple options before making a decision. The factors that mattered most to us were ease of use, cost, and the quality of the output. We also had two failed attempts with other products before selecting Cara.

What does your AI use actually look like day-to-day — who uses it, how often, and how long did it take to get going?
Our implementation process included:

1. Creating an internal AI Focus Group
2. Change management efforts to help employees understand how AI could benefit our agency
3. Integrating AI usage into our bonus program
4. Hosting lunch-and-learn sessions to share ideas and best practices

We are still working on updating our manuals and processes to further integrate AI into our workflows.

Our timeline looked like this:

• Initial idea to decision: 1.5 years
• Decision to implementation: 30 days
• Implementation to daily use: Immediate

To support adoption, we provided vendor training, a welcome email, and weekly lunch-and-learn sessions. Overall, our team’s response has been mostly positive.

We also introduced a two-week trial period with a special bonus for employees who tried the tool and offered at least one suggestion for how it could improve efficiency at Shafer Insurance Agency.

What worked better than expected? What didn’t go as planned?
What worked better than expected was the product itself.

While the product measures time saved, the biggest benefit we’ve seen so far has been employee satisfaction with the time savings it creates.

What didn’t go as planned were the two products we tried before selecting Cara.

One of the biggest lessons we learned during implementation was that choosing the right product is critical. Our AI Focus Group also helped ensure we stayed focused and didn’t try to solve every problem at once.

What’s the one thing you’d tell another agent/agency who’s thinking about starting — and what do you wish someone had told you first?
Do your research on products. There are a lot of options available, and while many make big promises, they don’t always deliver. Also, don’t try to take on the world with AI. Start with a focused approach and build from there.

Anything else worth sharing?

Our headline takeaway is simple: Process Improvement for the Win!

While we haven’t formally measured success yet, we’ve seen encouraging signs through positive employee feedback and the efficiency gains our team is experiencing.