AI Platform Aims for Extra and Surplus Efficiency
James River Insurance Company has chosen Kalepa to help improve underwriting in the excess and surplus market. The insurance company wants to make its specialty insurance portfolio more competitive and improve the efficiency of its operations. This change shows that more and more businesses are using AI in their underwriting processes.
As a part of James River Group Holdings, the company still puts disciplined underwriting and long-term growth first. Leaders think that advanced analytics are necessary for long-term profitability. The deployment fits with strategic technology investments across all specialty lines.

Source: LinkedIn/Website
Automating Submission Intake And Risk Triage
Kalepa’s AI platform for professionals automates the entire underwriting process. It makes it easier to take in submissions and sorts risks more quickly than traditional manual systems. The system combines important information from many data sources into outputs that are ready for decision-making.
The platform cuts down on repetitive administrative tasks by centralizing risk intelligence. Underwriters can see complex risks more clearly without having to deal with broken data systems. In competitive E&S markets, faster processing times can mean better responsiveness.
Enhancing Speed To Market And Portfolio Control
The goal of the integration is to speed up the time it takes for quotes to come back across all of James River’s E&S operations. Better speed to market makes brokers who want quick underwriting decisions happier with you. Better responsiveness may also help with better risk selection results.
Structured analytics and real-time insights are expected to make portfolio management easier. Data-driven evaluation tools help underwriting teams look at aggregate exposures more consistently. This helps with strategic oversight across a wide range of specialty areas.
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Leadership Stresses Disciplined Underwriting
James River president Todd Sutherland said that the investment would help keep underwriting standards strict. He stressed how important it is to give workers the best technology tools available. Leadership sees digital transformation as a way to directly increase shareholder value.
Sutherland said that making things more consistent and faster will make the whole portfolio perform better. AI-assisted insights can help underwriting teams feel more sure about their decisions. The goal of the company is to make good use of both human and automated intelligence.
CIO Talks About a Culture of Always Getting Better
Valdean Langenburg, the group’s chief information officer, talked about how AI is changing the way businesses work. He said that technology enablement and continuous improvement would be 2 of the most important parts of the company’s future strategy. During evaluation, Kalepa’s integrated system reportedly showed measurable operational results.
The insurance company said that Kalepa’s underwriting knowledge was a big reason why they chose them. The selection process was greatly affected by proven performance metrics. As more people use the product, leadership expects to see improvements in efficiency that can be scaled up.
Helping to Support Competitive Positioning in the E&S Market
The excess and surplus market is still very competitive and is becoming more data-driven. In specialized markets, insurers can stand out by being able to quickly assess risks. AI platforms might help carriers respond quickly to changing risk situations.
James River works in a variety of specialty property-casualty areas, both admitted and non-admitted lines. AM Best gave its insurance subsidiaries an A- rating, which is a very good rating. The goal of investing in technology is to make things more stable while also encouraging new ideas.
Kalepa Grows Its Presence in Specialty Insurance
Kalepa was started in 2018 and is still growing its presence in the specialty insurance underwriting market. The company makes AI-driven risk intelligence solutions and is backed by IA Ventures and Inspired Capital. Its platform combines automation with advanced analytics that are customized for the way insurers work.
The partnership shows that traditional carriers and AI technology providers are working together more and more. As underwriting gets more complicated, insurance companies are using digital tools to their advantage in business. James River’s use of intelligent automation is part of a larger trend in specialty insurance markets.













