How Certificial Helps Zurich North America Accelerate COI issuance

Certificial’s API-driven technology is built to automate certificate issuance, deliver better service, significantly reduce operational costs, and minimize E&O risk.

Overview

Zurich North America is a leading multi-line insurer serving people and businesses in the U.S. and Canada, with more than 8,000 employees and more than 2 million customers. Zurich’s Direct Markets Property & Casualty (P&C) division supports some of the largest U.S. auto dealerships and issues 50,000+ COIs every year. Zurich is committed to providing excellent service. At the same time, they are always working to improve processes, reduce operational costs, and use the latest automation technology, including COI issuance.

The Challenge

The nature of Zurich’s client base and operations meant that traditional COI issuance tools couldn’t accommodate the company’s vision. The first reason is the sheer volume of COIs. A significant portion of Zurich’s clients are enterprise accounts (e.g., large auto dealer groups), who frequently require hundreds of COIs issued and renewed on tight timelines.

The second is the complexity of the insurance schedules Zurich’s team manages. Some COIs list 70+ property locations that must be added or removed whenever a client buys or sells property. Issuing, updating, and renewing these certificates has been extremely time-consuming and manual.

The team’s goal was an API-driven operation that would remove the need for teams to log into separate systems and would automate key functionality, reducing manual effort. This vision represents a deliberate shift from time-consuming, error-prone workflows to a fast, consistent experience that meets today’s expectations and achieves a level of automation the industry hasn’t had before.

To bring this level of innovation to life, Zurich needed a COI issuance platform with advanced automation capabilities.

The Solution

After an evaluation process, Zurich chose Certificial as its COI issuance technology platform.

Moreover, Certificial’s Smart COI technology ensures certificates always reflect current policy data without re-keying. Whereas a traditional COI is a static document that only reflects the insurance policy at a point in time, Certificial’s Smart COI syncs source policy data directly to the ACORD form. Unlike static PDFs, Smart COIs update automatically when a policy is canceled, changed, or renewed, always pulling the latest data from the original source (e.g., the AMS) and providing immediate visibility on cancellations and policy changes to certificate holders.

Key Features of Certificial

The ability to bulk-produce COIs
(instead of issuing and updating them one at a time) delivers dramatic improvements in turnaround times

Policy-connected Smart COIs
are now available for policyholders. When policy data changes, Certificial automatically versions the certificate - no need to re-key properties or manually check schedules.

Production of complex insurance documents, such as ACORD 28 forms, is now done at scale.
are now available for policyholders. When policy data changes, Certificial automatically versions the certificate - no need to re-key properties or manually check schedules.

Certificial is allowing us to produce as many ACORD 28 forms as we need in just a few clicks.

Reduction in E&O risk

Certificial reduces the need for manual manipulation and allows us to have a consistent delivery of verbiage every single time . This reduces E&O risk for Zurich.