If you’ve been in any industry conversations lately, you’ve heard two things repeatedly: AI is going to transform insurance agency operations, and finding good staff has never been harder. So when budget and bandwidth are limited, the question feels obvious. Do you invest in technology or people?
The answer is probably both — but the order matters more than most agency owners realize.
First, a Quick Word on AI
We’ve covered what AI can actually do for independent agencies in depth in The Real Guide to AI for Insurance Agencies: Boost Productivity and Revenue. From commercial lines proposal generation to renewal triage to certificate workflows. If you haven’t read those yet, they’re worth your time.
The short version: AI is genuinely useful for the right tasks. But it doesn’t run itself. Someone has to own the implementation, build the workflows, and make sure the team actually uses it consistently. Without that person, even a well-chosen platform fades out within a few months. The team gets busy, old habits win, and the subscription quietly renews while nobody talks about it. And some of those subscriptions can actually cost more than a full time human VA!
The Nuance Most Agency Owners Skip Over
The right answer depends on where you are right now. A solo producer with a $2M book has a completely different problem set than a 12-person agency pushing $15M and wondering why growth feels harder than it should. Both might be eyeing AI tools. It’s hard to ignore the proverbial flashing lights around some of these tools.
So start here: what problem are you actually trying to solve? Overwhelmed staff and slipping service is a capacity problem. Accounts leaving at renewal is a relationship and follow-through problem. Producers buried in admin work is a delegation problem. AI touches pieces of all of these, but none of them are fundamentally technology problems.
Now ask yourself honestly: have you actually evaluated hiring a VA, or did the idea pass through your head once and disappear? You may have thought that hiring someone remotely feels unfamiliar compared to a standard local hire — and because AI is a much shinier option right now. The demos are impressive. A software subscription feels cleaner than the messiness of bringing on another person.
But that’s exactly why so many agency AI implementations quietly underperform. Adoption requires ownership, and ownership requires a person. The technology doesn’t fix that.
VA First, Then AI
If you can only move in one direction right now, hire the VA first.
AI tools need a champion inside the agency. Someone who owns the adoption, builds the SOPs, and holds the team accountable to using it every day. A VA hired before your AI implementation becomes that person naturally. They learn the tools alongside your team, own the process from day one, and sit at the intersection of your operations and your technology.
Your VA can also help you figure out where AI will actually matter before you spend money on it. They’ll surface the real bottlenecks faster than any vendor demo will. That leads to a smarter buying decision. This way you are solving a documented problem instead of chasing a feature list.
Once your workflows are documented and your team has some operational breathing room, AI is dramatically less risky to introduce. The foundation is already there.
The Bottom Line
Lead with the VA. Stabilize your operations. Then bring in AI to accelerate what’s already working. In that order, you get compounding returns. In reverse, you get an expensive subscription nobody has time to learn.
The agencies hardest to compete with aren’t the ones with the most advanced technology. They’re the ones with the operational foundation to actually use it.
If you want to talk through what that looks like for your agency, Remote Insurance Team places trained insurance VAs who are ready to make a difference from week one. Reach out and let’s talk.
