Executive Interview with Ivan Pribićević, CEO Simplify
The insurance industry is on the brink of a technological tipping point. Rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence and automation are no longer future possibilities – they’re current realities reshaping the entire insurance value chain. From underwriting to claims processing and fraud detection, AI-driven systems and automation are accelerating operations, cutting costs, and redefining customer expectations.
We sat down with Ivan Pribićević, CEO of Simplify, to understand the implications of these developments, how insurance companies can benefit and recommendations on how to get started.
IFORII: Welcome Ivan, great to have you here and speak with you about this important topic. Before we dive into this, can you give us some background on Simplify and what you do?
Ivan Pribićević: “Great to be here! Simplify is a process solutions company with a clear mission: to simplify the way businesses run their operations so they can create more value. We are present in more than 20 countries, from Europe to North America and the Middle East. Our clients value us as a trusted partner to help them navigate the complexities of growth, efficiency, automation and deliver
concrete solutions.
We work with companies across a range of industries, with a strong presence in insurance, banking, manufacturing and logistics. What makes Simplify stand out is not simply the use of technology, but the way it is applied. We always start with the processes, data and business value – technology then follows as the enabler. This ensures that automation and AI are never seen as isolated tools, but as
part of a broader transformation that directly improves scalability, efficiency, and profitability.
Behind this approach is a team that blends deep business expertise with technological know-how, Simplify has built a reputation for assembling multi-disciplinary teams that combine strategy, process management, and advanced automation.
IFORII: In light of the rapid technological developments and based on your experience working with insurers, what is your perspective on insurers’ main challenges and how to best address them?
Our experience shows that many insurers still work with fragmented workflows and legacy systems that slow down decision-making and tie up scarce resources, which could be used elsewhere. Addressing this challenge starts with understanding the process and specifically process maturity: are existing processes mature enough to support the level of efficiency and scalability the business demands? Once insurers see which workflows can be optimized or automated, it becomes clear how much potential value is waiting to be unlocked. At its core, the challenge reduces to two pressing needs: either finding a way to scale the business with the resources already available or finding a way to deliver the same outcomes with fewer resources.
Technology is the other side of the equation. The insurance industry has invested heavily in digital tools, yet far too often these investments fail to deliver measurable returns. The issue is not the
technology itself but how it is used; automation and AI should not be isolated solutions; they need to be integrated into a broader strategy that scales across the organization. It is not enough just to invest in AI without a clear overview of processes that should be improved. By bridging the gap between operational processes and technological capabilities, Simplify helps insurers move beyond incremental improvements. The result: a leaner, more agile organization, that’s better prepared to meet the expectations of both customers and regulators in a highly competitive market.
IFORII: The pace of AI development continues to accelerate. How do you see AI and Automation reshaping the Insurance value chain – from underwriting to claims and customer experience, now and in the future?
The impact of AI and Automation on the insurance value chain is not a distant vision, it is already happening. From underwriting to claims processing and customer experience, the shift is underway,
and the companies that move quickly will capture the market. The coming years will not be about adoption but about scale, and speed will decide who leads and who falls behind.
Insurance is an industry built on risk management, yet the greatest risk today is to remain outside of this transformation. No matter how strong the balance sheet or how long the history, the cost of inaction is simply too high. Those who embrace AI and automation now are positioning themselves to survive and grow.
At its core, insurance is about trust: the promise that if a loss occurs, the customer’s value is protected. With the right application of automation and AI, this promise can be fulfilled instantly. We automated a claim process where, at the very moment of reporting, the approved payout is transferred to the customer’s account. This is not just a vision for the future: it is a reality.
For insurers, the message is clear. The transformation is here, it is accelerating, and it aligns perfectly with the industry’s DNA of risk assessment. Those who understand and act on this now will not only manage the risks of disruption but will emerge as the new leaders of an industry redefined by speed, transparency, and customer trust.
IFORII: Based on your experience, what are the biggest areas of opportunity for insurance companies for Automation & AI?
In insurance, the greatest opportunities in AI and automation are in the everyday processes companies already run. The key is understanding process maturity: knowing which workflows are ready for automation and how much value can be unlocked.
For example, many insurers operate in several countries. Yet in each of these countries, the same basic tasks are often repeated manually by different teams, for example posting invoices or, issuing policies, managing employee contracts, or handling terminations. The processes are essentially identical, but they are executed differently everywhere.
This fragmentation is a missed opportunity. There is no reason why such transactional and rule-based activities should not be centralized, standardized, and automated. Shared service centres provide the foundation to achieve this. When processes are unified and streamlined, automation scales rapidly, and AI finally delivers its full value.
The opportunity is clear: stop duplicating effort across markets, standardize wherever possible, and then automate. This is where efficiency gains, cost savings, and true scalability in insurance become a reality.
IFORII: Can you share some best practice cases, where you helped insurance clients improve their business with Automation & AI and the results those companies achieved?
Happy to share a couple of powerful examples that demonstrate how Automation and AI are transforming insurance.
The first case involves a century-old insurer operating in more than ten European markets, with whom we have worked for over five years. Together, we have automated more than 150 processes through process automation, custom applications, and AI solutions. For example, we automated posting of life insurance statements, non-life insurance claims payout, authorization of insurance payment orders, Insurance policy renewal and termination and many more. The results speak for themselves: over 50,000 working hours saved, comparing the actual effective working time of employees (which on average is 5.5 working hours per day), with the output of software robots. These metrics are monitored in real time today, accumulating more savings. The outcome is nothing less than a new kind of organization, one that operates faster, more efficiently, and is leading the way into the next era of insurance.
The second case highlights customer experience. We helped a leading European insurer enable instant claims payouts. In practice, this means that when a policyholder reports a loss digitally, the funds are transferred to their account the moment they hit “send.” While this currently applies to a limited number of claims, it represents a dramatic leap forward in customer trust and satisfaction. The ambition now is to scale this model across a wider range of claim types, fundamentally reshaping the claims journey.
A final example is focused on Agentic AI, one of the most significant breakthroughs. Agentic AI brings advanced reasoning capabilities and unlocks possibilities far beyond traditional automation. We’re helping several organization applying this to their processes – for example a large company, where we’ve implemented Agentic AI to detect and solve SAP errors in key processes. Looking ahead, we see AI evolving into a true personal assistant for employees; augmenting their skills, enhancing decision-making, and ultimately raising organizational competence to an entirely new level.
These are just three stories among many. The potential is enormous. But as always, technology is only part of the equation. It is people who make these changes possible and sometimes people who hold them back. Every insurance company must decide for itself which side of that equation it wants to be on.
IFORII: Insurers are also concerned about the cost and complexity of AI adoption. What is your perspective on this, how do you make automation accessible and ROI-focused?
In an industry built on risk, the real question is not how much AI costs, but how much value it brings, compared to the value employees can bring without AI. Unlike many IT initiatives, process automation has a unique advantage: calculating return on investment is straightforward.
Every insurer should already know, down to the euro, how much their current processes cost. What is the cost of posting an invoice? Of preparing an insurance quote? With accurate FTE mapping and a clear understanding of process, calculating ROI becomes simple. What we’ve found is, that in over 90 percent of cases the ROI is positive.
IFORII: What is the secret for success in Automation projects in the Insurance industry? What are your recommendations for insurers? Any specific recommendations when it comes to AI?
The insurance industry is, at its core, a service business that already relies heavily on transactional processes and technology. This makes it uniquely positioned to benefit from automation. Wherever processes are repetitive, rules-based, and require little to no creativity is the ideal ground for automation.
The recommendation is simple: focus on these transactional areas first. By automating them, insurers free up capacity, reduce errors, and create the foundation to scale AI in more complex domains. Success comes not from chasing the most advanced use cases immediately, but from systematically building automation where it delivers the fastest, clearest value.
I do want to highlight an area that is crucial for successful application of AI: Data. In the past, most companies did not collect or structure data in ways that make it usable for AI. Without quality data, the full potential of AI simply cannot be realized. The good news is that this challenge can be solved. Insurers that invest in cleaning, organizing, and enriching their data will not only unlock the value of AI but also build long-term competitive advantage, with data becoming the foundation for smarter decisions and scalable automation.
This calculation doesn’t even account for the cost of errors, which are often not measured but can be significant. When these are factored in, the case for automation becomes overwhelming. For insurers, automation is not just a technology investment; it is a financial decision that consistently pays off.
IFORII: Where do you recommend insurers should begin their journey?
The right starting point depends on the maturity of the company processes. For insurers still early in the journey, the single biggest opportunity lies in back-office operations.
Transactional and repetitive processes, such as posting invoices, verifying claims documentation or terminating expired contracts, should already be fully automated. Every day these tasks remain manual, represents unnecessary cost, and a burden on employees who could be focusing on higher-value tasks – a huge potential for increasing efficiency, savings and speeding up processes.
For insurers who already have these basics in place, the next frontier is claims assessment. Here AI is advancing rapidly, with the ability to analyse images more accurately than humans and instantly cross-reference repair costs. For example, the system can determine the precise cost of a replacement headlight on a 2018 Audi A6 damaged in an accident. This reduces the risk of misjudgement, speeds up resolution, and significantly improves customer satisfaction.
Whether in the back office or in claims management, the opportunity is the same: eliminating inefficiencies, reducing errors, and making insurance operations faster and more precise. Delaying automation is not just a missed opportunity, it is a competitive disadvantage insurers cannot afford.
Scaling through automation allows insurers to focus on expanding their portfolios and increasing the revenue side. Wherever there is risk, it can be insured, at least to a certain degree. This opens the door to innovative new products: covering the purchase of a concert- or football ticket, hotel reservations, or the purchase of professional equipment. And all of this offered seamlessly, with one click at the point of purchase. The prerequisite, of course, is risk calculation, well-structured processes, data and a solid foundation of automation.
IFORII: Thank you so much for sharing your perspective, Ivan. Any final thoughts you’d like to add?
For the first time in history, we are building technology that directly competes with human capabilities. If AI truly becomes intelligent, it will vastly outperform us. Until now, ERP systems, CRM platforms, and claims-assessment software lacked the ability to think. Agentic AI can already apply reasoning and, combined with process automation, can replace a significant part of manual work in insurance companies. I believe all insurers are aware of this, have assessed the risk correctly, and are making changes in this direction. The only questions are speed and who will be first to build a sustainable system and emerge as market leaders.
At Simplify, we believe this is a crucial and exciting moment – and we’re ready to partner with insurers, leveraging Automation and AI to drive real transformation across their organizations.
About Simplify
- Founded in 2018
- Offices and HQ in Belgrade (Serbia), Madrid (Spain), Dubai (UAE) and Ljubljana (Slovenia)
- Number of employees: 30
- A selection of Simplify’s Clients: Generali, Wiener Stadtische, Unicredit, Sava, Triglav, Raiffeisen Bank, OTP Insurance, Willis Towers Watson, Sparkasse, Bayer, Fiat, Stellantis, PWC, Syneos Health, JTI, Kuehne-Nagel, Shneider Electric, Siemens, Alstom, Saudi Industrial Export Company
