NEXT Insurance, a digital insurtech company transforming small business insurance, today announced the launch and availability of the Certificate of Insurance (COI) Analyzer – an innovative, new offering “for small business owners to generate free, instant, custom-made COIs to show valid insurance coverage to potential employers in under a minute.”
This new offering is “the latest iteration of NEXT’s commitment to advancing innovation in the small business insurance space, fulfilling its promise to provide a simple and streamlined insurance experience.”
A COI is often “required and may make the difference between being hired or not for a job. NEXT’s COI Analyzer enables customers to upload a sample certificate and receive an automatically generated COI within seconds, via the 24/7 self-service portal on desktop or mobile app.”
Advanced machine learning models “read the sample document using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and an Object Detector Network, to accurately extract and understand the certificate holder details, as well as any special requirements that may be included in the sample certificate.”
Effi Fuks-Leichtag CPO at NEXT, said:
“Insurance shouldn’t stall a small business owner from thriving, it should empower them to build, launch, grow and expand. This new innovation will only speed up the owners’ mission to meet the next job opportunity, challenge and goal, and we’re excited to be part of that success story. Leveraging the latest machine learning models, we’re able to remove the guesswork, likelihood of human error and ensure that the COI is right the first time so that the individual can get back to their passion of running a business.”
For businesses including those in construction, retail, cleaning professionals, sports and fitness and more, a new and personalized COI is often “required for each and every job. In fact, NEXT has confirmed that some construction business owners may need to share a COI nearly 200 times a year.”
In 2022, NEXT’s customers on average “created 16,314 COIs per month, with 9,215 coming from construction businesses 1,204 from retail and 984 from cleaning professionals. With that much documentation from differing customers and businesses, comes countless potential inputs and needs for completing a COI.”
This also benefits insurance agents “who regularly receive COI examples from customers reviewing new job opportunities.” They are “required to both verify that their clients have the correct coverage, and also create their COI for them.”
This new feature “can now save agents time on both fronts. Now, in less than a minute from start to finish, the COI Analyzer speeds up the process, eliminates errors and ensures a modern experience.”
Laura Jean, founder and CEO of Fit by LJ, Inc., said:
“As a fitness, nutrition and wellness coach, COIs are critical for me to quickly secure jobs and maintain my work with clients. Every six months I may need to create up to four different COIs, so efficiency and accuracy for each request are crucial. NEXT’s COI Analyzer eliminated several tedious steps from the process, saving me an average of 10 minutes. Just recently, I used the COI Analyzer to complete the process and after NEXT automatically sent the proof to my potential employer, I was hired within 20 minutes.”
As covered, NEXT Insurance claims it is “transforming small business insurance with simple, digital and affordable coverage tailored to the self-employed.”
“Trusted” by over 450,000 business owners, NEXT reportedly “offers policies that are easy to buy and provides 24/7 access to Live Certificates of Insurance, Additional Insured, and more, with no extra fees.”
Enhancing a historically complicated insurance industry, NEXT says it “utilizes AI and machine learning to simplify the purchasing process and provide more affordable coverage.”