Insurers are trying to implement AI, but with 90% of their data unstructured, fragmented, and ungoverned, they’re not getting far fast. Before AI can accelerate underwriting or claims, the content problem has to be solved. The way to solve it is with a single, governed content layer.
Based in Columbia, Missouri and operating across 15 states, Shelter Insurance faced exactly this challenge: a growing volume of unstructured content — FNOLs, demand packets, adjuster notes, billing records — spread across claims, underwriting, and policy systems.
Shelter Insurance has been a trusted name in property, casualty, and life insurance for many decades. Today, Box is the operational content layer underneath the policy, billing, claims, and digital components of the business. By creating a single, governed content layer on Box, Shelter Insurance can take advantage of AI automation to speed up critical workflows.
Key takeaways:
- Shelter Insurance aims to dramatically speed up underwriting, simplify attorney demand packets, and cut claims payout cycles by leveraging Box AI and Box Extract for automatic metadata extraction and straight-through processing
- Prebuilt integrations between Box and Guidewire Cloud eliminate custom development overhead, while Box Hubs and Box AI streamline fraud investigation and internal knowledge management
- Adopting intelligent content management positions Shelter to advance agentic AI workflows for automated compliance, retention, and sensitive data protection
From a single, governed content layer to powerful AI capabilities
While Box was initially adopted as a cloud-native, AI-driven, digital-first content layer within the claims department a handful of years ago, Shelter has since expanded its use of Box across many parts of the business — and has also expanded its vision of how the company can tap into the true potential of Intelligent Content Management for insurance.
Schwartz explains, “We were already very comfortable with Box giving us visibility and an access point across our operations. But now, looking at how AI can really supercharge some of our use cases is very exciting for us.”
We were already very comfortable with Box giving us visibility and an access point across our operations. But now, looking at how AI can really supercharge some of our use cases is very exciting for us.
For instance, by automating certain workflows with Box AI, Shelter expects to cut claim payout times down from two weeks to just hours. He refers to Box as “an enterprise and strategic vendor as we go through a full-scale transformation of not only our core system but our business processes.”
AI-powered metadata extraction for claims and underwriting
For an insurance company like Shelter, core business priorities include underwriting (deciding which risks to take), managing claims efficiently, and making sure customers get the highest quality service.
“A lot of this is at the intersection of structured and unstructured data,” Schwartz notes. “And that’s where Box is really powerful.” He talks about a few key future use cases for Box AI.
Reduced claims cycle time
The time and money it takes to process claims is one of the biggest consistent pain points insurers complain about. Typically, 60-70% of the claims cycle is spent on intake and review.
For any given insurance claim, an adjuster must read through all related paperwork manually to find key details like settlement offers and medical bill amounts, then enter them into various software systems one by one. “Demand packets” from attorneys can be hundreds of pages long, making this a time-consuming task.
With data extraction, this process can be automated, using Box AI to automatically pull relevant details from unstructured documents into Shelter’s system records. (Read how Valmark Financial Group is already using Box Extract for a similar goal.)
2. Straight-through processing for underwriting
On the underwriting side of any insurance business, accurate decisions depend on information in documents like loss runs, broker submissions, and payment records that might arrive in various formats from different sources. Each month, Shelter Insurance receives thousands of electronic transactions and physical checks related to homeowner insurance payments, which are sometimes (but not always) escrowed through mortgage companies. Staff have to manually reconcile payments against the expected amounts in the system.
Using Box as a content layer, and Box AI for intelligence, there’s real potential here to automate this “low-value task” so employees can instead focus on higher-value work. Box AI and Box Extract have the ability to automate the extraction of key data from documents, reducing manual reconciliation and moving toward straight-through processing (STP): the ability to process applications end to end without human intervention.
3. Integration with insurance-specific software
For IT leaders managing a Guidewire modernization, integration costs are often the biggest risk. Shelter uses all three Guidewire products: ClaimCenter to manage the claims process, PolicyCenter to support underwriting and the policy administration lifecycle, and BillingCenter to handle billing and payment processing.
Box's prebuilt integration with Guidewire Cloud automatically extracts data from Box files and populates InsuranceSuite records (policy numbers, incident details, customer data) without custom development. The Box for Guidewire integration accelerates processing, improves accuracy, and dramatically reduces the integration burden that typically slows core modernization go-lives.
Using Box APIs and Guidewire Cloud’s integration framework, Shelter has been able to build custom workflows to assist with billing and other tasks.
4. Fraud investigation support
Claims fraud costs the insurance industry an estimated $308.6 billion per year. Box AI and Box Extract help special investigation units structure and summarize massive volumes of unstructured claim evidence, including adjuster notes, police reports, photos, and repair invoices. By organizing this content and packaging key data elements for downstream fraud detection platforms, Box helps investigation teams surface potential discrepancies and review suspicious claims faster, before payouts are made.
5. Knowledge management
By building team and project-specific portals on Box Hubs, Shelter can apply Box AI to build a smarter knowledge platform for adjusters, underwriters, and customer service reps, so people can always locate the information and documents they need quickly.
The transformation of the insurance industry with AI
Every insurance company will eventually be using AI to transform business processes, so taking a somewhat aggressive approach to Intelligent Content Management positions Shelter to stay ahead of its competitors. Schwartz emphasizes that Shelter is currently in “a unique — and good — spot” because they’re transforming core business processes right now. This gives them space to rethink how both generative AI (which creates new content) and agentic AI (which can act independently) fit into their future plans.
Everyone thinks AI is about driving efficiencies — but even more important is the competitive advantage you get from AI specifically advancing agentic workflows.
“This is an important area not just for insurance companies but for all verticals out there,” he says. Efficiency gains and cost savings are obvious benefits, but Schwartz warns, “You have to really look at ways you apply AI aligned with your business goals. Everyone thinks AI is about driving efficiencies — but even more important is the competitive advantage you get from AI specifically advancing agentic workflows.”
Intelligent Content Management for insurers
The value of Intelligent Content Management goes beyond individual lines of business. With the foundation Shelter has laid, they’re now reimagining how business workflows could run, with smarter automation helping people do better work every day while delivering faster, higher-quality service for customers.
Underpinning all of this is Box's built-in security and compliance layer. Box Shield Pro classifies sensitive PII/PHI at scale and detects ransomware activity. Box Governance automates retention and legal holds across policy and claims content, meeting NAIC, GLBA, HIPAA, CCPA, and GDPR requirements. For IT leaders, this means the content layer that powers AI and workflows is also the layer that satisfies the auditor.
Box COO Olivia Nottebohm recently sat down with Matt Schwartz, Vice President of Strategy at Shelter, who shared some insights into the company’s AI journey.
