Gallagher: AI as a force multiplier for trusted advisors – better insight, faster decisions, stronger results

AI as a strategic multiplier

Gallagher, one of the world’s largest insurance brokers and risk management firms, is strategically investing in enterprise-wide technology and AI capabilities to support continued growth. The company has built a strong foundation for seamlessly integrating intelligence into its platforms and workflows, enhancing employee experience and delivering excellent client outcomes.

“At Gallagher, we view AI as a strategic multiplier of our talent and operational excellence, which translates to the best client outcomes,” says Tejas Patel, VP, AI, Sales and Marketing IT at Gallagher. “It elevates how our people work, increases productivity, and enables us to serve client needs with speed.”

Operating in a highly regulated industry, Gallagher faced a challenge shared by many global enterprises: how to apply AI in a way that meaningfully improves the business while maintaining strong governance and compliance. To address this, Gallagher works with Microsoft on a set of AI initiatives aimed at streamlining critical workflows such as claims summarization, policy and risk management analysis, fraud detection, the ability to interrogate and categorize large volumes of documents, and workflow automation, using secure, compliant technologies that preserve strict data boundaries and support responsible adoption.

This work illustrates how enterprises can activate AI responsibly and effectively, using Microsoft technologies to support specific high value workflows.

Mark Bloom, Global Chief Information Officer at Gallagher, explains, “We work with Microsoft to apply AI to high impact initiatives that streamline critical workflows across the business. Microsoft Foundry supports secure model execution, Microsoft 365 Copilot enhances productivity in daily work, and Copilot Studio helps us automate document heavy workflows – always with human oversight built in.”

Building on a trusted foundation

For a global insurance broker, security is critical.

To support select AI-enabled workflows, Gallagher leverages Microsoft Foundry for secure model execution and control. With flexibility in model selection, prompt engineering controls, and built-in compliance frameworks, Foundry helps enable advanced AI capabilities in critical workflows, translating them into measurable business impact while maintaining governance and accountability.

“We operate in a highly regulated environment,” highlights Patel. “We need a secure, compliant platform that we can confidently build on that enables us to innovate without compromising data privacy and governance.”

Azure’s enterprise-grade security controls, global scalability, and built-in compliance capabilities allow Gallagher to deploy AI broadly while preserving strict data boundaries across regions.

Accelerate M&A Integration: Mergers and acquisitions are a core part of Gallagher’s growth strategy, but they also require absorbing vast volumes of unstructured data, from contracts and policy records to operational and financial documentation. That’s why Gallagher has invested for years in building a strong, standardized data infrastructure. By layering secure AI tools over this foundation, Gallagher analyzes acquisition data with greater speed and consistency, supporting deeper due diligence and more efficient integration as newly acquired firms are brought into core systems and workflows.

“As part of our M&A integration process we use AI tools to interrogate acquisition documents much faster, elevating more opportunities,” confirms Bloom.

Ramped-up claims summarization. Claims files often contain hundreds of notes, historically requiring manual review by adjusters. With AI-powered summarization, Gallagher can surface critical insights far more efficiently while maintaining confidence in accuracy. “With Microsoft’s AI tools powering our claims summarization, what used to take an hour or two now takes minutes,” highlights Bloom.    

Unlocked competitive advantage through speed. Responsiveness determines outcomes. Accelerated claims processing and streamlined underwriting analysis translate directly into stronger win rates and better client experiences. 

According to David Gruzewski, SVP, Data, AI, and Architecture at Gallagher, delivering quotes more quickly strengthens Gallagher’s ability to secure the best outcomes for both existing and new clients. "In many cases, the first to respond is the first to win,” he says.

Embedding AI in daily work

Using AI, Gallagher wants employees to be more effective in their roles.

With this goal in mind, the organization strategically deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot across the enterprise. Employees summarize meetings, draft and refine communications, prioritize inboxes, and prepare presentations across familiar tools – Word, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint and Excel – reducing administrative burden and freeing time for higher-value work.

Gallagher is also actively leveraging Copilot’s built-in agents to extend productivity gains even further. 

Scaling AI with confidence 

Speed drives advantage, but trust sustains it.

Gallagher built its AI platform on a “ring-fenced” data governance model. Security is managed globally as a unified utility, supported by Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and strict policy enforcement.

As Bloom states, “Data protection is non-negotiable. We ring-fenced our data, so it never leaves our environment. That gave our people the confidence to experiment and learn safely.”

This disciplined approach enables high internal trust, accelerates organic AI adoption, and establishes a secure foundation for future client-facing AI innovation.

Operationalizing AI through agents

Gallagher is moving beyond consuming AI to creating it. Using Copilot Studio, the organization designs specialized AI agents connected to internal systems and datasets, securely orchestrated within its governed environment. 

A powerful example is the solution built around the multi-line quote letter (MQL) process. Gallagher can now extract quotes from carrier partners and populate letters to provide back to clients faster than the previous manual process.

With Foundry and Copilot Studio, Gallagher aims to automate and streamline the end-to-end workflow.

As Gallagher embeds agentic AI deeper into core processes, the organization is accelerating innovation across its most strategic workflows. 

Defining the next chapter

Gallagher’s AI journey keeps evolving.

Among the next priorities is RFP automation: a document-heavy, time-sensitive process involving multiple stakeholders. Using Copilot Studio, Gallagher is developing specialized agents to orchestrate each stage, producing rapid RFP summaries ready for expert review. 

As these capabilities expand, Gallagher continues to raise the bar for what’s possible.

“We deeply value our partnership with Microsoft," concludes Bloom. "Together, we’re achieving impressive results in the risk management, claims, and brokerage space.”

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