"I would say we almost double the amount of accounts we can look at in the day."

Aisha Heaton is all about growth - and growing the right way. 

After running a photography business years ago, she “decided to give insurance a try,” working for several years in the turn-and-burn world of claims before moving to underwriting. 

It was a clear fit - she quickly advanced from an entry-level underwriter to becoming AVP of E&S Casualty at Arch.

Her team at Arch is scaling fast too. They’re now up to seven in the Southeast to keep up with rising demand in the E&S space. “We see a tremendous amount of growth on an annual basis,” she says.

“And so at Arch, we really push a growth mindset, open mindset, abundance mindset. I believe a great team comes in every single day, excited to learn and grow with a sense of urgency and just pushes the envelope on a regular basis."

“It’s a huge part of our culture here at Arch, and that's why we love Copilot.”

Triage: Identifying the right opportunities

When every day is focused on growing the right way, the first question underwriters ask is where to start. That’s where Copilot’s triage and prioritization comes in.

“My team absolutely loves the scoring process that Co-Pilot provides for our submissions.”

Copilot enhances triage decisions with recommendations and scoring driven by three main factors:

1. Copilot’s AI - For each insurer, Copilot automatically learns the characteristics of submissions that bind profitably and boosts their score with our proprietary, transparent AI model
2. Appetite and Guidelines - Every submission automatically is screened against your appetite and preference criteria, using any of the thousands of data points in Copilot 
3. Portfolio Targets - Copilot measures progress towards an insurer’s portfolio objectives (e.g., concentration by geography, class, attachment point) and elevates submissions that help reach those goals

“It really does float these opportunities to the top that we might not have seen before,” said Aisha.

She highlighted a recent success story where her team was in sprint mode, looking to issue a batch of high quality quotes and binders in a two week stretch. “We set the effective dates for the next two weeks, and we literally worked top to bottom,” she said. 

And Copilot’s rankings proved incredibly accurate - the lower ranked risks could be put on the backburner or declined without a time-consuming review, while the higher scored submissions were consistently quoted and bound at much higher rates. 

As Aisha put it, “If there's an account that has a good score, how can we not look at it?“

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Marketing: Building Productive Broker Partnerships

As an underwriting leader, elevating broker relationships is a critical focus for Aisha. Copilot has helped Arch take these partnerships “to the next level.”

“I would say three years ago, we would speak to our producers about what they might need or what we're doing, just very very general conversations,” Aisha said. “But now we get to show up with data and analytics.”

She highlighted how Copilot’s Management Dashboard provides both a bird’s eye view into managing her book and also allows her to deep dive on individual brokers.

“What our producers are sending to us, what we're writing, what we're not writing - we're actually able to take that information to the table with our brokers. It really helps drive the conversation to what's needed, and it does help us uncover future business with our brokers.”

She called back to a recent example with a key broker who had historically sent over real estate business. Copilot identified that this broker also saw construction business, which was a surprise for Aisha and team. 

“When we touched base with them about this, it turns out they didn't realize we wrote construction. It was almost like an aha moment.” That conversation led to a detailed review of additional construction accounts in Copilot, eventually yielding more quoted and bound business.

As Aisha summarized it, when it comes to broker management, Copilot lets her team “show up for our producers in a way that we weren't able to before.”

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A Personal Story: Preparing for Maternity Leave

While growth is the story for Aisha’s team at Arch, it’s also the story of her family, as she welcomed a baby girl this past spring. For every parent, finding the ideal balance and prepping for parental leave can be a challenge.

“If anyone has spent three months away from work, they know that the work does not go away,” she said.

Thankfully, Copilot was there to help.

“I really was trying to make up for potential lost time before I left on maternity leave and Copilot really did help me get a lot of quotes out there. And I bound enough business to compensate for those three months out.”

Once Aisha was back in the office, she turned to Copilot to catch back up.

“I had over 1,100 emails and I had two weeks to quote some bindable business. I remember sitting down at my desk that first day back thinking, okay, where do I start?”

“And really I didn't even have to dig through my email. I was able to folder a lot of that because the Hub on Copilot helped me work through my business.”

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Arch and Copilot: Pushing the Envelope

Aisha and her team have big aspirations, and Copilot is helping them grow their book profitably. With Copilot’s triage, management, and risk analysis capabilities, Arch can conduct high-quality underwriting faster than ever.

“I would say we almost double the amount of accounts we can look at in the day. It's a time-saver and it's a game-changer.”

After talking to Aisha for just a few minutes, it becomes clear that she’s not planning to slow down any time soon.

“I believe we're one of the top competitors when it comes to the E&S casualty world because of our progressive thinking, our creative thinking, our ability to push the envelope, and the way that we use Copilot.”