PIA Western Alliance Launches AI-Powered Website Overhaul

If you haven’t spent time on the PIA Western Alliance website recently, you should. Association Executive Vice President Kim Legato says the new site — built with AI and some creative thinking — is designed specifically for insurance professionals of all levels.

Until recently, and for a long time, the PIA Western Alliance relied on a patchwork of subscription-based systems used to operate two companies. What the association needed was a way to blend the needs of each department into one, seamless, system where teams could easily communicate with one another.

“Over my entire professional career, including my 18 years with the PIA Western Alliance, I knew technology would eventually let us streamline processes, customize a system to fit our needs, and help us function at 100% while saving the company money,” Legato said. “I just didn’t know when — and the ‘when’ is finally here.”

The PIA Western Alliance will no longer have to rely on multiple subscription platforms that do similar things but aren’t connected to one another. Every system used before was human-touched, not connected across systems, and not showing real-time data. That created redundancy, potential for inaccurate information, and unnecessary cost.

“With the help of AI, we’re creating a system where everything we do is connected, with real-time data that informs our members in ways we never imagined — including making sure they’re using their benefits and getting value,” she noted. “That wasn’t achievable until now.”

Legato said the PIA Western Alliance is embracing this technology to bring all departments together into one system and to identify what our members need. It’s a place where every department can share the same information in real time, which means we’ll be better at assisting our members by staying more informed than ever. It’s also a tool for staff to onboard new members and identify their needs in ways we haven’t been able to before.

“Google has been part of the fabric of our everyday lives for a few decades now that it’s become a verb. But like everything else, we had to learn how to use it,” she said. “It felt awkward talking to Alexa the first time you put one in your home, until you learned how to phrase your question to get the results you wanted. AI is the same way. It’s more than just another form of automation — it’s a tool to enhance what we do. I always knew that when the time was right, we could use AI to enhance what we do for our members.”

The new website is the first step in a four-part plan, and Legato says it matters to members in two key ways.

“First, our website is now integrated with AI done through our bot, Ava, This not just for the front-end user but also applies to administrators on the back end,” Legato said. “To update our website, we can simply tell it what we need updated, and it creates a ticket for the AI to act on. Because of that, we had the new website ready to launch in just nine business days.”

Coming with the integration are some very nice new features.

“Each state now has real-time bill tracking for its legislature, courtesy of AI,” she said. “We can focus on insurance-related bills in each of our 10 states — something we’ve never been able to do before easily.”

The second benefit, Legato said, is on the AMS (agency management system) side.

“What many people don’t know is that the Western Alliance is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization that oversees membership, advocacy, events, and education, along with its own products and services,” she noted. “Among the services we provide to agents and members are Errors & Omissions, Cyber, and Workers’ Compensation coverage through SAIF in Oregon and the Montana State Fund in Montana. We’re now building out our own proprietary platform to better serve our membership base.”

Integrating those systems positions PIA Western Alliance for future growth.

“And there’s plenty of growth ahead, even amid the M&A activity we’ve seen across the industry over the last decade or so, there is potential for agency startups” Legato said. “There’s a good read by Jeff Arnold, whom I had the pleasure of meeting a few weeks ago at InsuranceFest in Santa Monica. One line from it says it best: ‘AI is about providing us with service without friction, insights without delay, and possibilities without limits.’”

Legato couldn’t agree more. “The days of dreaming about AI are long gone,” she said. “It’s here. Embracing it is the path forward to provide our members a more comprehensive experience, and we look forward to seeing where this leads us.”

If you haven’t spent time on the PIA Western Alliance website yet, we encourage you to do so: piawest.com.