Oct 215 min read

Scout InsurTech Interview with Qumis

Qumis is an AI-powered knowledge platform built by insurance coverage experts to fill an industry wide need for fast, law firm-quality coverage analysis. They seek to enable anybody to handle complex insurance policy review. Andrew Daniels sat with CEO and Founder, Dan Schuleman, to learn more about how Qumis is impacting the industry.

What is Qumis’ client focus?

“Our client focus is on commercial P&C carriers and brokers that deal with complex risks.”

What does your product do?

“Qumis is an assistive AI platform that solves an industry-wide need for fast, law firm-quality coverage analysis—we provide an AI-enabled technology ecosystem for understanding insurance contracts.”

How much capital have you raised?

“We have raised $275K.”

Was the company born from within or outside the industry?

“I am a former practicing insurance coverage attorney. I started my career working for big law firms in Chicago advising carriers on and litigating coverage. The manual, bespoke nature of this work, combined with my observation that many of the cases landing on my desk were due to simple errors, inspired me to start Qumis. Shiv, the CTO & Co-Founder of Qumis, also has a strong fintech background. He has worked in senior technical leadership roles at Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs and was previously CTO & Co-Founder of a logistics startup.”

What growth metrics have you accomplished over the last 12 months?

“We are now in more than eight enterprise pilots, including three of the top 15 brokers in the US and multiple carriers. We are so excited to see so many brokers and claims professionals placing and interacting with the most intricate, complex commercial policies and streamlining their workflows using our platform.”

Within your domain, what is the current challenge that the industry is facing?

“The primary challenge the insurance industry is currently facing revolves around managing the complexity and inefficiency of analyzing complex insurance policies. As claim costs continue to rise, insurers and brokers are under increasing pressure to improve operational efficiency while maintaining accuracy in their coverage determinations. Traditionally, coverage analysis has been a manual, time-consuming and costly process carried out by specialists, often requiring legal expertise. This method, while effective in ensuring legal compliance, has become an operational bottleneck for P&C insurers and brokers, slowing down critical business processes such as underwriting, policy placement and claims management.

Additionally, the volume of policies and variations in coverage structures across different forms make it challenging for brokers to provide clients with precise, comparable advice. This complexity also extends to claims professionals, who must quickly interpret policies and legal documents to determine coverage, all while keeping operational costs in check.

Qumis directly addresses these pain points by offering an AI-powered platform that provides fast, law firm-quality coverage analysis. It helps insurers contain rising claim costs, enables brokers to better serve their clients with accurate coverage insights, and assists claims professionals in scaling their resources efficiently. Through innovative technology, Qumis is poised to transform how the industry approaches coverage analysis, making it faster, more accurate, and cost-effective. This efficiency boost is critical as the industry seeks to remain competitive and sustainable in the face of escalating expenses.”

How does Qumis take a unique approach to providing value?

“Qumis takes a unique approach to providing value by leveraging AI to deliver law-firm-quality coverage analysis faster than traditional manual processes. The platform uses proprietary models, datasets and the most cutting-edge large language models to provide detailed, real-time insights into complex insurance policies, enabling professionals to efficiently compare coverages, analyze liability claims and quickly draft coverage letters, among other use cases. Qumis stands out by offering intuitive, plain-English queries and in-line chat features that simplify policy interpretation, saving time and resources. Its AI-driven ecosystem centralizes policy review, improving the insurance industry's efficiency, profitability and customer service.

Qumis is also unique within the insurtech landscape because it focuses specifically on insurance coverage, a critical but often overlooked aspect of the insurance value chain. By providing an AI-driven platform for comprehensive coverage analysis, Qumis serves not only brokers but also carriers and claims administrators, allowing professionals across underwriting, claims and brokerage to quickly analyze, interpret and compare policies, reducing costs and improving efficiency. In this way, Qumis uniquely drives value across multiple insurance functions.”

What inspired the team to start this company?

"My inspiration for starting Qumis came from my time as an insurance coverage attorney at large firms in Chicago, where I advised on and litigated complex claims for major insurers. I’d spend hours writing detailed coverage opinions, only to see them filed away with little follow-up. It was frustrating to invest so much effort without knowing how my work impacted the outcome of claims. I saw firsthand how small mistakes in coverage interpretation could lead to significant legal disputes, and I realized that much of my work was reactive—cleaning up errors after they had already caused problems.

I wanted to shift from firefighting to fire prevention, and I knew there had to be a more proactive approach to coverage analysis. Then, as AI technology evolved, I saw the tremendous potential to transform this field. The idea for Qumis started before the AI revolution, but the rapid advancements in machine learning made it clear that we could expedite this vision. AI can automate the process of reviewing policies, preventing those costly mistakes from happening in the first place and offering real-time, actionable insights. The combination of my own frustrations and the explosion of AI technology made it possible to build something that goes beyond manual legal reviews, offering a scalable solution that can reshape how the insurance industry handles coverage analysis."

Can you share any goals for the next 12 months?

“In the next 12 months, our goal is to establish Qumis as the authoritative and most accurate AI solution for analyzing complex insurance policies with Qumis becoming the go-to platform for insurers, brokers and claims administrators seeking to streamline their processes, reduce errors and make faster, more informed decisions.

By accomplishing this vision, we unlock the potential for significant impacts across the entire insurance value chain. For insurers, this means reducing claims costs and preventing disputes by ensuring that coverage determinations are both precise and comprehensive. For brokers, it allows for deeper, more efficient comparisons of policies, leading to better advice for clients and more competitive service offerings. Claims administrators benefit from the ability to quickly assess complex coverage scenarios, improving response times and customer satisfaction while reducing the need for costly legal interventions.

The ramifications of this are enormous. We see a future where insurance professionals dealing with the most intricate, complex risks and policies can rely on real-time AI insights to make smarter decisions, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks instead of getting bogged down in manual reviews. Additionally, our technology will help reduce the risks of coverage disputes and legal challenges, ultimately contributing to better financial outcomes for all stakeholders involved.”