BMO Insurance is rebuilding its advisor platforms from the ground up rather than patching legacy infrastructure. Nicole Kennedy, vice president of advisory business at BMO Insurance, and Rav Bharania, chief of digital transformation at BMO Insurance, explain how the company is prioritising advisor experience at every stage of platform development, deploying Rovr AI to keep client conversations intact, and embedding governance into the innovation cycle from the start rather than treating it as a final checkpoint.
BMO Insurance treats advisor experience as the starting point for all platform decisions, rebuilding systems from the ground up rather than layering fixes onto legacy infrastructure. Nicole Kennedy, vice president of advisory business at BMO Insurance, says the old approach "doesn't actually modernize anything at the end of the day." The goal is platforms configurable enough to resolve bottlenecks while advisors are still feeling them, not months after the fact.
Canadian advisors no longer benchmark insurance tools against other insurers; they measure them against every digital experience in their daily lives. Kennedy says tolerance for slow or outdated processes has thinned considerably: "There's just a different bar now, and insurers have to rise to meet it." Carriers that cannot match the speed and intuitiveness advisors expect from everyday digital tools risk becoming harder to justify using.
Rovr AI is BMO Insurance's AI tool, built on Microsoft Azure AI, that gives advisors accurate answers on underwriting, eligibility, and product details while they are sitting with a client. Rav Bharania, chief of digital transformation at BMO Insurance, describes the problem it solves: "These are sophisticated products with nuanced underwriting and eligibility criteria. Without the right support, the moment breaks, an advisor has to pause, follow up later, or guess." By keeping that moment intact, Rovr AI reduces rework and improves submission quality at intake.
AI does not replace the advisor's role in insurance sales. Bharania is direct on the point: AI earns its place by removing friction, not by replacing the judgment, context, and trust that define an advisor's value. Advisors who find a carrier's tools easier to use will reach for that carrier first, making advisor confidence a distribution strategy as much as a service metric. Bharania frames the goal simply: "Our job is to make it feel simple, even when the work behind it isn't. Modernization succeeds when complexity disappears from the advisor's view."
BMO Insurance builds governance into the innovation cycle from the start rather than treating compliance as a final checkpoint. Data parameters, target audience, and sandbox boundaries are defined before any capability ships. Kennedy argues this is precisely what makes speed possible: "Strong governance should not be seen as putting on the brakes; it makes acceleration possible, in a controlled and safe way." Advisor confidence in a tool depends on understanding what sits behind it, and embedding governance early is what makes that credible.
Kennedy offers two concrete pieces of advice. First, let technology handle tasks that do not require expert judgment so advisors can invest more time in client relationships and complex decisions. Second, treat the carrier as a partner being actively shaped rather than a vendor being waited on. "Be a demanding user of technology," Kennedy says. "When you communicate with your carriers, give them feedback, because the advisor experience is so essential."
Bharania points to straight-through processing as the next major shift, with intake, underwriting, issuance, and digital delivery happening almost in real time and clear rules determining when a human needs to step in. Kennedy adds that carriers will increasingly be judged on how quickly they sense a market change and adjust, warning that "carriers that delay investment may find it increasingly challenging to remain relevant in the coming years." Bharania puts the stakes plainly: "The industry doesn't have the luxury of slow learning anymore."
Nicole Kennedy: vice president of advisory business, BMO Insurance; leads the advisory business with a focus on translating advisor day-to-day challenges into product and platform requirements.
Rav Bharania: chief of digital transformation, BMO Insurance; owns the company's modernization agenda and expanding use of AI, including the development and deployment of Rovr AI.