I am sure you heard about Elon Musk’s flying car debut on October 15th! If not, here is video of the flying car – the new Tesla Roadster. The sports car performed short airborne stunts utilizing ultra-high-pressure air tanks and cold-gas thrusters built with SpaceX. The vehicle drove up an inverted vertical ramp, hung upside down, dropped, flipped, and used air jets to land softly.
It was amazing!
Everyone has been wondering when the flying car we all saw first in The Jetsons would become a reality! It took Elon Musk to challenge the norms and traditional assumptions by bringing together engineers from both Space X and Tesla to make it happen. It is an example of taking a vision to reality through innovation.
Majesco Challenging the Norms as a Frontier Insurer
Some are describing the new Roadster like the flying Delorean from Back to the Future movies where thecar dropped, flipped, flew, and landed using ultra-high-pressure air jets. For those that might remember, in 2019 Majesco’s customer conference had our own Manish Shah emerging from a Delorean via a video in our opening session and then had a real Delorean on-site for everyone to sit in and take pictures with.
The focus was on the Future of Insurance and Majesco innovations that would provide a roadmap to that future. These innovations were focused on Digital, Cloud, ecosystem of InsurTech partners and a portfolio of new capabilities that challenged the norm from our Spring 2019 product release.
Fast forward to our Frontier Conference we just held in New Orleans and our Fall ’26 Product release. The Future of Insurance is coming to life as a Frontier Insurer — with Majesco continuing to challenge the norm and traditional assumptions of the insurance operating model, the core systems that support it and leveraging embedded and immersive AI to become a Frontier Insurer.
Majesco’s Intelligent Core solutions have embedded AI since 2023, first with Majesco Copilot, next with Agentic AI agents embedded within the core, and now with Immersive AI that is redefining the business process and user experience with AI. We are redefining the business operating model and processes by using AI to the fullest to break down functional silos, challenge decades of business assumptions, and change the value proposition of insurance for our customers. We are well on our way to becoming a Frontier Firm.
It is not just for show. It is real. It is impactful.
The Obstacle: Traditional RFP and Selection Process
But there remains a major obstacle for insurers wanting to buy Intelligent Core. It is the traditional RFP and selection process that is no longer relevant for core software selection in the era of AI.
While a process is still needed, the structure, purpose, and details must change.
Why?
Because the traditional RFP and selection process, often driven by procurement departments, continues to focus on legacy operating model and software features and functions of what they do today. Not what they need for the future. Not what a Frontier Insurer is.
This new era of AI and the Frontier Insurer is where the foundational logic of the insurance and retirement industries is being rewritten. The traditional operating model, a testament to stability and structured process, is no longer sufficient to navigate the accelerating complexities of risk in a digital-first world.
The challenge – and the immense opportunity – is not merely to automate legacy processes and bolt-on AI, but to infuse them with a modern native cloud and AI core, transforming the very foundation of how value is created and delivered. This is the Frontier Insurer.
The Frontier Insurer operating model reimagines the organization and workflows, not as a collection of siloed functions, but as a dynamic, interconnected system powered by AI. It moves beyond simple automation to embrace autonomy, structuring work around three pillars: intelligence on tap, human-agent hybrid teams, and agent bosses–human–led– to achieve unprecedented agility and value creation faster than traditional companies.
RFP and Selection Process Legacy vs RFP and Selection Process Needed
Legacy business processes and operating model are reflected in the traditional RFP. It is a spreadsheet with tabs of information representing a checklist with Yes or No and if in production questions. The tabs often include functionality for Policy, functionality for Billing, functionality for claims, functionality for portals, functionality for underwriting, architecture, integration, cloud infrastructure, Data / EDW / Reporting, and now often a separate tab for AI.
The separate tab for AI is a major clue it is legacy. It is often focused on the technical and framework aspects not the business workflows. For example, it asks about the AI architecture, SDLC, Licensing, auditability, and pricing. In some cases, it might outline business functions and ask if AI is used in them. Keeping AI separate misses the big picture and the business value potential of AI.
Instead, the RFP Process must consider three crucial components. These three components define AI-native systems – where the software reacts dynamically based on data, context, and iterative learning. They redefine the process and eliminate features because they are done differently behind the scenes by agents and the results are reviewed by the human. And they determine if the software company is also redefining their operating model and using AI to be a Frontier Firm.
First it must ask, “What is the AI approach within the core business components for how work is done as defined by a Frontier Insurer, not as a collection of siloed functions, but as a dynamic, interconnected system powered by agentic AI?” It must move beyond simple automation to embrace autonomy, look at and structure the business processes and work around three levels of intelligence:
- Intelligence on Tap – Gen AI surfaces insight. Copilot answers, summarizes, drafts and takes simple user-directed actions in the flow of work. Productivity improves, but AI remains a tool at humans’ fingertips as intelligence on tap.
- Human–Agent Hybrid Teams – Agentic AI orchestrates work. Ready-to-use workflows carry multi-step work to governed outcomes, under the user’s permissions and send exceptions to the right person with the relevant context.
- Agent Boss – Human-Led – Immersive AI gives users a new way to collaborate with AI agents. Users and agents work the same process together; capabilities gather, assess and prepare; the user decides with the governance needed for production use.
This approach would yet outline business capabilities but do so to understand which of the three levels is relevant – which could be none or all three. This provides a much deeper understanding of the level of redesigned business processes and user experiences to achieve real business value.
Second, it must focus on the core solution AI Framework components that allow customers to configure, extend and build, ensuring governance and trust. This includes components like model catalog, MCP gateway, telemetry & metering, agent registry, auditability, SDK and more. It also must provide a governance structure inclusive of full documentation of AI use that meets the NAIC regulatory requirements for AI third-party software and data providers.
Third, it must determine if the software company is not just providing AI-enabled core solutions, but also using AI operationally to change how they develop, deliver and support their customers – changing their operating model to an AI-centric one as a Frontier Firm.
Remaining Relevant as a Frontier Insurer
A Frontier Insurer is not a traditional insurer. It has entirely new operating and technology architecture. Frontier Insurers represent a small percentage of companies who dramatically outperform their peers — by redesigning how humans and intelligent systems work together.
The question isn’t “How do we become a Frontier Insurer?” It’s: “How far are we willing to push the norms and challenge assumptions so that, in five or ten years, insurance operating metrics – expense ratios, loss ratios, customer retention, NPS scores, and growth — are significantly better?” We can offer meaningful products, affordable products, reduce protection gaps, and help customers reduce risk. We become an industry that is “cool” and closes a growing capacity gap of employees.
AI is a strategic catalyst with the potential to improve everything from risk modeling to underwriting, policy servicing, billing and claims. It is foundational to becoming a Frontier Insurer to achieve strategic business goals of profitability, operational optimization, growth, and innovation.
But getting there requires change. Change to the RFP and selection process is a failure and a blocker to truly rethinking the business process with AI. Rethinking the key business value, outcomes and metrics.
Today’s RFPs reflect the way business is done today, an accumulation over decades for a specific function or process. It does not reflect how work could and should be redesigned and optimized, with functional silos and interfaces between them eliminated with AI workflows. They worked in the past. But will not for the future.
Challenge the norms and traditional assumptions. This is aligning your strategy to a fast-changing insurance market future.
Majesco is continuously doing that. We are challenging the definition of core systems, challenging how to use AI within core, from GenAI to Agentic AI and now Immersive AI, challenging our operating model to ensure we deliver not just great, market-leading products but also a great customer experience and relationship for the long term.
Grab hold of the potential of AI with a different approach to selecting intelligent core systems.
Because as Marshall Goldsmith famously said … “What got you here won’t get you there.”