A Slice on Sai Raman, Founder and CEO of CogniSure AI
Insurance is something we’re all familiar with. We need insurance for our car, house, apartment, pets, and pretty much anything valuable. What most people don’t know is that insurance policies typically have a lot of gaps and gray areas that aren’t covered. For example, if you have homeowner’s insurance and your basement floods, you might not be protected from the flooding and damage. Sai Raman is on a mission to change that. With over 25 years in the insurance industry, Raman is now working to help customers find gaps in their coverage through CogniSure AI.
Raman’s entrepreneurial journey started when he had the simple urge to solve a problem. “I started thinking about how I’m a homeowner and we all have a credit score. But I thought about what is my risk score, what are all of the risks I’m exposed to, and am I covered for those risks?” Raman got to thinking and realized all of the coverage gaps that are found in policies, that most people don’t even realize. Setting out with a problem to solve, Raman started wondering how to identify the coverage gaps in policies and how he could solve them and was determined to find a solution.
While looking at existing policies, Raman noticed most are in the form of PDFs. “I started thinking about if I could automate it using AI. But first, you have to understand the document and get data from it to be able to apply rules to see what gaps there are, so that was my starting point.” Raman notes it wasn’t easy because most companies have different policy types, so he had to find a way to utilize AI to read the various policies and ultimately create an algorithm applicable to all of them.
Getting from point A to point B was made easier due to his network in Chicago with insurtechs and various insurance companies in the midwest. This has allowed him to continue to grow CogniSure AI even in tough times, like COVID-19. Luckily for Raman, the pandemic didn’t affect business for the team. “Last year [2020] was focused on helping us to validate the platform to get the trust that we were looking for. I would say COVID slowed us down but didn’t impact us as much.”
Although COVID-19 didn’t affect CogniSure AI negatively, there have been obstacles nonetheless. The company has a strong mission with clients’ best interests in mind but it hasn’t been easy for Raman to break through in the industry. “The insurance industry is traditional, they don’t fall for flashy objects very easily. When I started, I made it very clear that this has to be an enterprise-grade platform.” Raman had to find a way to build the platform with relevant algorithms that were “trustworthy” to extract data. While doing that, he also needed to find a way to gain the trust of carriers and brokers even though they were so used to their traditional ways.
Just as insurance industry professionals don’t fall for flashy objects, Raman doesn’t either, and he’s not one to measure success through money. Even when it comes to fundraising, Raman has been extremely selective about investors and staying true to the company’s mission.
Raman is loyal to his customers and has always prioritized his focus on them. To Raman, money and investments are supplemental pieces of making a greater vision come to life.
Founder Bio
Sai Raman, Founder and CEO of CogniSure, Inc. has over 20 years of insurance expertise. In his career, Sai worked with many carriers/brokers implementing technology to solve business problems across the insurance value chain. Prior to founding CogniSure, as a Partner/Regional VP for a large global consulting company, he was responsible for sales, solutions & delivery of $50M+ annual IT spend spread across many insurance carriers in the Midwest. Connect with Raman on LinkedIn.
