Acorn’s claims volumes are growing around 20% a year in line with policy growth that saw the group reach record premiums in 2025. It has supported that growth while continuing to provide industry-leading service without equivalent expansion of the team.

Simplifai’s AI Agent for Claims helps claims teams manage increasing email volumes intelligently and act sooner on potential fraud and large-loss cases.

The automation now also includes creating new claims. Potential fraud and large-loss cases reach specialist teams sooner, allowing all handlers to spend their time where it matters most. Acorn’s own team now extends and refines the automation in-house as its needs change.

Results at a glance

• Service standards maintained while supporting around 20% annual claims growth without proportional staffing increases.
• Approximately 40% fewer fixed-headcount administration roles allowing claims experts to focus on complex claims and more strategic roles.
• Minutes, not hours: emails processed within minutes, versus up to 18 hours for items previously requiring manual processing
• 9,000+ emails fast-tracked to specialist teams for potential fraud and large-loss review
• 97.2% success rate in claims email processing and routing
• 800,000+ emails processed since launch, 40,000+ every month with scaling to 80,000+ underway

“With claims volumes growing by around 20% a year, Simplifai has helped us avoid recruiting 12 additional full-time roles across our Claims departments whilst maintaining our high standards of care. Our people can now focus on the high-value, complex and cost-bearing work, where they make the biggest difference to our customers and the business."

Andy Janes, Head of Claims Technology and Transformation, Acorn

The challenge: supporting growth without proportional staffing increases

Policy growth at Acorn Group has seen record premiums in 2025. Claims volumes at Acorn were rising at an equivalent pace, around 20% a year.

Previous automation identified a valid claim reference in about 40% of incoming correspondence; however, it gave no context and no categorisation. The other 60% required manual processing by the administration team, which could take up to 18 hours.

As volumes grew, Acorn needed a more efficient way to understand incoming communications, direct them to the right teams and automate further processing where possible.

The solution: an AI Agent for Claims, developed with Acorn

Acorn deployed Simplifai’s AI Agent for Claims, integrated with its existing claims system. The agent identifies the relevant claim, categorises each incoming item and attaches it to the claim file. It also checks for potential fraud, large-loss and other markers, then prioritises those items and routes them for specialist review.

Analysis happens in seconds. Items are on the claim within minutes. Handlers work by category and priority. Claims decisions stay with Acorn’s people.

Acorn and Simplifai consultants delivered the initial deployment in around three months. Acorn’s active involvement in testing, quality assurance and results analysis helped its team build the expertise to manage and extend the automation independently. It now has a dedicated team working full-time on the platform.

Today Acorn handles most refinement in-house, including prompt improvements, exception handling and pre-release testing. New use cases go live in days or weeks, not months. Simplifai provides specialist guidance on design, configuration and new platform capabilities.

“Acorn has built the capability to keep extending automation inside its own business. Their team knows the claims process, tests changes carefully and turns operational priorities into live automation quickly. Our platform and specialist expertise back that ownership.”

Artem Gonchakov, CEO of Simplifai

‍The results: capacity for growth, faster specialist intervention

Acorn reports two distinct staffing efficiencies. Fixed-headcount administration roles are down roughly 40% through redeployment into other departments. Across several claims teams, Acorn has also avoided the need for additional full-time equivalent roles that would otherwise have been required to handle growth.

The bigger shift is where attention goes. More than 9,000 emails have been fast-tracked to fraud and large-loss specialists. Acorn’s handlers were already effective at spotting these cases. The difference is timing: referral no longer waits for a handler to review the email and raise it manually.

What’s next: expanding claims automation

Acorn plans to expand the deployment, with the ambition of processing 80% of all claims emails.

Further planned development includes extracting more than 70 data fields from property damage outlay documents and uploading them into the claims system.

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