Formation '26 is Go. Duck Creek arrived in Orlando with real momentum: a production-ready agentic AI platform, double-digit SaaS ARR growth, 370+ customers globally, 33 of the top 50 North American insurers on platform, and more than $150 billion in annual premium flowing through its system. The SPLICE team was proud to sponsor Formation and be part of that ecosystem. Here is what we took away.
"The energy in Orlando was unmistakable."
— Duck Creek Technologies, Formation 2026 recap
Agentic AI Has Moved Into the Building
The shift at Formation '26 was not a product announcement — it was a posture change. Duck Creek's Agentic AI Platform is live infrastructure. Agentic Underwriting Workbench, Agentic FNOL built with Google Cloud and Gemini, and the Agentic Product Configurator — compressing timelines from months to weeks — are available today.
What makes the architecture distinctive is its neuro-symbolic approach: layering symbolic AI, business rules, and regulatory logic on top of LLM output to produce decisions that are, as Duck Creek describes them, 'transparent, auditable, and extensible.' In a regulated industry, that is not a differentiator. It is a prerequisite.
"AI helps you execute the work."
— Monti Saroya, as quoted by Juan Mazzini, Global Head of Celent
Celent's Juan Mazzini captured the event well. His three themes — cloud scalability, accelerated implementation, and agentic AI — reflect exactly where carrier pressure is highest. His key observation from the analyst panel is worth holding onto: innovation must connect to business strategy, KPIs, and measurable outcomes. Not technology for its own sake.
Scale and Ecosystem Are the Story
Suncorp's recognition as the 2026 Standard of Excellence Customer Award winner showed what execution looks like in practice — a Duck Creek OnDemand-powered Digital Insurer program spanning home, motor, and commercial lines, with live deployment already underway. As Katherine Carmody of Suncorp put it: 'future-proofing our insurance business.' That is the kind of proof point that matters when carriers are making platform decisions for the next decade.
The partner ecosystem in Orlando — implementation leaders like Accenture, Coforge, and LTIMindtree alongside a broad solution sponsor community — reflected a platform that has reached genuine critical mass. As AXIS Capital's Steve Lord noted: Duck Creek is "scalable, open, and flexible." That is the standard every layer of the insurance stack should be held to.
Retention Is Where the Investment Pays Off
Carriers are making the right bets on AI — underwriting intelligence, claims automation, fraud detection, policy administration efficiency. These are the right priorities and the operational gains are real.
But the policyholder does not see the orchestration layer. What they experience is whether they were kept informed, whether their question was answered before it became a complaint, and whether the carrier felt present at the moments that mattered.
"The carriers who win will use AI to serve policyholders better — not just operate faster. Back-office intelligence only becomes a competitive advantage when the customer can feel it."
— Tara Kelly, CEO & Founder, SPLICE Software
The data supports this. Bain & Company found that a 5% improvement in retention increases profits by 25–95%. And per J.D. Power's 2024 U.S. P&C Insurance Study, proactive communication is the single strongest driver of policyholder satisfaction — outperforming price, claims speed, and digital experience.
That gap between back-office intelligence and front-line experience is exactly where communication platforms earn their place. The appointment reminder that prevents a missed inspection. The claims status update that arrives before the policyholder has to ask. The renewal notice that reaches the right person on the right channel. These are not glamorous use cases — but they are where trust is built and retention is decided.
At SPLICE, this is where we focus: connecting carrier systems of record to policyholder and agent experiences across voice, text, and email — cleanly, measurably, and at scale. One platform. Call, email, and text. Purpose-built for insurance.
Formation '26 set a high bar. The carriers leaving Orlando with a clear roadmap, a mature implementation partner, and a communication strategy that matches their AI ambition are the ones to watch. The infrastructure is ready. The experience layer is the opportunity.
Key Takeaways
- Duck Creek's agentic AI platform is in production — underwriting, FNOL, and product configuration are live today.
- 370+ global customers, 33 of the top 50 North American insurers, and $150B+ in annual premium signal real platform maturity.
- Celent's emphasis: tie innovation to business strategy, KPIs, and measurable outcomes — not technology for its own sake.
- A 5% improvement in policyholder retention increases profits by 25–95% (Bain & Company).
- Proactive communication is the #1 driver of insurance customer satisfaction (J.D. Power 2024).
- The carriers who close the gap between back-office AI and front-line customer experience will win on both efficiency and retention.
SPLICE Software is an orchestrated communication platform supporting text, voice, email, and chat, spanning from live agent conversations, through to full AI-powered interactions. You choose the channel. You choose the moment. You choose who is in the room. That's the difference between orchestrating your customer experience and renting it piecemeal. Learn more about how SPLICE integrates with Duck Creek Technologies here.