Hercules Joins Ecliptic to Unveil Delegated Authority 2.0 with AI Oversight at Lloyd's Lab Demo Day
- rchoy1
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Transforming how the insurance market manages delegated authority: simpler, smarter, and more collaborative
Last week, Hercules joined Ecliptic Technology at the Lloyd’s Lab Demo Day, supporting their participation in Lloyd’s Lab Cohort 15. As the UK’s premier insurance accelerator, the event provided an ideal stage to showcase our joint solution, which is set to fundamentally modernize Delegated Authority (DA) across the Lloyd’s market.
Our collaboration combines AI and collaborative digital platforms to address chronic data challenges for carriers, MGAs, and brokers.
As Rosie Denée, Lloyd’s Head of Innovation, Commercial Education, and Engagement, affirmed:
“Cohort 15 showcases the bold thinking and practical solutions that define the Lloyd’s Lab. These companies are tackling some of the most complex challenges facing our market, with solutions that are both visionary and commercially grounded."
Hercules, in partnership with Ecliptic Technology, exemplifies this ethos. Ecliptic’s ARIES platform already provides a collaborative marketplace for onboarding, due diligence, contracting, oversight, and audit across brokers, carriers, MGAs, and DCAs. Hercules integrates AI-powered contractual compliance and validation, automating the checking of every bordereaux line against the binding authority agreement - dramatically improving accuracy, speed, and transparency.
The £20 Billion DA Challenge: at a Critical Crossroads
DA is critical, representing roughly 45% of Lloyd’s market premium (over £20 billion annually) spread across 2,800+ coverholder branches worldwide. Yet, its sheer volume – over 150,000 monthly bordereaux files – has made it operationally burdensome and subject to intense scrutiny, forcing a reckoning with existing operational models.
Earlier this year, Lloyd’s Chief Underwriting Officer Rachel Turk underscored the vital importance of DA scrutiny in her Q2 market update, stating:
“In a softening market, the old mistakes of unmanaged MGA portfolios must not be repeated. Clear, pre-agreed off-ramp strategies and KPI triggers are essential to ensure Delegated Authority doesn’t become a drag on underwriting performance."
This mandate underscores the new operational reality for syndicates, which must now enforce high standards against four critical pressures:
Performance Drag: Preventing poorly managed portfolios from impacting overall underwriting profitability.
Operational Burden: Reducing high costs associated with manual reconciliation and dedicated expert teams.
Soft Market Resilience: Ensuring pre-agreed KPI triggers and off-ramp strategies are consistently enforced.
Due Diligence: Requiring MGAs to be truly data-savvy with high-quality, granular submissions.
Introducing Delegated Authority 2.0: The AI-Powered Solution
The friction in DA is rooted in fragmented data arriving in diverse formats via complex bordereaux management. Traditional standardization often fails. DA 2.0 solves this by shifting from manual reconciliation to automated, intelligent compliance, powered by:
AI-Driven Contractual Compliance: Hercules uses task-specific AI to atomize contractual language, creating a digital twin of underwriting rules. This enables 100% granular, line-by-line validation of every submission, eliminating ambiguity and accelerating cash flow.
Data Standardization by Design: Instead of forcing format uniformity, Hercules AI ingests varied inputs and delivers a standardized, actuarially sound output for the carrier.
Measurable Efficiency: This approach delivers rapid ROI. One client reduced the processing time per file from four hours to just 40 minutes, freeing teams for strategic work.
The aim is simple, yet revolutionary:
Reduce rekeying and manual checks
Give carriers live visibility into risk, premium and claims performance
Shorten the time from bordereau submission to cash
Strengthen governance in line with Blueprint Two and DA oversight expectations
In a market that processes an estimated 150,000 bordereaux every month across roughly 10,000 DA contracts, the economic impact of getting this right is significant
Rebuilding Trust and Accelerating Growth
Delegated Authority 2.0 strengthens trust by giving carriers real-time, accurate visibility into risk and performance.
As Paul Bermingham, CEO of Ecliptic Technology, explained:
“For years, the market understood the underwriting rules, policy structures, and claims logic but we pushed the burden of compliance onto MGAs and TPAs whose systems were never engineered for it. We now have the technology to bring those rules to the point of data entry and create shared confidence across the entire chain."
And Alex Babin, CEO of Hercules, emphasized:
“Delegated Authority breaks down when data quality breaks down. AI gives us the ability to validate every data point against the contract, removing ambiguity, accelerating cash flow, and giving carriers the visibility they've wanted for decades. This isn’t about automation for its own sake; it’s about restoring trust in the model at scale."
The combined strength of Hercules’ AI capabilities and Ecliptic’s end-to-end DA governance platform defines Delegated Authority 2.0. This isn't just a glimpse of the future, it's a proven reality that delivers faster, smarter, and more secure workflows built on trusted data.
Hercules and Ecliptic are now actively deploying this solution with strategic market partners.
Heading to ITC London at the end of January? Stop by our booth number 27 or set up time to connect online.
