A few weeks ago at Solveo, we closed a deal with a new client. Standard stuff, until they asked something no client had asked before: "Do you have business insurance? We'd need you to insure the engagement." So… we started looking. Went online, searched for insurance, and fell into the rabbit hole most people fall into: confusing websites, endless forms, policies that are hard to read, quotes that take three phone calls to get. We saw the good, the bad, and a lot of ugly.

Then we found PolicyMarket. And for the first time, buying a policy online actually looked simple. That got us thinking about insurance in general, how old it is, why it's so complicated, and… is AI changing it? 

So here's what we found.

Insurance is ancient

It's been around for thousands of years. Babylonian traders in 1750 BC pooled risk, and Chinese merchants around 3000 BC split their goods across multiple ships so one sinking wouldn't wipe them out. The idea is simple: share the risk, protect each other. So if it's been around for 4,000 years and the basic idea never changed, why does buying it still feel like reading a contract written by someone who doesn't want you to understand it?

What insurance means

It's a deal. You pay a little regularly (a premium), and the company covers you if something expensive happens, your car gets totaled, your house burns down, you get sick, your luggage disappears on a trip.

It works because not everyone needs it at once. Most people pay in and never claim. That money covers the few who do.

The idea took off after the Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed over 30,000 homes. By the 1700s, Lloyd's of London was running out of a coffeehouse, and Benjamin Franklin had started a fire insurance company in Philadelphia. It worked. People wanted it. The industry grew.

And then somewhere along the way, it got impossibly complicated.

Why Insurance Policies are written like legal traps

This is what very few talk about: insurance policies are deliberately confusing. Not because they have to be. Because it's profitable.

The more complicated the language, the less likely you are to understand what's covered. And if you don't understand what's covered, you're less likely to make a claim. A 2024 survey found that most policyholders don't fully understand the details of their coverage.

Think about the last time you bought insurance. Did you read the entire policy? Did you understand every exclusion, every condition, every clause that starts with "notwithstanding the foregoing"?

Probably not. Because insurance policies are written in legalese that makes them nearly impossible for a normal person to parse without a law degree. Terms like "reasonable and customary," "acts of God," "subrogation clause," "aggregate limit", each one has a specific legal definition that isn't explained in plain language.

And the exclusions? Those are buried in the fine print, often in sections you'd never think to read. Flooding isn't covered under most homeowners insurance. Earthquakes aren't either. Wear and tear? Excluded. Intentional acts? Excluded. But you won't know that until you file a claim and get denied.

As one insurance analyst put it: "The insurance companies use the fine print in your insurance policy to provide reasons to limit or not to pay your claim. An ignorant customer base enhances the profitability of the insurance companies."

That's the business model. Collect premiums. Make it hard to understand what's covered. Deny as many claims as legally possible.

It's not a bug. It's a feature.

How AI changes everything (if it's used right)

For decades, the insurance industry has had no reason to simplify. Complexity protects profit margins. Confusion keeps claims down.

But AI is forcing a shift, not because insurance companies suddenly became ethical, but because the technology makes it possible to do what was always too expensive or too slow before: compare policies instantly, explain coverage in plain language, and handle the entire purchase process online without a salesperson involved.

Here's what AI does for insurance:

It translates legalese into normal language. Instead of reading 47 pages of dense policy text to figure out if you're covered for lost luggage, AI can scan the document and tell you in one sentence: "Yes, up to €500 per person, but only if you report it within 24 hours."

It compares policies side by side. Before, you'd have to call five different companies, get five different quotes, manually compare coverage limits, deductibles, exclusions, and try to figure out which one is better. AI does that in seconds and shows you exactly where the differences are.

It personalizes recommendations. Not everyone needs the same coverage. A 25-year-old backpacking through Europe doesn't need the same travel insurance as a 60-year-old on a cruise. AI can ask a few questions and recommend the plan that fits your situation instead of selling you the most expensive option.

It eliminates the middleman. No more sitting in an office while a broker upsells you on coverage you don't need. No more phone calls. No more waiting for a quote. The entire process runs online, and you get the policy instantly.

But here's the key: AI only makes insurance better if the company using it is transparent. If they're just using AI to optimize pricing or deny claims faster, nothing changes. The tool itself doesn't fix the problem, the incentives do.

Why online shopping is secure (and why you should switch)

People still hesitate to buy insurance online. The concern is always the same: "Is it safe? How do I know I'm covered? What if something goes wrong?"

Fair questions.
But… buying insurance online is safer than buying it through traditional channels, as long as you're using a legitimate platform.

Here's why:

Everything is documented. When you buy online, you have a complete digital trail, your quote, your policy, your payment confirmation, your coverage details. There's no "he said, she said" with a broker who claims you didn't ask about flood coverage. It's all there in writing.

Payment is encrypted. Online insurance platforms use the same security protocols as banks, SSL encryption, secure payment gateways, PCI compliance. Your credit card information is never stored unencrypted, and transactions are processed through verified payment providers. PolicyMarket, for example, processes all payments through PaySpot, an authorized payment service provider in Serbia, with ID Check and Visa Secure protection. They support multiple secure payment methods including credit/debit cards, IPS instant bank transfers via QR code, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. PolicyMarket never handles or stores your card data, PaySpot does all payment processing in a secure, regulated environment.

You can verify the company. Before you buy, you can check if the platform is registered, licensed, and regulated. You can read reviews. You can see exactly which insurance companies they partner with. Transparency is built into the process.

You're protected by the same laws. Buying insurance online doesn't mean you're giving up consumer protections. The policy is still a legal contract. The insurance company is still required to pay valid claims. If they don't, you have the same legal recourse as if you bought the policy in person.

The real question isn't "Is online insurance safe?" It's "Why would you still buy insurance the old way when online is faster, cheaper, and more transparent?"

How it works: PolicyMarket as an example

Let's walk through what modern online insurance looks like, using PolicyMarket as a concrete example.

Step 1: You tell them what you need.
You're planning a trip. You need travel insurance. Instead of calling five different companies, you fill out one simple form, where you're going, when, how long, who's traveling. Takes maybe two minutes.

Step 2: They show you every option, side by side.
PolicyMarket pulls quotes from all the major Serbian insurance providers, Generali, DDOR, Dunav, Wiener, Uniqa. You see the prices. You see what's covered. You see the differences. No hidden terms. No fine print buried on page 36. Everything's transparent and comparable.

Step 3: You choose the plan that fits.
Maybe you want the cheapest option. Maybe you want the one with the highest medical coverage. Maybe you need luggage protection. You pick what works for your situation and your budget. No salesperson pushing the most expensive package.

Step 4: You pay and get your policy instantly.
You pay online, credit card, debit card, IPS instant transfer (scan QR code with your banking app), Apple Pay, Google Pay, whatever you prefer. All payments are processed securely through PaySpot, an authorized payment service provider, with full encryption and ID Check/Visa Secure protection. PolicyMarket never sees or stores your card details. The policy is generated immediately and sent to your email. You can download it right there. Done.

The whole process takes five minutes. You don't talk to anyone. You don't wait for quotes. You don't fill out forms five times. And you don't pay more than you need to because you're comparing every available option at once.That's what online insurance should be. And increasingly, that's what it is.

The benefits you get

Here's what changes when you switch to buying insurance online instead of the traditional way:

You save time. No appointments. No phone calls. No waiting for a broker to get back to you with a quote. You compare, you choose, you buy. Five minutes instead of five hours.

You save money. Online platforms don't have the overhead of physical offices and sales commissions. That cost savings gets passed to you. Plus, when you can see every option side by side, you're not overpaying because you don't know what else is available.

You understand what you're buying. Good online platforms explain coverage in plain language. They break down the differences between policies. They show you exactly what's included and what's not. No jargon. No confusing clauses. Just clear information.

You're in control. You decide when to buy, which plan to choose, and whether you need additional coverage. No pressure. No upselling. Just options, and you pick what makes sense for you.

It's available 24/7. You can buy travel insurance at 11pm the night before your flight. You can compare roadside assistance policies on a Sunday morning. It doesn't matter when you need it, the platform is always there.

This is what insurance should have been from the start: simple, transparent, and built around what you need instead of what's most profitable to sell.

A Story About Fine Print

Here's a story that explains why all of this matters.

A few years ago, a friend of mine bought travel insurance for a two-week trip to Thailand. She bought it from a big-name company. Paid a decent amount. Felt covered.

On day three of the trip, she got food poisoning. Bad enough that she ended up in a hospital overnight. When she got back, she filed a claim. The hospital bill was around $800, not catastrophic, but not nothing either.

The claim was denied.

Why? Because the policy excluded "pre-existing conditions," and she'd had a stomach issue six months earlier. Completely unrelated. Different cause, different symptoms. But buried in the fine print was a clause that said if you'd had any gastrointestinal issue in the past year, anything related to your stomach wasn't covered.

She didn't know that when she bought the policy. The broker never mentioned it. It wasn't in the summary. It was on page 23, section 4.2, subsection (d), in a paragraph that started with "Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary."

She appealed. They denied it again. She paid the $800 out of pocket.

That's why transparency matters. That's why online platforms that show you exactly what's covered, and what's not, in plain language change the game. Because the worst time to find out you're not covered is when you need the insurance.

Conclusion

Insurance doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be confusing. And it definitely doesn't have to involve reading 47 pages of legalese to figure out if you're protected.

The technology exists to make it simple. The platforms exist to make it transparent. And the competition exists to make it affordable.

If you're still buying insurance the old way, calling brokers, filling out forms, hoping you understood what you signed, it's worth asking: why?

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