Three or four calls a day. That’s how many AI vendor pitches Ed Forer, Founding Partner and Chief Administrative Officer at XPT Group, says he fields on a regular basis. If that number sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and it’s exactly why MCIEF invited him to speak at this year’s Leadership Conference.
MCIEF Education Director Beverly Raiford sat down with Ed ahead of his session at the 2026 MCIEF Leadership Conference in Scottsdale. Their conversation cuts through a lot of the AI noise the trucking insurance industry has been dealing with, and gives a preview of what Ed’s session will actually cover.
Twenty Years, Three Different Seats at the Table
Ed’s perspective on AI comes from an unusual vantage point. He’s spent about 20 years on the data and operations side of insurance, first as a founder at AdviZen, a company built around the idea that commercial insurance runs on information that most people simply couldn’t access. From there he moved to a brokerage, where he learned the wholesaling process firsthand, and now he’s on the operations and technology side at XPT.
“I spent a long time on the same problems from three different views, as a broker, as a vendor, and as a customer,” Ed said. “And I think I’ve learned from all of them.”
That range matters, because Ed isn’t coming to Scottsdale to sell a product or pitch a platform. His job is figuring out how work actually gets done inside an organization, and where AI can improve that without breaking anything along the way.
He’s Not Here to Tell You How to Underwrite
One of the most refreshing parts of this conversation is how clearly Ed draws his own lane. He’s upfront that he’s not a trucking expert and has no interest in pretending otherwise.
“I’m not going to tell anybody how to underwrite a fleet. You’re all the experts,” Ed said. “The challenge is taking your AI strategy conversation and implementing it. The part where you have to change how 200 people or more do their job is the hard part, and that is the chair I sit in.”
That’s the real value of his session. Plenty of people can talk about AI in the abstract. Fewer people have actually sat in the operational seat responsible for rolling it out across a large team, and living with the consequences when something doesn’t work.
Why This Is a Survival Conversation, Not a Tech Trend
Ed doesn’t frame AI adoption as optional or experimental. He’s blunt about why trucking insurance professionals specifically need to pay attention.
“Trucking insurance professionals need to care, especially about AI, because it’s the math in this business. It’s unforgiving,” he said. “Losses are high. Margins getting squeezed at every renewal. AI can take costs out while improving the process. This is a competitive advantage. It’s not a technology argument. It’s about survival today.”
He connects that directly to the day-to-day mechanics of the business: getting a complete submission in the first place, empowering underwriters to actually make decisions instead of chasing down missing information, and improving turnaround time for clients. According to Ed, AI has a role in improving all three.
The Two Things He Wants Attendees to Walk Away With
Ed was specific about what he hopes people take from his session, and it comes down to two ideas. First, start with the business outcome, not the technology itself. Figure out what you’re actually trying to accomplish before you ask whether a given tool can get you there, and be honest with yourself when the answer is no.
Second, and what Ed called the most important point of all: AI isn’t about replacing people. “It’s about getting the low-value work off their plates so they can be empowered to do the part that only they can do,” he said. “Our goal is to empower our people to serve our clients better.”
Why This Belongs at a Leadership Conference
Ed made a simple but important point about why an event like this matters for a topic like AI: these decisions get made by leaders, not by the tools themselves. The room in Scottsdale, he said, will be filled with the decision-makers actually responsible for where their companies invest time and money going forward.
He also echoed something almost every speaker in this series has said about the format itself, that a lot of the most useful conversations happen between sessions, not just during them. “We need to make decisions today so we don’t fall behind tomorrow,” Ed said.
His Invitation to Anyone on the Fence
Ed’s pitch for attending is about cutting through the noise, not adding to it. If you’re fielding constant outreach from AI vendors and struggling to separate real value from sales pitches, he says this session was built for exactly that problem.
“This is not for the AI expert. It’s to share our experiences and learn from others,” he said. “We’re not going into the weeds, and nobody is selling anything from the stage. We’re looking at AI from a business person’s view. It is an honest conversation about how you start and how you decide. Bring your questions. This will be a very interactive session.”
What This Means for You
If your team is being pulled in a dozen directions by AI vendors, internal pressure, and client expectations all at once, Ed’s session offers something a sales pitch never will: an honest, operations-first perspective from someone who’s actually implemented these changes across a large organization and lived with the results.
He’ll bring that same grounded, business-first approach to his full session in Scottsdale this October.
Join Us in Scottsdale
The 2026 MCIEF Leadership Conference runs October 4 through 7 at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort. Along with Ed Forer’s session on AI in trucking insurance operations, the agenda includes the MCIEF Top Trucking Insurance Industry Issues discussion, the State of the Market Report, and plenty of built-in time for the between-session conversations Ed says matter just as much as the main stage.
If you want an honest, no-hype conversation about how to actually approach AI in your organization, this is where that happens. Register for the 2026 MCIEF Leadership Conference and reserve your seat in Scottsdale this October.
One more thing: the discounted hotel block at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort closes September 9, 2026. If Scottsdale is on your calendar this October, don’t wait on the room booking.
Not yet an MCIEF member? Membership gets you access to events like this one, along with the TRS and TCS designation programs and year-round continuing education built specifically for trucking insurance professionals. Visit mcief.org to learn more about membership and how to get involved.