Global cloud software provider Applied Systems announced the acquisition of Planck, an artificial intelligence company servicing the insurance industry.

Founded in 2016, Planck was created by AI and insurance experts to solve commercial lines underwriting challenges and curate, match and analyze business risk details to support more informed prospect search and underwriting decisions.

The transaction will significantly expand Applied System’s AI capabilities aimed at enhancing the speed and quality of critical business processes, including marketing, sales, underwriting, renewals, servicing and advisory services.

“By acquiring Planck, we will be investing behind a world-class team of AI and data science experts to accelerate the application of leading AI capabilities to insurance workflows,” said Taylor Rhodes, CEO of Applied Systems. “With our unique set of insurance technology assets that span both the agency and carrier sides of the market, our investment in Planck will deliver a significant opportunity to create AI-driven value throughout the next generation of the digital roundtrip of insurance in ways that will help our clients know more, do more of what differentiates them the most, and win more often.”

During the past 18 months, Applied has released initial versions of AI-powered features in select Applied and EZLynx products, while experimenting with various AI capabilities through their Applied AI Lab in collaboration with industry agents and carriers.

“The use cases highlighted significant opportunities for the insurance industry to reduce inefficiencies from redundant tasks and unlock the value of data, creating a more accurate and comprehensive view of business operations to fuel additional growth,” Applied Systems said in a press release.

“We started Planck with the belief that access to real-time data to get a full picture of a business is more crucial than ever when identifying the actual risk factors that are core to insurance,” said Elad Tsur, CEO and co-founder of Planck. “We are excited to build on the success of delivering our industry-leading AI capabilities to carriers by partnering with Applied to extend the power of AI to the agency and broker distribution side of the market.”

Hellman & Friedman, a global private equity firm, has been Applied System’s majority shareholder since 2014, alongside minority shareholders Stone Point Capital, JMI Equity and capitalG.