Introducing Buddy MCP
Today we're introducing Buddy MCP, a new way for people to use AI systems to work with insurance. Built on the Model Context Protocol, Buddy MCP gives any MCP-compatible AI tool access to the insurance products indexed in our ION™ Engine, with full support for querying, quoting, binding, and payment.
AI tools are already making their way into the workflows of carriers, brokers, and agents. But insurance has constraints that generic AI tooling can't meet on its own. Answers need to be grounded in the actual policy document. Disclosures and eligibility rules need to be enforced, not generated. Rates need to be correct and current, not approximated. And when an insurance agent sells or a customer buys coverage through an AI agent, the transaction needs to run end-to-end, not stop short of a real bind.
Buddy MCP is the layer that lets AI tools meet those constraints without rebuilding insurance from scratch.
How Buddy MCP Works
We've been running insurance transactions through our platform since 2018. Carriers and distributors index their insurance products in our ION Engine, which turns a policy into a structured data model. Once a product is indexed, the ION Engine handles the full lifecycle: collecting data, executing the full quote-to-bind-to-pay flow, issuing the policy, and even managing endorsements and renewals.
Before today, this capability was available through commerce surfaces and agent-facing tools on our platform. With Buddy MCP, it is now available through AI tools as well.
An AI tool connected to Buddy MCP can:
- Query an indexed insurance product and return answers grounded in the underlying policy document, not in a marketing summary or model training data.
- Run a real-time quote, with all rating and eligibility logic executed by our ION Engine.
- Bind a policy and process payment through the same deterministic flow used by our commerce and agent surfaces.
- Do any of the above inside the AI tool's existing workflow, with no separate integration.
The AI handles the conversation. The ION Engine handles the insurance. Buddy MCP is the connection.
Built on an Open Standard
Buddy MCP is built on the Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data and transactions live. Because MCP is a standard, Buddy MCP works with any AI client that speaks it. Our customers don't need to pick a specific chatbot, agent framework, or vendor. Whatever AI tool a team is adopting, Buddy MCP meets it there.
This matters for a market that is actively experimenting. Carriers and distributors are choosing AI tools on different timelines and for different jobs. A protocol-native approach keeps the insurance layer stable while the AI layer continues to evolve.
What Customers Are Doing With It
Our early-access partners are putting the Buddy MCP to work in a few distinct ways:
- Carrier and distributor teams building internal AI assistants that answer coverage questions and run quotes with the same grounding and compliance as a front-end commerce flow.
- Executing human agent-in-the-loop transactions that resolve to a customer-facing digital checkout.
- Customer-facing AI experiences where the conversational interface is handled by a language model and the transaction is handled by the ION Engine, through Buddy MCP.
Availability
Buddy MCP is available today in early access for carriers, MGAs, and distribution partners. Learn more about Buddy MCP or request access.