6 Best AI Automation Tools for NowCerts in 2026
NowCerts already does the agency management part well. Automated workflows cover routine servicing, self-service certificates mean insureds stop emailing you for a COI at 4:55pm on a Friday, and there are AI-assisted agents for sales, marketing, submissions, and policy servicing. Commission tracking, claims, endorsements, reminders, and e-signature all sit in one place.
So set those up first. Self-service certificates alone will buy back an afternoon a week.
The work that stays manual is the traffic between the agency and everyone else. The underwriter emailing for loss runs and three more answers before they will quote. The insured replying to a renewal notice asking what changed and why it went up. The lender asking for evidence of property coverage before a closing on Thursday. The carrier’s notice of non-renewal that has to become a remarketing plan today. NowCerts workflows trigger on NowCerts records. Every one of those is an email until a CSR types it in.
Below are six tools, ranked by how much of that email work they take.
TL;DR: Use NowCerts workflows and self-service certificates for the AMS side. Add Carly for the underwriter, insured, and lender email, because it reads your mail, holds your calendar, and reaches thousands of apps from a plain-language instruction.
1. Carly
Carly is an AI agent with its own real email address, connected to your mailbox, your calendar, and your other tools.
An underwriter asks for loss runs and three more answers: Carly pulls what the agency already holds, sends it, and flags only the gap that genuinely needs a human. An insured replies to a renewal notice asking why the premium moved: they get an answer the same day rather than in four. A lender needs evidence of property coverage before Thursday’s closing: it goes out. A carrier issues a non-renewal: the remarketing list exists before lunch.
Ask it “which renewals in the next 45 days have had no client contact” and it answers, then works the list.
What makes it different: NowCerts acts on what it already knows about a policy. Carly starts from the message, which is where servicing work actually arrives, and decides which ones deserve action. It runs unattended overnight, so a Monday inbox is triaged before the first CSR logs in.
Best for: Independent agencies where renewals and certificates are handled but email is still the bottleneck.
Pricing: Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month
Connect at carlyassistant.com/integrations with NowCerts API credentials. Predictable steps, like logging an endorsement request or sending a renewal reminder, can run as free Zapier-style workflows rather than agent time.
2. NowCerts Automated Workflows
Customizable automation across servicing: reminders, task chains, renewal handling, and document generation triggered by policy and client events.
What makes it different from Carly: it is native, it is included, and it is the right tool whenever the trigger really is a policy date. Every rule is configured in advance and fires on an AMS record.
Best for: Renewal reminders, servicing checklists, and anything driven by an expiration date.
Pricing: Included with NowCerts
3. NowCerts Self-Service Certificates
Lets insureds issue their own certificates of insurance against holders you have approved, without a CSR touching it.
What makes it different from Carly: it removes a whole category of email rather than answering it, which is strictly better. It covers certificates; the rest of the servicing inbox is untouched.
Best for: Agencies drowning in COI requests.
Pricing: Included with NowCerts
4. Zapier
Connects NowCerts to thousands of apps with trigger-action steps, usually moving leads in from a website form or data out to accounting.
What makes it different from Carly: unmatched reach, and every Zap is plumbing you define and maintain that fires on every match. It cannot read an underwriter’s request and work out what is missing. See Zapier alternatives.
Best for: Piping leads and accounting data between NowCerts and outside systems.
Pricing: Free plan; paid from ~$19.99/month
5. Make
A visual canvas with branching, loops, and data transforms, usually cheaper than Zapier once a scenario gets complicated.
What makes it different from Carly: more power, more canvas to build and debug. Carly trades the canvas for plain words. See Make alternatives.
Best for: Agencies with an operations person who likes a builder.
Pricing: Free plan; paid from ~$12/month
6. The NowCerts API
A public API at api.nowcerts.com covering policies, insureds, certificates, and tasks, with token-based authentication tied to a user in your own agency.
What makes it different from Carly: exact, and yours to maintain. Carly gets you the same outcomes from a plain-language instruction with nothing to host.
Best for: Agencies with a developer and a genuinely custom process.
Pricing: Included with your plan (your build time)
How to Get NowCerts API Access
Authentication is user-based rather than partner-based, which makes this one of the easier agency management systems to automate. An agency administrator gives a user the API Integration role, and the integration then authenticates as that user to obtain access and refresh tokens against api.nowcerts.com. Create a dedicated user for it rather than attaching it to a producer who might leave.
NowCerts Automation Tools Compared
| Tool | Plain-language (no builder) | Starts from email | Acts outside NowCerts | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carly | Yes | Yes | Yes | From $35/mo |
| NowCerts workflows | No (rules) | No | No | Included |
| Self-service certificates | Not applicable | Removes the email | No | Included |
| Zapier | No (builder) | Yes (fixed trigger) | Yes | Free; from ~$19.99/mo |
| Make | No (builder) | Yes (fixed trigger) | Yes | Free; from ~$12/mo |
| NowCerts API | No (code) | Only if you build it | Yes, if you build it | Included (DIY) |
FAQ
Does NowCerts have AI? Yes. Alongside its automated workflows, NowCerts offers AI-assisted agents for sales, marketing, submissions, and policy servicing inside the agency management system.
Does NowCerts have an API?
Yes, a public API at api.nowcerts.com. Authentication is user-based: an administrator grants a user the API Integration role and the integration authenticates as that user.
What is the best way to automate NowCerts with AI? Use NowCerts workflows and self-service certificates for anything driven by a policy date, and add Carly for the underwriter, insured, lender, and carrier email that never becomes an AMS trigger on its own.
Can an AI answer an underwriter’s request for loss runs? Yes. Carly pulls what the agency already holds, sends it, and flags only the genuinely missing piece for a human.
More: NowCerts API · AgencyZoom API · Best AI tools for insurance agents
Automate other tools: Outlook · Gmail · Salesforce
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