Corporate Insight Releases Report on Certificate of Insurance Generation: Self-Service Tools Advance, But Additional Insured Journeys Lag Behind
New Commercial Insurance Research Evaluates COI and Additional Insured Capabilities Across Nine Carriers; Thimble, The Hartford and Simply Business Emerge as Leaders
New York, NY, July 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Corporate Insight (CI), the leading provider of competitive intelligence and customer experience research to the financial services, insurance and healthcare industries, today announced findings from a Commercial Insurance Monitor report examining certificate of insurance (COI) generation and additional insured capabilities across nine carriers. The research finds that while online COI generation has become a standard offering among carriers with digital self-service tools, meaningful gaps in visibility, contextual support and delivery flexibility continue to shape the policyholder experience.
"Self-service COI generation was the top-requested portal feature in our interviews with policyholders, and it's easy to see why," says Jacob Littman, insurance research manager at CI. "Traditionally, obtaining a COI has meant contacting an agent or customer service representative, explaining the request, and waiting for the document to be processed and delivered. Online self-service tools eliminate the wait and give policyholders the flexibility to generate certificates on demand without picking up the phone."
The report examines nine of 20 firms in the Commercial Insurance Monitor coverage set with online self-service COI capabilities, including biBerk, FLIP, The Hartford, Hiscox, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Simply Business, State Farm, and Thimble. The remaining 11 coverage set firms rely on traditional agent-led processes and fall outside this report's scope.
Key findings reveal where carriers succeed and where opportunity remains:
Instant online generation separates the leaders: Thimble and The Hartford allow policyholders to generate COIs and add additional insureds entirely online without agent involvement, setting the standard for self-service efficiency. Simply Business also stands out with a dedicated chatbot that generates both basic and custom COIs through a conversational flow on its public site.
Discoverability determines whether capable tools get used:
Even a well-built COI tool falls short if policyholders can't find it. The Hartford surfaces COI generation through a homepage tile and a secondary dropdown menu, giving policyholders multiple paths to the same task—a navigational best practice for commonly used capabilities. Simply Business goes further, offering both an authenticated portal entry point and a public site journey available before login.
Certificate reuse saves time for repeat policyholders:
Liberty Mutual maintains a filterable list of previously generated COIs for instant download, while Thimble's additional insured management tool gives users access to a full history of past additional insureds. Firms without a customer portal cannot offer this capability at all, a structural limitation of the public-site-only service model.
"Adding an additional insured is often just as time-sensitive as generating the certificate itself, but many carriers still treat it as an afterthought," adds Littman. "The firms that build a standalone, well-supported additional insured journey give policyholders a real advantage when they're racing to meet a contractual deadline. That's the standard the rest of the market needs to catch up to."
The report identifies near-term priorities for commercial insurance carriers, including building standalone additional insured journeys separate from COI generation, expanding certificate holder repositories and adding wait-time and premium impact disclosures to custom requests.
Access the Report
Organizations can contact CI to learn how to access the full Certificate of Insurance Generation and Additional Insureds report. Media seeking key findings and analyst perspectives can contact CI's press team to learn more.
About Corporate Insight
Corporate Insight (CI) delivers competitive intelligence, user experience research and consulting services to the nation's leading financial services, insurance and healthcare organizations. As the recognized industry leader in customer experience research for over 30 years, CI offers a best-in-class research platform and unique approach of analyzing the actual customer experience to help organizations advance their competitive position in the marketplace.
About Commercial Insurance Monitor
CI's Commercial Insurance Monitor is a subscription-based competitive intelligence research service focused on the digital small business insurance experience. The service provides subscribers with firsthand insights into the public and authenticated policyholder site experience across leading commercial carriers, delivering competitive analysis reports and capability tracking to help subscribers identify emerging trends and maintain a competitive edge.
Patrick Flood Corporate Insight pflood@corporateinsight.com
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