From the Archive

A 2026 retrospective on an earlier LinkedIn article: what remains true, what changed, and what AI shopping agents reveal about customer agency.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE • APRIL 29, 2016

Lead Aggregation Is Not Customer-Centric

In 2016 I argued that buying the same lead as several competitors was not a customer-centric digital strategy. The customer supplied the same information repeatedly, received a series of calls and became an object passed among sellers. My proposed alternative was a digital distribution platform capable of quoting, issuing and binding across the customer's needs in real time.

The operational criticism still holds. A lead is not a relationship, and a transfer is not a journey.

Ten years later, I would challenge some of my own language. The article spoke about insurers “owning the customer,” increasing wallet share and turning every lead into revenue. Those were ordinary industry terms, and the platform model was better than the fragmented experience it replaced. But genuine customer centricity is not a more efficient way for the carrier to own the relationship. It gives the customer more continuity, understanding and agency.

AI shopping agents make the distinction sharper. The customer may now arrive with software designed to compare, question and leave. A customer-centric insurer should be prepared to serve that agent honestly, not treat it only as a threat to conversion.

PUBLISH THE HISTORY, INCLUDING THE TENSION

Keep the 2016 article intact as an archive document. Add a short 2026 afterword explaining what remains true, what has changed and how agent-mediated distribution shifts power toward the buyer. Link it to When the Customer Sends an Agent.

An archive is most useful when it shows thinking developing, not when it pretends the author always used today's language.

Original LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lead-aggregation-customer-centric-rob-tyrie