Hutch Underwriting has launched Dawn, an AI-powered service that takes broker email submissions in any format and returns a quoted premium while uploading the quote directly to the Ebix Sunrise Exchange – removing manual data entry from both ends of the placement transaction. The launch arrives as Australian insurers increase spending on AI across underwriting and distribution workflows. According to Accenture’s Pulse of Change survey, conducted across senior insurance executives in late 2025, 90% of insurance executives planned to increase AI spending in 2026. Dawn applies that approach to the broker-facing side of the placement process.
Brokers submit a proposal to [email protected] in any format – PDF, Word, Excel, or plain email. Dawn reads the document, extracts the underwriting data, prices the risk, and emails the broker a premium and quote number. Simultaneously, the quote is pushed to the broker's Sunrise Exchange account, ready for review and binding. Once the broker binds through Sunrise, the platform writes the transaction back to the broker’s management system, completing the workflow without any re-entry of data at any point. Brokers are not required to use a Hutch proposal form – the service processes any market form. Where fields are missing, brokers can complete them within the Sunrise interface before proceeding.
The service targets a gap in the Sunrise workflow: brokers who use the platform for binding but have had to key in submission data manually. A 2025 analysis by V7 Labs found that senior commercial lines underwriters spend 60% to 70% of their working day extracting information from documents – time that AI tools are beginning to reduce on both sides of the transaction. “Many brokers love the back-end convenience of Sunrise, but not the manual typing in of the submission. We’ve invested in Dawn so they can have the best of both worlds,” said Robin Johnson, CEO of Hutch Underwriting. At launch, Dawn is available across three Hutch product lines – Residential Strata, Professional Indemnity, and Management Liability – with a rollout across the full product suite planned.
Dawn is built on the Ebix Sunrise Exchange, which Hutch describes as Australia’s largest and only independent insurance trading platform. For Ebix, the Hutch integration is an extension of Sunrise’s positioning across the full placement lifecycle, from customer engagement through to bind, endorsement, and renewal. Philip Fourie, managing director Australia and CEO South East Asia at Ebix, said the build is consistent with the platform’s stated direction. “Dawn reflects a strategic integration architecture built on the partnership between Hutch and Ebix Australia. Our continued investment in Sunrise as an open, independent platform supports underwriting agencies and brokers across the full placement lifecycle, from customer engagement through to bind, endorsement, and renewal, with a seamless experience for the broker. We’re pleased to see Hutch building on that foundation,” Fourie said. Hutch also distributes its products through the Steadfast Client Trading Platform, Unmand, and direct API connections.
Dawn is the fourth significant release from Hutch since mid-2025. In August of that year, the agency launched a Residential Landlord Insurance product for owners of standalone dwellings, terraces, duplexes, and non-strata units, with building, contents, or combined cover and a built-in cyber section. In November 2025, Hutch commercially released its Management Liability product after a pilot period. The policy, available through Sunrise Exchange under the code HUTHML, bundles directors & officers, corporate liability, employment practices, statutory liability, crime, and third-party cyber into a single pack for Australian SMEs with revenue up to $50 million. Later that month, Hutch added two specialist Professional Indemnity wordings – PI Design & Construct and PI Trades – transactable through Sunrise Exchange with limits to $5 million subject to underwriting criteria. Both include cyber cover as standard and are aimed at SME construction and trades businesses where professional services form part of the work.
Insurtech company Send’s Underwriting Trends Report 2026 notes that the industry is facing the rapid industrialisation of AI alongside rising operational complexity – forces reshaping how underwriters and brokers collaborate across the placement process. Dawn connects AI-driven quote generation to a trading platform’s bind and policy administration functions, a workflow pattern the report identifies as an area of active development in Australian insurance. “Dawn is just another step on our journey to offering brokers the best service in the market,” Johnson said.
