Vertikal Risk Management Solutions (RMS) is pleased to introduce Hawk-I, a new AI tool that integrates seamlessly with our flagship COI tracking application, CertFocus by Vertikal RMS. Now organizations can use automation to overcome the traditional friction points found in the COI tracking process, presenting a revolutionary leap forward in 3rd party risk management.
Why Improve 3rd Party Risk Management?
For decades, companies have struggled with inefficient and manual methods of verifying Certificates of Insurance (COI) from vendors, contractors, and suppliers. These documents are essential for ensuring that 3rd parties meet specific insurance requirements — yet until now, the process of reviewing and tracking COIs have been plagued by slow turnaround times, human error, and inconsistent accuracy.
Every organization that outsources work, hires contractors, or partners with vendors opens itself up to a range of risk exposures — from property damage to workplace accidents and cyber incidents. To manage this risk, businesses require valid, up-to-date evidence of insurance from each 3rd party. But when you’re managing hundreds or thousands of suppliers, the administrative burden becomes enormous!
At its core, 3rd party risk management is about trust — but that trust must be backed by validated information. In today’s complex operating landscape, the risks of relying on outdated or invalid insurance documentation are too great to ignore. Whether it’s a coverage lapse, an expired policy, or an exclusion clause buried in fine print, even small gaps can lead to major liability.
Hawk-I empowers businesses to proactively address these risks. Real-time compliance tracking allows stakeholders to detect and remediate issues before they become legal or financial headaches. Plus, with audit-ready data available instantly, organizations are better prepared for internal reviews, external audits, and regulatory inspections.
What’s Wrong with Traditional COI Processing?
Traditionally, COIs were reviewed manually, relying on staff to read and verify coverage details across various formats. Even with traditional COI tracking software technologies such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), challenges persisted. OCR technology is limited in its ability to interpret low-quality document scans, detect nuanced policy language in free-form text, or maintain high accuracy in dynamic document formats. These gaps not only slow down the process but also open the door to inaccuracy in determining COI compliance and increased loss exposure.
COI review is one of the most resource-draining tasks in vendor onboarding and on-going vendor management. Every year, millions of COIs are exchanged between businesses and their suppliers. Historically, this has involved:
Manual entry and interpretation of policy information found on the COI- Dependence on OCR systems that can’t recognize unstructured or low-quality text
- Multi-day delays for review and approval
- Lack of integration with internal systems, leading to siloed or outdated records
- High costs associated with data entry staff, error correction, and compliance follow-up
Hawk-I solves these problems with AI-driven automation that delivers measurable improvements across the board.
Can an AI Assistant Produce Better COI Management?
Effective 3rd party risk management requires more than just collecting certificates of insurance documents — it demands artificially intelligent systems that can evaluate COI compliance in real time, reducing the risk of coverage lapses, and protecting the company from liability. That’s exactly what Vertikal aims to deliver. Enter Hawk-I, a game-changing AI tool designed to automate, streamline, and elevate the entire certificate of insurance compliance workflow.
What Is Hawk-I?
Hawk-I is an AI tool developed by Vertikal Risk Management Services to automate the COI review process within its CertFocus by Vertikal RMS application. Trained on extensive real-world insurance data, Hawk-I uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to extract and analyze certificate of insurance information — whether it’s embedded in forms, free-form text, or PDF documents.
How Does Hawk-I Achieve Instant COI Compliance?
By enabling COI processing with AI, Hawk-I replaces the high cost of manual reviews with automatic evaluations. Incoming COIs are scanned, validated, and processed in seconds (not days) with updated compliance status immediately available to all of the participants in the COI process (supplier, supplier agent, certificate holder) immediately after COIs are received.
Workflow for Hawk-I Intelligence:
What Are the Features & Benefits of Hawk-I?
Instantly Extract COI Data
Hawk-I’s proprietary algorithms accurately extract policy information from both structured form fields and unstructured PDF documents. It takes complex policy text description from COI images and captures the necessary data with minimal error — far outperforming manual systems.
Get Rapid Compliance Status
With Hawk-I, what once took days now happens in seconds! The moment a COI is uploaded into CertFocus by Vertikal RMS, Hawk-I reviews and processes it, giving both internal users and external vendors instant feedback on compliance status.
This makes CertFocus by Vertikal RMS the fastest COI processing platform available, completing certificate reviews in under 48 hours compared to competitors that require three to seven days for manual evaluation. During peak renewal periods when thousands of certificates arrive simultaneously, Hawk-I maintains instant processing speeds while manual systems create backlogs that last for weeks.
Save on Costs
Manual COI management involves hidden labor costs, errors, and compliance gaps. By automating data entry and reducing human intervention with AI, Hawk-I helps management teams focus on resolving risk—not processing paperwork.
Seamless Integration with CertFocus COI Application
Hawk-I doesn’t just analyze documents on it’s own — it integrates with our COI application, CertFocus by Vertikal RMS effortlessly. Insurance data can flow directly into enterprise tools, ERPs, and contract management platforms, supporting real-time reporting and automated decision-making.
A Better User Experience & Collaboration
From compliance officers to procurement teams to vendors themselves, everyone benefits from Hawk-I’s responsiveness and transparency. Suppliers can get immediate confirmation of whether their documents meet requirements, improving relationships and reducing bottlenecks.
Handles Other Required Documents
Hawk-I’s AI engine is versatile. While initially trained for COIs, it can be adapted to interpret other business documents, image-based data, and compliance records—making it a valuable asset across departments and industries.
Automatically Reviews Endorsements and Policy Language
Hawk-I reads the description of operations section where critical endorsement information appears in free-form text. The AI validates that additional insured endorsements actually exist rather than just being referenced conditionally. It catches phrases like “additional insured if required by contract” that could void protection because they don’t confirm that the coverage actually applies.
The system identifies missing waivers of subrogation, verifies primary and noncontributory language, and flags coverage exclusions buried in policy text. This capability maters because endorsements contain your most important protections. A certificate showing adequate coverage limits means nothing without the additional insured endorsement that actually protects you when claims are made. Hawk-I catches these gaps immediately, preventing coverage problems that surface only after incidents occur.
What Makes Hawk-I Different from Other AI COI Systems?
CertFocus by Vertikal RMS has the best AI system:
- Reads free-form endorsement language: Interprets description of operations text where critical coverage details appear.
- Validates AM Best ratings automatically: Confirms insurance carriers meet the financial stability thresholds required by your contracts.
- Extracts requirements from contracts: Pulls insurance specifications directly from agreements for automated comparison.
- Identifies coverage exclusions in policies: Catches exclusionary language that limits protection in specific situations.
- Provides instant compliance determination: Delivers pass/fail status within seconds of certificate receipt.
- Integrates with enterprise systems: Connects to ERPs, project management platforms, and accounting software through open APIs.
Does CertFocus by Vertikal RMS Integrate with Hawk-I?
The introduction of Hawk-I builds upon the strength of CertFocus by Vertika; RMS, which has been trusted by enterprises for over two decades to manage COIs and enforce risk management policies. CertFocus by Vertikal RMS is widely regarded as a leader in the insurance technology space, helping organizations streamline compliance, protect their assets, and ensure accountability across their supply chain.
Organizations managing both insurance compliance and financial prequalification can benefit from integrating CertFocus with PreQual by Vertikal RMS for comprehensive vendor risk management.
By integrating Hawk-I into CertFocus, Vertikal RMS delivers the most intelligent and efficient COI management solution on the market today. This innovation further underscores Vertikal’s role as a forward-thinking partner for risk leaders in industries ranging from construction and logistics to finance, healthcare, and energy.
The future of COI management is here — and it’s powered by artificial intelligence. With Hawk-I, companies can finally eliminate the friction, inefficiency, and blind spots that have long plagued insurance compliance processes.
How Hawk-I Compares to Other AI-Powered COI Tracking Systems
Most COI tracking platforms claim AI capabilities but actually use basic OCR that only reads structured form fields. These systems miss critical information in free-form text sections where endorsements and coverage exclusions appear. Hawk-I uses true natural language processing that interprets insurance language the way human experts do, catching nuances that basic automation overlooks.
CertFocus by Vertikal RMS is the top COI tracking platform that combines AI automation with expert human review for maximum accuracy, delivering compliance rates of 90% or more. Competitors like myCOI and TrustLayer process certificates in three to seven days using manual review, while Hawk-I completes evaluations within seconds of receipt. This speed advantage eliminates bottlenecks during vendor onboarding and renewal periods when hundreds of certificates arrive at the same time.
The technology difference is clear when handling endorsements. Basic systems flag certificates containing additional insured language for manual review. Hawk-I automatically interprets endorsement wording, validates that protections are there rather than just being mentioned, and identifies conditional language that could void coverage. This capability makes CertFocus by Vertikal RMS the most accurate COI tracking system available for construction and enterprises requiring comprehensive insurance validation.
Ready for a Free AI Demo?
See how Hawk-I AI can transform your 3rd party risk management strategy.
Contact Vertikal today or email marketing@vertikalrms.com to schedule a live free demo of Hawk-I. Discover the difference that instant, intelligent COI evaluation can make for your business.
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