Negotiation Isn't a Task. It's the Job. Most Defense Teams Still Treat It Like an Afterthought.

‍A look at Ron Morrison's September 2025 Carrier Management piece, and why claims professionals must reclaim negotiation as their core competency.

In Negotiation Is the Job: Reframing Defense Work in an AI-Enhanced Era, published by Carrier Management on September 28, 2025, Ron Morrison, Divisional Senior Vice President of Claims at Great American Insurance Group, opens what would become one of the most important industry conversations of the year. His thesis is direct: if you're in the business of resolving litigated or non-litigated claims, you're in the business of negotiation.

The math is simple. Most litigated matters resolve without going to trial. That makes negotiation the defining process behind nearly every financial outcome in insurance litigation. Yet most claims organizations still treat it like an afterthought.

Litigation is a subset of negotiation, not the other way around

This single reframe is the most important contribution of Morrison's piece. For decades, the industry has organized itself around trial preparation, billing metrics, and case milestone reporting. Negotiation has been treated as something that happens organically, taught rarely, measured inconsistently, and often executed reactively.

Morrison flips the hierarchy. Litigation strategy should support negotiation efforts, not the other way around. The biggest lever for improving claim outcomes isn't litigation strategy or billing protocols. It's negotiation itself.

The opportunity for fair resolution, he argues, isn't lost at trial. It's lost well before, when defense teams are reluctant to honestly and persuasively assert their position early in the case.

Claims professionals should be leading, not delegating

Morrison's second major point is structural. In too many files today, the person with the authority isn't the person doing the negotiating. Claims professionals grant authority and defer to defense counsel to deliver the message. That, Morrison argues, is backward.

The claims professional often knows the file best. They see more cases, more venues, more patterns. When they lead or co-lead the negotiation effort, better outcomes follow. The questions both claims and counsel should be asking at every step:

• Are we framing the story the right way?
• Are we using evidence to anchor expectations?
• Are we advocating for our positions clearly and persuasively?

None of this happens by accident. It requires structure, discipline, and deliberate execution.

The written word and the AI imperative

Morrison reinforces what later authors in the series would expand on: the written offer is the defense's most underused strategic tool. Verbal communication builds rapport. The written word builds permanence, persuasion, and shareable evidence-backed arguments.

And he doesn't shy away from the AI dimension. Plaintiff attorneys are using AI tools to structure communication, curate evidence, and frame demands. One major plaintiff-side AI provider (valued at over $1 billion) claims a 30% increase in settlement values and a 70% increase in policy limit demands for its users. Those numbers add up quickly.

For defense teams to keep pace, equipping professional judgment with the right tools, data, and strategy isn't optional. It's infrastructure.

Where SigmaSight fits in

Morrison's call to action is essentially a blueprint for what defense-side AI infrastructure needs to deliver. That's exactly the gap SigmaSight was built to close. Three products, one ecosystem:

• Analyzer. Equips claims professionals with the venue intelligence, evidence curation, and case context they need to lead negotiations rather than delegate them.
• Synthesizer. Generates the written offer packages Morrison advocates for, structured, persuasive, and evidence-backed, so the defense's best arguments are deployed early when they can still shape the discussion.
• Negotiator. Operationalizes the disciplined, intentional posture Morrison calls for, turning negotiation from a soft skill into measurable, repeatable infrastructure.

Morrison's closing line frames the whole industry conversation: negotiation isn't a task. It's the job. Carriers that treat it that way, and equip their teams accordingly, are the ones who will define the next era of claims.

Read the full article on Carrier Management: Negotiation Is the Job: Reframing Defense Work in an AI-Enhanced Era

Ready to put negotiation at the center of your claims strategy? Request a demo of Negotiator.

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