For years, I've kept a series of business journals. This month,I'll share a series of ideas from my journal, rather than expandingjust one idea into a column. This may provide an idea of howjournaling works, and hopefully some of these ideas will be usefulto you. So take your magazine or tablet, find a comfortable chair,and sip a cool drink while you think about our business.

Related: The link between financial risk and benefitsselection

One way to journal ideas is to make notes on ideas from othersources. This month, I read the 2017 Accenture technology reportfor insurance, “Amplify You,” which calls this the era of theintelligent insurer. I was fascinated by their predictions aboutthe future of artificial intelligence. Within seven years,Accenture predicts most interfaces between people and productproviders will not use a screen.

Pervasive AI will be integrated into daily life, including work.Consider how this could change the way we offer benefits toemployees. Our employer customers, especially larger companies,will be enabled with AI assistants like today's Alexa or Siri.These assistants could be enabled to offer benefits enrollment wheneligibility opens. It seems crazy to think benefit technologysystems could dematerialize into AI skills today; but five to 10years from now, it may seem inevitable. People love convenience,and talking to a device is easy compared with typing or tapping ona screen.

Related: Battling big data: How brokers can compete with AIand automation

As Monty Python says: “Now for something completely different.”Many of the entries in my journal have to do with the middle classin America today and the fragile nature of their economics. Ourmessaging about disability insurance needs to be morecustomer-centered, getting across the fact that people need asafety net in the form of income protection insurance.

People overestimate the cost and underestimate the value ofshort- and long-term income protection when they are disabled. Manypeople think the most common cause of disability is accidents,which unfortunately is not true. Accidents are the cause of onlyabout 20 percent of disabilities. People need a safety net. We needto do a better job of explaining why and how they can take care ofthat need through income protection insurance.

Here's a note from a presentation by Maria Ferrante-Schepis.Contrast how well-off people consider themselves today versus theirvision of themselves 10 years from now. People are consistentlyoptimistic about what their state will be like in the future.

We should ask people: “What do you think needs to change torealize that improvement?” People like to think about short-termgains versus long-term needs. They need to be prodded to think 10years ahead, yet helping people with imagining and planning abetter future is at the heart of our business. We need to moreeffectively help people make good financial and risk protectionchoices.

Related: To boost disability insurance sales, addsunshine

Disruptive forces and innovation are common journal topics. Onepart of being ready to change is shedding things you do today. Askyourself, “What do I need to be willing to walk away from that I'mdoing today?”

There are lots of historic examples of people who should havewalked away from a core business and didn't. Blockbuster keptrenting videos instead of morphing into Red Box and then Netflix.Kodak invented the digital camera and then failed to take advantageof marketing it and transforming their business as they could have.Neither of these companies wanted to walk away from their businessmodel. Our industry's Netflix may already be here, but what isit?

The final note I'll take from my journal is, “Don't forget toenjoy the summer with family and friends.” I just wrote that entrytoday.