Choosing an agency management system is one of the most consequential technology decisions an independent agency makes. It’s also one where meaningful outside acknowledgment can meaningfully cut through the noise.
In Q4 2025, Zywave was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ for Insurance Agency Management Systems. For agency buyers, understanding what goes into that designation, and what it signals about a platform’s staying power, is worth unpacking.
The Criteria That Matter When Evaluating an AMS
The Forrester Wave™ is one of the most rigorous independent evaluations in enterprise software. The report provides a comprehensive evaluation of insurance technology platforms, analyzing current offering as well as strategy.
A Leader designation is the highest designation in this evaluation across current offering, strategy, and customer feedback. Zywave received the highest ranking of all vendors in both the current offering and strategy categories, and the highest possible scores in the innovation, vision, and roadmap criteria in this report. As the Forrester Wave™ report noted, “Zywave’s vision is to facilitate the growth of insurance distributors by becoming an integrated, open API software suite powered by agentic AI.”
The Difference a Future-Ready AMS Makes
Most agencies evaluate an AMS on a reasonable starting point, its current feature set. But the more important question is whether the platform will still be the right fit as the agency grows, as the market evolves, and as new technology, including agentic AI, deeper carrier integrations, and more sophisticated analytics, becomes part of how agencies compete.
An AMS with strong current functionality but a weak roadmap is a platform you’ll eventually outgrow. One with an industry-recognized strategy and a track record of innovation is a platform that can grow along with your agency.
“Agencies don’t just buy software; they bet their business success and growth on it. Our designation as a Leader by Forrester proves to us that Zywave is not only a safe bet for today, it is also the right partner with the product vision for where the industry is going tomorrow.” — Eric Rentsch, Chief Product Officer, Zywave
What the Right Platform Actually Delivers: 3 Takeaways
Zywave has a few concrete takeaways for insurance agency buyers from the Forrester Wave™ recognition it has received.
First, confidence in continuity. Zywave’s roadmap is backed by a consistent history of quarterly product releases, active investment in platform development, and a clear direction toward capabilities like agentic AI that are already beginning to reshape how independent agencies operate.
Second, an ecosystem that compounds in value. Zywave’s AMS is the operational foundation of a broader connected platform, one that includes rating tools, content automation, AI-driven sales acceleration, and analytics built specifically for insurance agencies. That ecosystem has been built deliberately, and it will continue to expand.
Finally, a partner that understands where the insurance technology market is going is invaluable. Independent agencies are navigating a period of rapid change, including rising client expectations, producer capacity constraints, and increasing competition. The agency management system they run on needs to be ahead of those pressures, not catching up to them.
Build a Future-Proof Foundation With Zywave
The AMS market is growing and the distance between purpose-built, forward-looking platforms and the rest of the field is widening. Agencies that choose an insurance-specific AMS with a proven innovation track record are making a compounding investment and minimizing the chance of a costly migration within a few years.
For insurance agencies serious about building on the right foundation, now is the time to take action. Ready to see what Zywave’s AMS looks like in practice? Request a demo today.
Note: Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester’s objectivity here.
