Case Study
AI-Enhanced Internal Search and Knowledge Management Advisory for Trade Credit Insurance
Softwise.AI built an AI-enhanced search engine for Coface - one of the global leaders in trade credit insurance - delivering precision access to internal documents and accumulated analytical knowledge. The engagement combined data standardization across disparate information sources with comprehensive project strategy and knowledge management advisory, turning Coface's most strategic asset - its institutional knowledge of company and country credit risk - into a more searchable, more usable, more defensible competitive edge.
CLIENT
Coface
YEAR
2020
INDUSTIRES
Trade Credit Insurance - Internal Knowledge & Search
DELIVERABLES
AI-Enhanced Search Engine, Comprehensive Cross-Source Data Standardization, Project Strategy & Knowledge Management Advisory
The problem
In trade credit insurance, the company's internal knowledge - country and sector analyses, credit reports, underwriting guidelines, claims experience, policy documentation - is not back-office content; it is the product itself. Coface's underwriters, risk analysts, and claims professionals draw on it daily to make decisions that carry real financial consequence. That knowledge had accumulated across many systems and formats over years, and the existing search tooling did not match the precision and breadth of what users actually needed. Coface asked Softwise.AI both to build a better search engine and to advise on the broader knowledge management strategy underneath it.
{Key Challenges}
Why knowledge fragmentation hurts a credit insurer more than most?
Knowledge is the product, not just the back office.
For a credit insurer, fragmented internal knowledge is a strategic constraint, not just an operational annoyance.
High-stakes precision required.
A near-miss in credit-risk research is not a usability problem - it can drive an underwriting decision in the wrong direction.
Disparate sources across the organization.
Analytical content, policy documents, and procedural material lived in different systems with different owners and conventions.
No coherent KM framework underneath.
The estate had grown reactively; the build needed to be paired with a strategy to keep it useful as it continued to grow.
{Process}
How we delivered AI search and a knowledge management strategy in 4 stages?
1. Joint discovery and content audit
Softwise.AI worked with Coface's teams to map the internal content estate - identifying the sources, formats, and use cases that mattered most to underwriting, risk analysis, and claims work.
2. Data standardization design
A standardization layer was designed to bring disparate information sources into a coherent, queryable format - the foundation on which precision AI search could operate.
3. AI search engine build
The search engine was built for precision retrieval across Coface's analytical and operational content - tuned to the language and structure of credit-risk material.
4. Knowledge management advisory and rollout
Alongside the build, Softwise.AI delivered a project strategy and knowledge management advisory - giving Coface a sustainable framework for governing, maintaining, and extending the estate beyond go-live.
Solution
AI-enhanced search engine for internal documents
A precision search engine spanning Coface's internal analytical, operational, and policy content - returning the right document or section in a single query.
Comprehensive data standardization
A unification layer bringing disparate internal sources into a consistent format - making integrated, cross-repository search possible without forcing every content owner to change their workflow.
Project strategy and knowledge management advisory
A strategic layer alongside the build - covering how Coface should structure, govern, maintain, and evolve its knowledge estate over time, so the platform stays useful and the underlying content stays trustworthy.
{Results}
A precision AI search engine covering Coface's internal documents and analytical content.
A standardized data foundation spanning multiple internal sources and formats.
A knowledge management strategy for sustaining and extending the estate after rollout.
A coherent operating model for ongoing internal-content governance.
{Business impact}
Faster underwriting and risk analysis. Analysts found the right report or guideline in seconds, not minutes - on decisions that move real money.
Stronger competitive edge. Coface's institutional knowledge became more accessible as a strategic asset, not just an archive.
Lower risk of decision error. Precision retrieval reduced the chance of acting on stale or partial information.
Technology investment de-risked. Pairing the build with strategy meant the platform was set up to grow in value, not decay into legacy.
{Key recommendations}
In knowledge businesses, treat the knowledge estate as product, not infrastructure.
Standardize data before adding intelligence. Precision in AI search depends on consistency at the source.
Pair the build with the strategy. A search engine on top of an unmanaged estate gets worse over time.
Optimize for precision where decisions cost real money. Fuzzy retrieval is a luxury credit underwriting cannot afford.
SUMMARY
Softwise.AI delivered an AI-enhanced search engine for Coface's internal documents, paired with comprehensive data standardization and a project strategy and knowledge management advisory - turning the institutional knowledge that defines a trade credit insurer's competitive position into a faster, more precise, more sustainably governed asset.