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How AI Is Changing The Insurance Industry
How AI Is Changing The Insurance Industry
I I
By Shanique (Nikki) Hall, CIPR Manager to be using AI technology to enhance customer experience
by improving convenience, transparency, meliness and
I customer engagement.
What was once science fic on has fast become a funda-
mental part of our everyday lives. The no on of ar ficial There are a number of new and emerging technologies set
intelligence (AI), whether on movie screens or in science- to revolu onize the financial services and insurance indus-
fic on books, has long been part of our imagina ons. While try, including, telema cs, IoT, blockchain, digital pla orms
robots have yet to take over the world, the use of AI has and AI. These breakthrough technologies are reshaping the
increased exponen ally across industries over the past sev- insurance industry by providing innova ve ways to measure,
eral years. The rise in accessible data, increased compu ng control and price risk; engage with customers; reduce cost;
capabili es and changing consumer expecta ons has led to improve efficiency; expand insurability; and create new
a strong accelera on of AI development. We are now using products and business models.
AI throughout the landscape of our lives—o en without
realizing it—whether it is Google’s search engine, a virtual The NAIC recently formed the Innova on and Technology
assistant (such as Apple’s Siri), or online stores that know (EX) Task Force to explore the technological developments
what you want before you log in. in the insurance sector. The Task Force will provide a forum
for discussion of innova on and technology developments
We have go en so comfortable with technology doing new in order to educate state insurance regulators on how these
and amazing things every day we o en do not stop to think developments will affect consumer protec on, insurer and
about the science behind it. At its essence, AI can be de- producer oversight, and the state insurance regulatory
fined as the science of making computers do things requir- framework.
ing intelligence when done by humans, including learning,
planning, reasoning, problem solving and decision-making. A I
Various AI-related technologies, such as natural language AI is the study and development by which a computer and
processing (NLP), computer vision, robo cs, machine learn- its systems are given the ability to successfully accomplish a
ing and speech recogni on, have substan ally progressed task typically requiring a human’s intelligent behavior. Mer-
over the years to coalesce into systems that do, think, learn riam-Webster defines AI as a branch of computer science
and con nuously adapt. dealing with the simula on of intelligent behavior in com-
puters; and the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent
Consequently, AI is rapidly evolving and crea ng viable op- human behavior.
portuni es for business growth. It is disrup ng and improv-
ing organiza ons across all industries, including insurance. Currently, within tradi onal industries, many tasks are
Companies such as IBM, Apple, Google, Facebook and Ama- achieved by humans—for example, gathering informa on,
zon are leveraging AI pla orms and solu ons for customers, analyzing data by running a model or using personal judge-
partners and employees. While insurers are in the early stag- ment, and finally making a decision. Algorithms or machines
es of catching this wave, they are said to be ripe for transfor- are used to assist humans, but the tasks are s ll led by hu-
ma on in areas such as underwri ng, customer service, mans. AI allows technology to replace humans on all of
claims, marke ng and fraud detec on. Three-quarters of these steps—from data collec on and analysis down to the
insurance execu ves (globally) believe AI will either signifi- final decision-making.
cantly change or completely transform the industry over the
next three years, according to Accenture’s Insurance Tech‐ Over the years, scien st have consistently tried to find a way
nology Vision 2017 report (Accenture Report). to bridge the gap between man and machine. English com-
puter scien st Alan Turing is widely considered to be the
Advances in AI have also caught the a en on of venture father of AI. In the 1940’s, at the dawn of compu ng, Turing
capitalists and other investors. InsurTech (technology based was grappling with the ques on: “Can machines think?” He
solu ons for insurance) startups in AI were one of the later published a paper in 1950 en tled, Compu ng Machin‐
ho est ckets in 2016. According to the Accenture Report, ery and Intelligence, in which he described what is now
the number of InsurTech startups with a focus on big data, known at the “Turing Test” for determining whether a ma-
AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT) has skyrocketed in re- chine is “intelligent.” During this me, the term AI had not
cent years, a rac ng nearly half of the total funding spent been coined. John McCarthy later coined the term in 1955, a
globally on Insurtechs in 2016. InsurTech startups are said (Continued on page 3)
F 1: E A I
F 2: C A I *
S :N
NLP is another important component of AI. NLP in- AI’ I I I
volves intelligent analysis of wri en language. NLP ap- AI has slowly ingrained itself into our everyday lives, from
plica ons a empt to understand natural human com- taking full responsibility (as is the case of driverless vehicles)
munica on, either wri en or spoken, and communicate and in some cases in mately listening to our every move
in return using similar, natural language. NLP is the (i.e., in the home, with Amazon’s Echo). At Amazon Go,
technology making it possible for Alexis, Siri, Cortana Amazon’s prototype grocery store, customers can walk in,
and other virtual assistants do their magic. grab the items they want, and walk out without paying or
wai ng in a checkout line. Amazon will automa cally charge
The recent accelera on in AI is being driven by excep onal the customer’s account and send a receipt. Run out of cere-
technological advances along with a major shi in customer al? No problem. Amazon Prime customers can place an or-
expecta ons. Higher computer power, memory capacity, der from their phone and get same-day delivery. Consumers
cloud compu ng, big data technologies, and global connec- have come to expect these easy, hassle-free experiences—
vity of both people and machines have enabled machines and AI is powering many of them.
to run complex algorithms faster than humans and handle
more input data than a human could. Consequently, AI sys- Shaped by their experiences with other industries, insurance
tems are now able to perform tasks previously requiring hu- customers, par cularly millennials, now expect quick on-
man intelligence, such as visual and speech processing, deci- demand services. However, unlike Amazon and many other
sion-making and language transla on. product and service providers, insurance is an industry with
low customer engagement. Tradi onally an insurer has just
The successes of AI are also being facilitated by the massive two touch-points to interact with customers: the first is
amounts of data we have today. The wealth of data we now when it sells a product and the second is during the claims
create is astonishing, and the speed at which data is gener- process. A 2014 Morgan Stanley Research and Boston Con-
ated has only made data management tools like AI all the sul ng Group study found consumers interacted less with
more important. Whether it is structured or unstructured insurers than with any other industry, so the consumer ex-
data (e.g., social media, wearables, telema cs, sensors, perience with insurers tends to lag behind others.
news, weather and traffic reports), AI is helping organiza-
ons make sense of big data. As AI is able to execute com- As such, AI has the poten al to affect the insurance industry
plex analyses and computa ons at a speed impossible for in mul ple ways. The most obvious areas it can be used in-
humans, it generates faster insights. Driverless cars create clude claims processing, underwri ng, fraud detec on and
roughly 4 terabytes a day of data. Sta s cal models cannot (Continued on page 5)
handle that amount of data.
4 August 2017| CIPR Newsle er
H A I I C I I (C )
F 3: F C U C Customer Service and Marke ng
E P To improve customer experience, many insurers are in-
ves ng in virtual assistants like chatbots. A chatbot is a digi-
tal service capable of holding natural sounding conversa-
ons with human beings with the aim of accomplishing par-
cular tasks, such as answering ques ons. Two-thirds of the
insurance execu ves surveyed in the Accenture Report said
they now use some sort of chatbot in at least one business
area to create be er customer interac ons.
Chatbots are powered by NLP to converse with customers
using mobile apps and messaging pla orms such as
WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. They answer ques-
ons, give basic advice, and address common inquiries and
transac ons—freeing up human reps to handle the more
complicated situa ons and saving consumers me from
having to navigate their way around complicated websites
or me-consuming contact centers (Figure 3). Moreover,
chatbots are accessible around the clock with no hold mes.
One example is Geico’s virtual assistant “Kate,” which
launched earlier this year. Kate answers basic policy and
billing ques ons within the app like, “Do you want to know
the current balance on your auto insurance policy?,” or,
“What about the date of your next payment?” Another ex-
ample is Allstate’s chatbot, the Allstate Business Insurance
Expert (or ABle). ABle walks customers through the quo ng
process and retrieves documents for agents.
Claims Management and Fraud Detec on
AI is also changing the way claims are processed. By leverag-
ing AI technology to help manage claims, insurers are look-
ing to reduce the me it takes for a claim to be processed,
and, in turn, reduce the handling costs, while improving
customer service. The Accenture Report notes insurers have customer experience. Claims management can be augment-
begun to use AI technologies as a tool to help improve over- ed using machine learning techniques in different stages of
all customer experience, with the technology enhancing the the claim handling process. For example, machine learning
way sales and services are executed, facilita ng faster models can help automa cally assess the severity of damag-
claims processing, and enabling more accurate individual es and predict the repair costs from historical data, sensors
risk-based underwri ng processes. and images.
Moreover, insurers are si ng on a treasure-trove of big Metromile, a pay-per-mile car insurer, recently launched an
data, the main ingredient AI requires to be successful. automated claims system designed to speed up the process
When asked about the benefits of embedding AI into their of verifying and paying out claims. Its new AI-powered
interfaces, more than half of the insurance execu ves sur- claims assistant, AVA, promises to verify and resolve claims
veyed in the Accenture Report cited be er data analysis in seconds. AVA will also soon be able to issue instant pay-
and insight. The abundance of data fused with unstructured ments and assist with scheduling repairs. Another example
data can be leveraged to increase customer engagement, is Zurich Insurance, which is deploying AI in deciding per-
create more personalized service and more meaningful sonal injury claims. Its chairman recently noted “We re-
marke ng messages, sell the right product to customers cently introduced AI claims handling ... and saved 40,000
and actually target the right customer. (Continued on page 6)
F 4: T N I T F F
AI, B D I T I S
Source: Accenture.
computers to read X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans more rapidly A A
and accurately than radiologists. Be er image recogni on is
also crucial to unleashing improvements in robo cs, auton- Shanique (Nikki) Hall is the manager of
omous drones, and self-driving cars. the NAIC Center for Insurance Policy
and Research (CIPR). She joined the
C NAIC in 2000 and currently oversees
Over the years, we have seen en re industries transformed the CIPR’s primary work streams, in‐
cludingthe CIPR Newsle er; studies;
due to new technologies—from music to banking, publish-
events; webinars and website. Ms. Hall
ing, travel and even taxis. Insurance is now grappling with
has extensive capital markets and
the risks and opportuni es of new technologies. The emer- insurance exper se and has authored
gence of AI is a powerful form of technology with the po- copious ar cles on major insurance
ten al to disrupt the en re insurance value chain. So far, regulatory and public policy ma ers. She began her career at
the impact of AI in insurance has been minimal. However, J.P. Morgan Securi es as a research analyst in the Global Eco‐
the adop on of AI within insurance is gaining momentum nomic Research Division. At J.P. Morgan, Ms. Hall analyzed
and has been an important catalyst for insurers to improve regional economic condi ons and worked closely with the chief
their services to remain compe ve. economist to publish research on the principal forces shaping
the economy and financial markets. Ms. Hall has a bachelor’s
degree in economics from Albany State University and an MBA
AI was one of the most popular themes in InsurTech
in financial services from St. John’s University. She also studied
startups last year. According to CB Insights, total funding to abroad at the London School of Economics.
InsurTech startups in 2016 hit $1.7 billion. Big data/
analy cs, AI and the IoT collec vely accounted for 70% of
the total value invested. In addi on, analysis of data on 450 Bibliography:
Insurtech deals over the last three years found deals based Accenture’s Technology Vision for Insurance 2017. April 2017. Re-
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ous page). It will be essen al for state insurance regulators Ahmadi, Babak. “How Ar ficial Intelligence is Change the Insurance
to engage with InsurTechs to understand the future direc- Business.” Feb. 13, 2017. Retrieved from www.medium.com.
on of the industry, as well as the kind of improvements AI Barton, David. “Why the Insurance Industry is turning to Machine
is having in the Insurtech space. Learning.” Innova on Enterprise. Retrieved from: h ps://
channels.theinnova onenterprise.com/ar cles/why‐the‐insurance‐
industry‐is‐turning‐to‐machine‐learning.
While AI provides opportuni es for tradi onal insurers to Copeland, Jack. “What is Ar ficial Intelligence.” AlanTuring.net. Re-
modernize themselves, a number of obstacles to its adop- trieved from: www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/reference%
on in the insurance industry remain. Implemen ng AI is 20ar cles/what%20is%20ai.html.
not straigh orward. Insurers face challenges integra ng AI Corea, Francesco. “Why AI Will Transform Insurance.” Insurance
Thought Leadership. Jan. 1, 2017. Retrieved from: h p://
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“Why the Insurance Industry Can’t Risk Overlooking Ar ficial Intelli-
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August 2017 | CIPR Newsle er 7
NAIC Central Office
Center for Insurance Policy and Research
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Phone: 816-842-3600
Fax: 816-783-8175
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