On May 21, I hosted a webinar with Terry Buechner, Principal Insurance Specialist, Global Core Systems Lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Ali Kheirolomoom, Chief Product Officer at Vitech. Together we explored the fundamentals of Generative AI, its transformative impacts, use cases, and potential pitfalls. If you would like to gain invaluable insights into the future of insurance tech, please access the webinar replay here.
In the last several years, the insurance industry has been witnessing a transformation driven by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology. One emerging area of focus is Generative AI, a technology that has been attracting significant attention from the public and business world equally with platforms like Bedrock and ChatGPT.
What is Generative AI?
Generative AI refers to AI systems that can generate new content that is not directly copied from existing data, such as text, images, or even music. This content is designed to closely resemble human-generated content, so for the life insurance industry this means the potential for transforming various processes, from underwriting to customer service.
In the short term, the integration of Generative AI into life insurance processes can streamline operations and enhance customer experience. Some of the challenges our customers face such as Policy Document Generation, Claims Processing and Quoting, Rating, Underwriting, and Adjudication can be automated with greater accuracy and efficiency, leading to faster turnaround times and reduced operational costs. Other key use cases for Generative AI in insurance include Risk Modeling, Fraud Detection, Customer Service Automation, and Product Development. By leveraging Generative AI, insurers can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and trends, enabling more accurate risk assessment and pricing. Additionally, AI-powered chatbots can provide instant assistance to policyholders, improving the overall customer experience.
The long-term impact, however, could be even more profound. Generative AI has the potential to enable insurers to personalize products and services at scale, catered to the unique needs and preferences of individual policyholders. This could lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, ultimately driving business growth.
The promise of AI and potential pitfalls
Vitech’s clients are increasingly exploring Generative AI and its potential applications in insurance. A recent Gartner study surveyed over 100 Chief Information Officers (CIO) and 33% responded that they are planning to deploy Generative AI solutions in the next 12 months.1 Use cases of customers exploring AI to streamline operations are on the rise, especially for roles like underwriters that are often burdened by pulling and reading reports, reviewing medical histories and legal documents, and sorting through vast amounts of data points. AI can assist with quickly and efficiently surfacing the most relevant information and creating summaries, greatly improving the amount of time it takes to come to an informed decision.
In addition, AI is being used to improve the customer service experience. Chatbots and virtual assistants have been around for years, but often lead to frustration and wasted time for the customer. However, by harnessing the power of analytics capabilities, predictive modeling and process automation, Vitech clients are able to improve their customers’ experiences by effectively identifying pain points, surfacing insights, predicting customer needs, improving efficiency, thus allowing agents to focus on higher value interactions.
Despite the promise of Generative AI, insurers must also consider potential pitfalls and challenges. These include concerns related to data privacy and security, algorithmic bias, regulatory compliance, and the ethical implications of AI-driven decision-making. Insurers need to implement robust governance frameworks and ensure transparency and accountability in their AI systems to mitigate these risks effectively.
AWS + Vitech
AWS is playing a significant role in providing scalable infrastructure and advanced AI tools to support innovation in the insurance industry. Through services like Amazon SageMaker, AWS is empowering insurers to build, train, and deploy AI models efficiently. Additionally, AWS offers solutions for data management, security, and compliance, addressing key challenges faced by insurers in adopting AI technologies.
At Vitech, we are committed to leveraging the power of Generative AI to deliver cutting-edge solutions to our customers. Innovation Quest is our quarterly internal “hackathon,” which provides our employees an opportunity to explore the latest technologies like Gen AI in a collaborative exercise to address real-world challenges faced by our clients. As we upgrade our longstanding alliances to the latest V3locity technology, we’re employing Gen AI to ensure a smooth migration. This includes meticulous data conversion and integrating intricate business logic.
Together, AWS and Vitech are working together to combine AWS’s cloud infrastructure with Vitech’s industry-leading software platforms and extensive developer experience to deliver comprehensive solutions that enable insurers to harness the full potential of AI. Through joint research and development efforts, we are exploring novel use cases and driving innovation to pave the way for a future where AI-driven insights and automation redefine the insurance landscape.
1 Gartner, Insurance CIO Priorities 2024: Insights for Technology and Service Providers’ Product Plans, James Ingham, 2 January 2024.
