Takeaways:
- Good governance supports efficiency
- To use AI, insurers should first sort simple and complex risks
- AI can improve insurers' management of staff
Insurance carriers are finding AI effective for governance, risk reduction and personnel management, according to executives who spoke at InsurTech NY.
"People can get scared of governance. They hear governance and think that [it] doesn't compute with AI, because it will slow me down," said David Zweier, senior vice president of IT strategy and transformation at Ascot Group, at the event in late March. "But effective governance actually enables agility, flexibility and speed if it's done properly."
Business and IT stakeholders must work together on AI and should be empowered to make decisions, Zweier added.
Just adding AI by itself is not enough to make a difference, according to Patrick Gallic, head of the international AI hub at Tokio Marine.
"The question then becomes, what is the benefit to the organization?" he said at the event. "If you're just deploying ChatGPT Enterprise, or Claude Cowork, and you're expecting to transform your business, that's not realistic. It's going to get adoption, but you are not going to transform the way that you work."
Using an
"If you think of policy services, we look at what are the high-volume, less risky ones to change or enhance," Lombardi said at the event.
Adam Landau, chief information officer at Berkshire Hathaway Guard, a P&C insurer, said that while carriers can set criteria for acceptable risks and then use AI to process coverage applications that fit that criteria, more complex risks require human underwriters' attention.
"Don't do it just to put in a button, because somebody said you have to put in a button," Landau said at the event. "Do it for assessing risk, understand what your tolerance is, and then put the human in the loop with that."
The responsibility for risk decisions rests with carriers, not their service providers, Landau stressed. However,
"It's really about now freeing up skilled workers, underwriters,
The New York State Insurance Fund (NYSIF), a workers comp insurer that
Generative AI "makes the job of being a claims manager much more rewarding," he said at the event. "It frees up people's time, and gives them some level of assurance that they're not going to be laid off tomorrow. If we stay true to this, it will pay dividends over the medium and long term."
