Insurance

Generative AI: The next big leap in transforming life insurance operations

Generative AI is a category of artificial-intelligence (AI) procedures that involves generating new content, such as images, text, or audio using models and examples learned from existing data.

One of the most widely known generative AI models is the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), introduced in 2014 by Ian Goodfellow and his team. Another advanced type is Large language models (LLMs) that help in constructing pre-trained transformer platforms. LLMs are a game-changer for the insurance industry and have enormous possibilities. They can analyse extensive written material and information effectively. They can also help automate complex business processes that deal with natural language.

Reshaping life insurance operations

Generative AI has found applications in various fields. For example, it can be used to create realistic images, generate text or speech that mimics human language, enhance, and manipulate images, create virtual characters or environments, and even aid in drug discovery and molecule design.

Nonetheless, it does raise ethical concerns, as it has the potential to generate realistic but fake content, such as deepfake videos or fabricated news articles. Ensuring responsible and ethical use of generative AI is a vital aspect that needs to be addressed as this technology continues to advance.

Generative AI can have several potential use cases in life insurance operations. Here are a few examples:

1. Synthetic customer data generation:  

   Generative AI can be used to create synthetic customer data that resembles real policyholders. This data can be utilised for testing and training purposes without compromising the privacy and security of actual customer information.

2. Risk assessment:

    By analysing large volumes of historical data, generative AI models can learn patterns and generate simulated scenarios to assess risk. This can help insurers in predicting and quantifying potential risks associated with policyholders and their life situations.

3. Underwriting and policy generation:

    Generative AI can aid in automating the underwriting process by analysing customer information and generating policy terms and conditions based on predefined rules and regulations. This can streamline the policy generation process and reduce manual efforts.

4. Fraud detection: 

   Generative AI models could be trained on a dataset of known fraudulent activities and generate synthetic fraud scenarios. These scenarios can help insurance companies in enhancing their fraud detection capabilities by identifying patterns and indicators of potential fraud.

5. Customer experience enhancement: 

   Generative AI can be used to create personalised marketing materials, such as tailored policy offers and customer communications. By analysing customer preferences and historical data, generative AI can generate content that resonates with individual policyholders, improving their overall experience.

6. Predictive analytics: 

   By generating synthetic data and simulating various scenarios, generative AI can assist insurers in predicting customer behaviours, such as lapse rates, premium payment patterns, and customer churn. These insights enable strategic decision-making and help in developing more effective retention and customer engagement strategies.

Need to proceed with caution!

It is important to note that the implementation of generative AI in life insurance operations requires careful consideration of ethical and regulatory implications, as well as the protection of customer privacy. The responsible and transparent use of generative AI is indispensable to ensure its benefits are maximised while mitigating potential risks.

Implementing generative AI in life insurance operations can pose several challenges such as:

1. Data availability and quality: 

   Generative AI models require large volumes of high-quality data for training. Obtaining relevant and representative data can be challenging, especially in the case of life insurance where sensitive and personal information is involved. Ensuring data privacy, compliance with regulations, and data quality can cause significant hurdles.

2. Ethical and legal implications: 

   Generative AI can create synthetic data or content that closely resembles real individuals or situations. This raises ethical concerns and legal implications, especially in terms of privacy, consent, and potential misuse. Ensuring that the generated content is used responsibly and following legal and regulatory frameworks is vital.

3. Interpretability and clarity:

    Generative AI models are often complex and difficult to interpret. Understanding the decision-making process of these models and providing explanations for the generated outputs can be challenging. In the insurance industry, where transparency and clarity are important, ensuring that generative AI models can provide clear justifications for their outputs is crucial.

4. Bias and fairness:

    Generative AI models can inadvertently get influenced by biases present in the training data, which can lead to unfair/biased outcomes. It is essential to address and mitigate biases in the generative AI models to ensure equitable treatment of policyholders in life insurance, where fairness and non-discrimination are critical.

5. Regulatory compliance:

    Life insurance is subject to various regulatory frameworks, including data protection, privacy, and fairness regulations. Implementing generative AI while complying with these regulations can be complex. Insurers need to ensure that their generative AI systems meet the necessary compliance requirements and adhere to industry standards.

6. Integration and adoption:

    Integrating generative AI into existing life insurance operations can be challenging. It requires infrastructure and system updates, as well as training and upskilling employees to work effectively with generative AI technologies. Ensuring a smooth integration process and fostering organisational adoption can be a significant undertaking.

7. Continual model improvement: 

   Generative AI models require continual monitoring and improvement to ensure their effectiveness and performance. Regular updates, retraining, and fine-tuning are necessary to adapt to evolving data patterns and business requirements. Establishing processes for ongoing model maintenance and improvement is essential.

To tackle these obstacles, a collaborative approach involving data scientists, domain experts, legal professionals, and compliance officers is essential. It is imperative to prioritise ethical considerations, regulatory compliance, and transparency when implementing generative AI in life insurance operations.

This article was first published on Business Insider