AIA Vitality

Group Insurance Summit wrap

The effects of artificial intelligence on the insurance industry

Artificial intelligence isn’t a silver bullet within the insurance industry. But while it may not solve everything, the panel discussed how it can help to support the member experience, by inviting opportunities for more productive claimant conversations.

Derek Vine, AIA Australia

The panel opened with Fergal Murphy – business unit executive, Watson Industry Platforms at IBM –discussing the rise of IBM’s Watson; a supercomputer anecdotally known as a ‘question answering machine’.

Putting some context around this, Derek Vine, Head of Group Operations at AIA Australia shared AIA’s experience of Watson.

"The results were phenomenal,” said Derek. “Within two weeks, IBM’s Watson could process an entire 120-page policy document,” which Derek joked, took him five years to
do similar.

The results were compelling. “When the data was present and accurate, Watson had a 99% accuracy against the assessor’s decision, the 1% was attributed to either missing data or the input of incorrect information” said Derek.

Moving the conversation to the future, Derek suggested that the rise of artificial intelligence such as Watson can actually open up deeper human conversations, translating to better industry efficiencies.

“Our assessors are there to help people, this is our ethical responsibility,” said Derek, framing his viewpoint. “If we can have more engaging conversations with claimants through the information that artificial intelligence gives us, then we are well on our way to help more people more effectively.”

Derek also highlighted the minimisation of human errors as another benefit of such artificial intelligence, which – he went onto say – ultimately enhances the overall customer experience.