Expert view: Will robots replace us?

Robots have and will continue to replace humans in insurance and we believe that they will (over the next ten years) replace or change a large proportion of the traditional job roles within the profession.

So how can you protect your future? To maximise your career potential, you must embrace then exploit technology.

Chatbots, AI, automation, STP, blockchain, omnichannel, IoT, predictive analytics - all wonderfully intriguing and futuristic terminology that will see some traditionalists rolling their eyes and disengaging. But if you don’t know of these emerging technologies at an interview for a senior role, then you are leaving yourself open to being ‘pipped to the post’ by a more tech savvy individual.

Among the hot topics are the compliance factors behind technological advance. At point of sale, can the customer really be expected to know whether they need professional indemnity, will the FCA be happy for an avatar to explain the key reasons you should opt for PI? In the back office a large focus is on operational resilience – what are the factors impacting brokers and insurers systems and where will the responsibility lie.

An obvious impact over the next few years will be the rapidly reducing need for contact centre agents and administrators. Efficiencies will be driven via the decreasing cost of customer acquisition through online “straight through” solutions or the cost of servicing a claim being reduced by the FNOL being automised.

Our expectation is that 50% of call centre and administration roles will be assimilated by machines over the next decade. Mobile distributed AI tech will be combined with humans, decisions will be rapid owing to the Human being given the list of logical options instantaneously, but empathy and commerciality must be applied to logical decisions for a relationship to be built and maintained.

One of the most interesting tech impacts on careers will be the emergence of new companies in this space. They will need people with a depth of insurance knowledge to become “digital insurance professionals”. Most large companies are going to lose out over the next few years to nimbler emerging companies. This creates a great opportunity for anyone who has the ambition and hunger to embrace change and rapidly progress their career.

As an employer you need to ensure your employees have the skills to take advantage of the future. Research we commissioned earlier this year proved that individuals are no longer loyal to a company unless that company is seen to be investing into protecting their future.

Is your career going to be impacted? – Yes.

Is your business going to be affected? – Yes.

Is it going to be a positive impact?

The great news is that it is still your choice.