AI will transform broker offering to customers - Aviva MD Gareth Hemming

AI will transform the way brokers select and help their customers.

This was Aviva managing director Gareth Hemming’s message to brokers in the Insurance 2025 broking stream yesterday, where he presented the benefits new innovations in AI technology could bring.

A lot of the focus on how AI will revolutionise insurance has been on claims, but Hemming said what AI could do for brokers would allow them to present a whole new offering to customers in the future.

“Brokers have to be looking at how AI can add some insight to the overall offering, not just simplify what they are doing today,” he said.

And he said particularly exciting would be using existing data to inform a customer when they might need changes to their policy before the customer is aware of the need.

He added: “With all the data out there the question is how the broker could use something to make you understand that the customer’s exposure has just changed?

“And then how can that broker get in touch with that customer and say ’I’ve just noticed you’ve done this, would you like a change your coverage?’

“Most businesses will post their profits to Companies House, but it can take a lot of time and skill to go through those figures to find how their requirements might have changed.

“If you could get something to do that very easily and then get it to contact the customer in response to this, it can be very valuable.”

Focus

Further uses of AI highlighted included around customer demand, such as introducing 24/7 chat bots for predictable questions, and around sales, by using data to assess which customers were most likely to be won.

But he said when looking into where to focus energies on developing AI, individual brokers had to look at what would be of most value.

“The most important thing around AI is understanding your use cases. You can create all kinds of fantastic things, but unless you understand what you are going to do with them they have no value at all,” he said.

And he added that how brokers use AI will largely rely on where the particular broker falls on the spectrum between being price-led and advice-led.

But with a full understanding of the market you are operating in, Hemming said AI had the potential to start brand new conversations between broker and customer, adding a whole new line of value to the broker offering.

He said: “There’s something very interesting about using data to create new models to present to the customer.

“This might be around modelling the likelihood of a particular insurer paying a claim and how much they pay towards the full indemnity.

“The data is there and it’s modellable, creating a whole new conversation you can have with your customer about which is the best option for them.”