Hiscox goes live with AI proposition for brokers

Hiscox has gone live with its Google Cloud-backed generative artificial intelligence (AI) lead underwriting proposition for the London market.

The proposition, which was developed as a proof of concept back in December 2023, aims to reduce the time taken from the submission of a risk through to the quote stage.

By combining Hiscox AI Laboratories (Hailo) with Google Cloud’s generative AI, Hiscox said it had the ability to remove manual elements of the underwriting process. 

It will initially be used for the insurer’s sabotage and terrorism line of business and is available to all brokers.

Kate Markham, Hiscox London market chief executive, said: “We were really excited by the potential shown by the proof of concept, so to see it now making a tangible impact on our business – starting with sabotage and terrorism – is fantastic.

“The efficiency delivered is testament to the outstanding collaboration between Hiscox and Google Cloud.

”It proves that by bringing teams together and harnessing technology, we can deliver tangible benefits for customers, while freeing up our underwriters from manual tasks and allowing them to focus on more complex risks where human expertise is critical.”

Assessment

Hiscox is one of several insurers to partner with Google Cloud – Admiral joined forces with the tech giant in February 2024. 

Risks are assessed using Google Cloud’s Gemini large language model (LLM), which generates an email for the broker with pricing and other data already completed, ready for underwriter review.

Graham Drury, head of financial services industry in the UK at Google Cloud, explained that through this collaboration, the duo had “proven the power of generative AI in transforming complex insurance underwriting processes”.

“We continue to work closely with Hiscox to evolve and refine the augmented underwriting model for lead submissions as we look to deliver this same value across other lines of insurance,” he added.

The first risk was written with WTW.

Jo Holliday, global head of crisis management at WTW, said: “WTW has long recognised the enhanced use of digitisation as critical to the future of the insurance market.

”By harnessing AI to help streamline processes and deliver much quicker turnaround times from risk submission to quote, we are taking a step forward in the evolution of the digital marketplace, which is great news for our clients.”