An insurtech collaborating with the insurer believes that the chatbot could ’provide a better customer outcome’
Insurer Zurich is experimenting with ChatGPT and exploring how it can use artificial intelligence (AI) technology for tasks such as extracting data for claims and modelling.
As reported by the Financial Times, the insurer is feeding its last six years of claims data into the AI chatbot to identify the specific causes of loss across claims to improve underwriting.
This is according to Ericson Chan, Zurich’s group chief information and digital officer and member of the executive committee – Chan said he believed that AI could create “a huge amount of efficiency” in the insurance sector.
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI that is trained to follow instructions – for example, it can write code, answer user queries and generate essays.
The move from Zurich is a response to the challenge posed by startups and insurance firms, such as PingAn and US-based Lemonade, using AI to predict claims and identify fraud.
Chan was previously the chief executive of China’s PingAn Technology between 2016 and 2022 and joined Zurich in October 2022.
Potential of AI
Lawrence Buckler, vice president of sales at Sprout.ai, told Insurance Times: “There’s been a broad misunderstanding of AI in the insurance industry up to now - that AI will replace people altogether. The hype around ChatGPT has raised awareness of the potential of AI.”
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”Rather than replacing people, it enables insurance professionals to provide a better customer experience. When applied to claims processing, AI can sift through and review data at a significantly faster rate, and more accurately than people, so claims handlers have time to provide a better customer experience instead of processing data, Buckler continued.
“However, larger insurers have access to valuable historic data, which insurtechs do not. If insurtechs are truly going to challenge the traditional insurers, then startups like Sprout.ai must demonstrate fundamental value to customers quickly. We can achieve this by resolving issues with less time and resources, lower effort, and more predictable outcomes. Only then can we show longevity in a legacy industry.”
Zurich partnered with Sprout.ai in April 2021 to reduce the time taken to settle property claims to under 24 hours using the insurtech’s latest AI solution.
Insurance Times has contacted Zurich for further comment.
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