Similar to how iPhone technology transformed the way we communicate, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is creating new opportunities and efficiencies for the insurance industry. Most recently, our Insurance team has been working with leaders to augment and reinvent significant areas of their business. Here, we share our recent video release and discussion on Reinventing Insurance with Generative AI, with Paul Ricard, Randy Lampert, Tiffanie Couts and Matthew Fairbanks. Our discussion includes: our latest research, a primer on generative AI, how insurers can get started, risk considerations, and opportunities and key actions for industry reinvention. More highlights can be found below.

Highlights from our discussion

What is generative AI?

Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligent system capable of generating new content. It does more than retrieve pre-determined answers (which makes it generative) and is enabled by models that identify, map, and derive context from patterns within the data inputs. The science behind the technology analyzes content from large sets of information (data sets, internet, etc.) and learns and improves performance even with unlabeled and unstructured data. Generative AI can map patterns and connections within the data inputs, allowing it to understand the essence and context of an object. The technology uses advanced natural language and responds in a more conversational speaking style. 

The accessibility of these tools and the wide variety of use cases they can be leveraged for creates tremendous opportunities for businesses to replace, augment, and create new solutions that will:

Opportunities for insurers

Specifically, generative AI is ushering in new opportunities for insurers across the value chain — from strategy and product design, marketing and distribution, pricing and underwriting to claims and operations, and  governance. 

For example, with these tools, insurers will be able to:

Operational efficiencies

Generative AI can create new operational efficiencies and also solutions to transform the insurance business model. Our video discusses three illustrative case studies (33:55) of a life insurance agent, a commercial underwriter, and a policyholder before and after leveraging generative AI . 

Risk considerations

Generative AI offers staying power due to its robustness, ease of use, and low barrier to entry. It's also quickly gained popularity and adoption in just a few months. In November 2022, OpenAI, an American artificial intelligence research lab, introduced GPT 3.5 and Chat GPT. ChatGPT rapidly reached 1 million users in five days, and 100 million users in less than two months. It is being used for search, customer insights and service, writing content, coding, video creation, and more. In March 2023, OpenAI released its next iteration GPT 4.0, a multimodal large language model that offers broader general knowledge and problem solving abilities. GPT 4.0 can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy.

We do believe that the risk associated with implementing Generative AI solutions needs to be carefully assessed prior to rolling these types of tools out. As insurers think about the short- and long-term possibilities, it will be important for them to consider a few key critical questions:

• What internal/customer needs are we solving? 
• Is generative AI the right way to solve it? Can it solve the problem on its own or does it need to be combined with other technologies? 
• What risks do we anticipate from the introduction Generative AI? How can we mitigate them? 
• How can we educate executives and end-users about Generative AI, its potentials, and its risks?

Get started

At Oliver Wyman we have been helping clients understand generative AI and what it means for insurers, and guiding strategic moves — closer in and further out — around this evolving ecosystem. We look forward to exploring opportunities on how to start and/or the best ways to pilot and scale your AI journey.

This on-demand video and discussion is part of our Leading in the Age of Acceleration series.