“The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not a matter of if, but when,” said Hinesh Chauhan (pictured above).
The chief information officer for life insurer TAL was referring to AI adoption across industries, including his own.
“This includes life insurance where emerging AI technologies have the potential to disrupt, in a good way, everything from customer service, to claims and underwriting processes,” said Chauhan. “While AI is part of TAL’s innovation toolbox, we know harnessing its possibilities requires optimism and caution.”
He said there are “very clear efficiency and customer experience benefits” to be gained from safe AI deployment by insurers. For example, he said GenAI can “gobble up” tasks like the reading, research and interpretation of large documents.
He said TAL has AI “guiding principles” that focus on engaging this technology in a customer centric and safe way. The principles are also about leveraging expertise from AI leaders, including technology partners.
“We are excited by the fast evolution of AI, but our focus is firmly on solving problems for our customers and partners, rather than pursuing technology for technology’s sake,” he said. “Our technology teams are working with their customer service, claims and underwriting colleagues to continue to understand real-world use cases for AI.”
Some of the questions TAL and its AI partners are asking, said Chauhan, include:
The CIO divided TAL’s approach into two main strategies. The first, he said, called “test and learn.”
Chauhan said his insurance firm has experimented with AI for some time now to speed up handling of customer service documents and requests, scale-up front-line quality assurance processes and enable cyber security solutions.
“Looking ahead, we will explore AI’s potential to improve customer experiences through our underwriting and claims functions, too,” he said.
The CIO said this will include embedding AI capabilities into digital platforms, including those that interface with superannuation fund members to help them engage with their insurance cover or manage a claim.
“This approach is important to us engaging with AI safely, allowing us to phase deployment in controlled environments,” he said. “Maintaining security, data integrity, accuracy and privacy is core to our adoption.”
The second AI focus is on partnering with AI leaders.
Chauhan said TAL is a “partnerships business” used to operating with stakeholders, including superannuation funds and financial advisers.
“Developing a coalition of strategic partners focused on AI is a natural fit and we are working with established technology companies investing heavily in emerging technologies,” he said. “This provides a platform to develop our AI capabilities at scale and safely.”
For example, he said, TAL’s partnership with Microsoft as one of 600 businesses globally participating in its Copilot Early Access Program (EAP). This program, he said, uses powerful generative AI tools to support employee productivity.
“I believe it is important we run towards this technology, to experiment to learn more about its risks and opportunities,” said Chauhan. “The risks presented by GenAI continue to be explored and understood.”
The CIO said TAL’s stakeholders see AI as key. He said his firm’s research shows that more than 80% of their superannuation fund partners rate as important the ability to provide members with simple and seamless digital end-to-end experiences. More than half of them see this as “extremely important.”
“Ultimately, we want to use emerging technologies like AI to make human interactions more human, delivering personalisation at scale for our people and customers,” he said. “That will be AI firing on all cylinders for us - for now, there is much to learn.”
This month, the European Union took a significant step towards the adoption of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, the first law on AI by a major regulator anywhere in the world.
According to Reuters, European politicians agreed to a provisional deal “aimed at establishing guardrails for the rapid development of AI and setting a global standard in technology regulation.”
The report said little is known about the substance of this agreement. “The only public disclosure so far has been a Press release with broad points of agreement,” said the report.
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