Taking control of the future of AI in insurance

Apart from tracking regulations and ethical standards for the use of AIinsurers are also looking to implement their own governance measures.

AI advances like Gen AI have happened faster than insurers can react, and AI adoption raises issues of biased data manipulation and making sure a carrier’s operations can handle its demands, according to technology executives from Nationwide, Falcon Risk Services and Société Générale. Americas.

“The role of chief data officer, governance, is a hugely critical part of using AI responsibly and using data responsibly, both internally and externally,” said Doris Brophy, chief data officer, Société Générale Americas, the US subsidiary of AI. European financial services company.

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Financial services and insurance technology professionals tend to focus on how to improve daily processes or how to innovate, according to Gopika Shah, senior vice president and chief technology officer at Falcon Risk Services, a liability insurance services organization civil, professional and management. “But we also have to think about that when we think about responsible AI, how we’re going to impact human rights and how we’re going to impact our society,” she said. “In those areas, there are certain things that go beyond traditional data governance. That’s transparency, knowing where your data is being used and how it’s being used.”

AI technology is not a completely unknown, unknown quantity, according to Brophy, but when it comes to governance, AI is intensifying thought processes, accelerating the manner and pace of change.

“The big difference is that almost all existing frameworks are expanding,” she said. “Intellectual property. This extends. What data was the model trained on? Did you have the right to train your models on that data? That extends. Transparency about the results.”

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At the national level, with its divided approach to Gen AIhas a team of professionals focused on governance and compliance, “poking holes” in the other team’s work where needed, according to Jim Grafmeyer, chief enterprise architect at Nationwide. The technology-focused team will ask the compliance team what needs to be true in order to proceed with the use of AI, he added.

That helped Nationwide “develop some quick guardrails that still allow us to say yes to some of the new technology options,” Grafmeyer said. “We’re in a position right now where we have several general-purpose tools offered to every associate at Nationwide, which could be developer-wise, would also have a co-pilot. These are associates having a conversation with your documents, conversation with you. The data interface has been really helpful in democratizing this at the national level.”

Insurers trying to figure out how to use AI responsibly for data management should start by asking some key questions, according to Falcon Risk’s Shah. “What is critical about your data is: Who owns the data? Who is responsible for maintaining the data? Do we trust our data or not, and how much?” she said.

In any case, insurers should have staff dedicated solely to AI governance, as Nationwide’s Grafmeyer recalls. “We found pretty quickly that we needed dedicated roles in the Gen AI space,” he said. “We tried to adapt our existing structure and it didn’t work. Specialist roles were important and we probably still have gaps there, but that was essential – to not make it people’s part-time jobs.”