Panel: Artificial Intelligence Opportunities Abound For Insurers

There are enormous opportunities for insurance and financial services to harness data and artificial intelligence to create the systems of the future.

But in the present, the work is not coming together so quickly or efficiently. Often, an organization will have several talented people skilled at handling data, but spread through the corporate hierarchy, said Kartik Sakthivel, vice president and chief information officer, LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global.

Getting "these disparate groups to be able to pull together a cogent story continues to be a challenge," he said. "That's something to to understand and truly manage within each and every organization that is looking to roll out artificial intelligence programs."

Sakthivel spoke during a presentation Monday, titled "Emerging Technology: What the C-Suite Needs to Know," at the LIMRA virtual annual conference.

He joined a group presenting findings from the Emerging Technologies Executive Task Force, chaired by Brandon Carter, president of USAA Life. The task force convened high-level executives, and consultants McKinsey & Company, to study attitudes and approaches to data and AI.

Data And Analytics

Summarizing the data and analytics section, Sakthivel presented four takeaways from surveys and conversations held by the task force to date:

Lack of common understanding on artificial intelligence. There was "no clear definition of what artificial intelligence means," Sakthivel said. "And I don't think we currently have one across the industry and that's okay.

"For the longest time we've had humans solve problems of other humans. We've had computers solve problems for humans. We've had humans solve the problems of computers. The day when computers can solve the problems of other computers -- to me that is true artificial intelligence."

Disconnect between leadership levels. Among leadership levels, executives are clear they want to pursue artificial learning, machine learning and predictive modeling, Sakthivel said. However, the business leaders and the technology leaders claim they still lack access to quality data and lack access to quality data talent, he explained.

"They're dispersed to the ecosystem of an organization," Sakthivel said. "You have data talent within IT. You have data talent with an actuarial. You have talented data scientists dispersed across the organization."

Massive opportunities to pursue responsible AI. "We have a level of maturity in rolling out artificial intelligence programs across our firms," Sakthivel said. "What we lack clearly is focusing on the three to five clear winners in terms of AI programs that we should pursue, and making sure that we can explain those AI models clearly and have a level of transparency."

In a survey of companies, LIMRA and McKinsey found that two-thirds of respondents described their analytics functions as either "integrated" or having reached a "defined maturity."

However, "across the industry, the use of analytics as a strategic initiative, as a focus area, are still fairly new," Sakthivel said. "Fifty-seven percent of respondents responded that this practice was only established with a clear focus, a clear mission, between two to five years ago. So we still have a ways to go."

Significant opportunities to mutualize solutions for shared data problems. There are opportunities for the industry to come together and find solutions that benefit the entire industry, Sakthivel said. As an example, he pointed to LIMRA's FraudShare program to help thwart account takeover attacks.

In terms of investment levels, the survey found 52% of respondents said their companies are not investing enough in analytics. Another 43% said their companies' investment is "about right."

"It just underscores and shines a spotlight on how much more that we have to capitalize as an industry on artificial intelligence," Sakthivel said.

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.

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