AI adoption may rely on overcoming misconceptions, Equisoft exec says

Misconception may be half the battle when it comes to getting more of the insurance industry to embrace AI, according to Brian Carey, VP of Insurance Solutions Engineering and digital solutions provider Equisoft.

“One of the big challenges was getting over some of the misconceptions about AI, and really how you do that is you put the tool in people’s hands. Once we did this, we started a pilot program to roll it out and we got people interested,” Carey said in an interview with Insurance News Net.

Equisoft just recently announced a partnership with Anthropic’s Claude, one of the most popular AI tools alongside others such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.

Carey explained that a hands-on approach worked for them, where they started with focusing on initial use cases to show how AI could improve workflows then building traction from there. And now, AI has become an “indispensible” part of their entire global operations — whether it’s project managers, business analysts, developers or more.

“What we tried to do is focus on some initial use cases and gain traction because, yes, you can have people become literate in this technology, but you also have to get them to use it at the same time. That could be a challenge at some companies, or even with some people, because they may not know when it makes sense to use AI,” he said.

And the only way to make that connection, Carey added, is “to just get your hands on it.”

“If you don’t know how something works with AI, you ask it and it helps you. That’s really what we’ve been trying to do throughout this entire year is get people interested, get their hands on it, increase adoption, increase literacy and then start integrating it into our processes,” Carey noted.

Fully-incorporated AI

Equisoft fully adopted the Claude platform in September of last year, after the company had been searching for “a safe, secure and capable way for employees to learn AI, get their hands on it and make sure they’re adding value.”

“It’s become indispensable for us across our organization — and these are not just in our consultants in the company, but it’s any other type of horizontal function in the company. So, for example, in our marketing department, the team has gotten an opportunity to work on this. People in our finance department, maybe legal, whatever that might be, where are there opportunities for people to use this tool to help them?” Carey said.

He also said the company conducts surveys throughout the year on how staff are adjusting to AI, and the feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive for people.”

“The biggest thing that stands out to me is time saved. The amount of time that’s saving people to do work, maybe taking some of these repetitive tasks that they’re working on off the table so they can focus their mind on more strategic things. There’s certainly opportunities everywhere, and the list is growing on a daily basis,” he said.

Equisoft hasn’t just stopped there. They’ve also integrated Claude into the software they’re building for insurance clients, looking at what the AI opportunities are from an insurance standpoint and how it can allow them to focus on “things like underwriting claims, suitability, commissions, things that maybe historically have been long running or error-prone.”

Misconceptions and value

Despite what Carey describes as the huge potential of AI to improve workflows for insurance businesses, he acknowledged that misconception remains a significant hurdle to overcome.

“Definitely some of the biggest hurdles that we’ve had, and we still have, is getting over some of these misconceptions about AI. People think that the act of prompting the model is training the model. That’s not how it works, and there are so many little misconceptions that you have to get people over these hurdles before they can really jump into these tools and start benefiting from them,” he said.

To this end, he added that Equisoft has put “a fair amount” of effort into education this year. This includes having Anthropic come in and provide training to their staff to help proliferate the AI technology, address some of the most common misconceptions and build up basic prompting skills.

But on the other side of misconception and training is demonstrating how AI can provide value to insurance providers.

“A lot of insurance companies are still hesitant to release customer-facing AI. The jury’s not out; the technology’s there. The solution that we brought to market is really gonna be addressing this… But, I think, really for new technologies to take root, it’s showing value,” he said.

He used the example of NIGO processing, suggesting that if insurance companies can see how AI can help improve those workflows, it will also help them incorporate technology across internal processes.

“From an insurance standpoint, all the possibilities are there. The customer interest is growing and we’re seeing a lot of increased activity. I think it’s the carriers who need to get this technology in front of the agents and show them what problems are you solving with it and how is it making their lives easier,” Carey said.

Equisoft is a global provider of digital solutions in the life insurance and annuities space. It was founded in 1994 and is based out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

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