Large language models can elevate the life insurance customer experience

ChatGPT is one of the hottest technologies on the market. It took the platform only five days to reach 1 million users, a feat that typically takes other technology services months and even years to achieve. The viral popularity of large language models has led the insurance industry to take notice and contemplate how to incorporate it into their operations, determine what benefits it offers and what they should do next.

Numerous potential applications in insurance

Natural language processing models based on generative artificial intelligence, offer human-like communication — making it a natural fit for functions that involve human interaction. It can help cut down on the long wait periods policyholders must endure when trying to speak with a customer representative and it can help streamline the work-delegation process, involving an actual human only when calls get complicated.

Quick answers in customer service

Technology is quickly evolving. Although its applications specific to life insurance are limited — for now — there are still numerous opportunities for it to make a difference. In terms of customer service, ChatGPT can provide quick answers to frequently asked questions about policies, claims processes and coverage details. Additionally, it can be used to guide users through the claims process to help them understand the required documentation, explain claim status updates and provide other general assistance. Like many other technologies, these uses of the program will require some degree of human oversight to ensure everything is running smoothly.

Emerging capabilities like plugins will further expand the potential applications for the life insurance industry

One of the newest developments in ChatGPT has been the development of plugins. Many companies are exploring the implementation of plugins to expand ChatGPT’s functionality, especially since it was trained on outdated information and needs to have some connecting point between the application and the company leveraging the technology.

These plugins allow for customized and expanded functionality and extend ChatGPT’s database of information, thus providing more specific, applicable and curated responses. By using plugins, companies can integrate external systems into ChatGPT, meaning the application can provide context and use real-time data to curate the responses.

The time is now for the life insurance industry to strategize opportunities for leveraging technologies

There always will be new technologies that can revolutionize how things are done across sectors, but the insurance industry should not fail to act on large language models. Life insurers must consider what people and jobs would need to be involved to enable the use of large language models and develop a road map for integration.

One approach life insurers could consider as a short-term priority is developing their own plugins. This can enable large language models to provide more accurate information to policyholders about policy options, give policy selection guidance, assess coverage needs, answer policy-related questions, facilitate policy applications, provide claims support, send payment reminders, and offer financial planning insight.

Although there are multiple ways to approach this, creating special committees or enlisting a third party’s help is worth looking into, especially if developing plugins compatible with ChatGPT’s interface is beyond a company’s scope. Bigger companies might have the resources to develop in-house plugins, but many smaller companies might not have the bandwidth to undertake such a monumental task.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with technology

The best way to understand how large language models work and how they can be leveraged is to actually use them. Testing it out and playing with its capabilities and limitations is invaluable to understand what the technology does and how it works. The basic version of ChatGPT is free to use on any device, but the upgraded version that enables plugins — ChatGPT-4 — comes with a monthly fee.

It’s fine to initially experiment with the basic version, starting small by asking it simple questions. It’s also worth checking out ChatGPT competitors, which includes Google’s BARD and Microsoft’s Bing Chat, as they may also have additional functionalities that ChatGPT doesn’t have.

Monitor developments in large language models and the opportunities they presents

Technology is constantly evolving, and it’s always good to keep an eye out for new developments. By keeping up to date on what new features have been released and how different companies are using large language models, organizations can stay one step ahead of the game. Monitoring the news for developments at various providers to understand new features or versions that build on or improve functions.

As an industry that has traditionally been known for lagging behind, life insurance has an opportunity to do things differently with this emerging technology. Organizations that take a proactive instead of reactive stance to large language models will be well positioned for the future, so it makes sense to investigate the technology and identify the third-party partners who can help maximize its opportunities in the short term.

Olivier Lafontaine is chief product officer at Equisoft. He may be contacted at olivier.lafontaine@innfeedback.com.

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