Blog: Brokers don’t need to fear artificial intelligence but should consider embracing its benefits

We know the ever-changing technology landscape can be daunting for brokers to navigate. After all, their focus is on their customers and they aren’t meant to be experts in apps, APIs or artificial intelligence.

Technology is never going to replace the broker but brokers should harness it to help them do more for their customers, save time and, ultimately, improve the bottom line.

However, to do their business well, brokers need to be comfortable staying on top of evolving technological capabilities, and this is where a software partner can really show its value.

It’s important to point out, before we dig into the detail, that technology is never going to replace the broker. Instead, brokers should harness technology and use it as a weapon in their arsenal to help them do more for their customers, grow more quickly, save time, pass a cleaner book to insurers and, ultimately, improve the bottom line.

There is a world of opportunity out there.

GenAI

The current technology buzz phrase is generative AI (GenAI). This might not mean very much to the broker community. Most people only have experience of playing around with ChatGPT or using image generation apps. These can be amusing and diverting and, in some cases, educational, but it can be hard to understand how they might be applied to insurance.

As tech experts, we can see many applications for the technology that makes GenAI possible. And, in insurance, there are many ways brokers can take advantage of its powers.

One thing GenAI is really good at is summarising long, drawn-out documents. At Open GI, we are helping partner brokers to get an instant summary of a policyholder’s position. The tool, already live on our Mobius PAS platform, kicks into action behind the scenes when a customer calls up, and summarises their history and policies quickly for the agent who answers the phone.

This means the agent can get to the heart of the matter quickly, and the customer doesn’t have to be on the phone as long while the broker trawls through their policy records.

Document Intelligence

There’s also the potential for a tool called Document Intelligence, which is really interesting. Brokers and insurers often have data stored in a variety of formats. Sometimes this is in the form of scanned documents that are recognised by data storage as images – this means the system can’t read the words on the images.

This is where Document Intelligence can come in handy. Say, for example, a customer has stated they have 10 years’ no-claims bonus at quote. The technology can scan, and crucially read, the documents to verify that claim or quickly highlight any discrepancy.

Catching innocent errors like that early benefits the policyholder, insurer and broker. In the past, brokers would have had to check the documents by eye, which is time-consuming and takes them away from more complex or lucrative tasks.

There’s a lot more to say about AI, but it isn’t the only type of technology that can help brokers.

Machine learning

The potential for machine learning and large language models is huge. We all know data is the lifeblood of the industry, and these models help us to analyse it in new and improved ways and to answer questions in a way we haven’t before.

Machine Learning Programs, which is part of Open GI, has developed a number of models to help brokers; some help them work out how likely a customer is to claim, while others help them to spot potential fraudsters – and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It is easy to see how insurers would welcome business from brokers who have already analysed the customer using a fine-tuned level of insight, an increased number of data points and enhanced modelling, all of which have proven to offer a material impact on the insurer’s COR.

These examples show how technology can help brokers free up intellectual capital in their business to focus on service, customers and growth.

There’s no way any of these tools can replace the empathy or skill of a human, but what they can do is speed up simple processes, save brokers time and, in some cases, support them to make more accurate decisions.

Open GI’s head of R&D Peter Hunter will be presenting at the Broker Expo at Birmingham NEC on 10 October, speaking about ‘How can brokers realise the value of Generative AI?’ To sign up to attend click here.