Will AI displace jobs in commercial insurance broking?

Will AI displace jobs in commercial insurance broking?

The pace at which AI technology is developing is accelerating exponentially. Regulators and business leaders are struggling to keep up with the pace of change and the potential impacts to their communities and businesses.

The fear of job losses within insurance due to artificial intelligence is a growing concern for many. However, having worked in client facing roles at technology companies for the last 15 years I strongly believe that AI is not here to replace jobs in insurance broking but to enhance the abilities of brokers, underwriters, account handlers and claims assessors – leading to greater value and better outcomes for customers.

The purpose of commercial insurance is to protect businesses from risk. Business owners need to build trust with their broker in order to get the reassurance they need about protecting their business in a rapidly evolving world of risks. Building trust and providing reassurance are fundamentally human endeavours which will become more important in an increasingly uncertain world with many seeing AI as introducing new risks not taking them away!

AI can analyse huge data sets in a fraction of the time it takes a human to do the same analysis but it is the surfacing of these insights at the correct moment in time which will enable better quality broking where the humans take the insights and overlay them with the businesses complex circumstances and very human and hard to analyse risk appetite. So AI should be thought about as a powerful tool in providing more comprehensive insurance solutions for clients and not as something which will displace jobs. There are intrinsic aspects of the human emotions and relationships that AI cannot replicate. The empathy, experience and expertise brokers bring helps to build emotional connection with business owners that cannot be replaced by algorithmic analysis.

A businesses complex circumstances must be taken into consideration during a conversation about risk. Insurance conversations between business owners and brokers often involves addressing what happens in the worst-case scenario, and it is trust that enables clients to be open about the fears and concerns they have about their business. Risk appetite amongst business owners will vary wildly depending on their circumstances and good brokers will take their clients appetite for risk taking into consideration when arranging specialist and discretional cover.

At Recorder, we believe AI technology will be a powerful tool for humans which delivers greatest value when it is designed and built to empower its users (i.e. brokers, underwriters and account handlers) not replace them. We are developing Recorders platform to act as a co-pilot to our broker clients, enabling them to offer even better services to their clients. Recorders technology automates data entry using APIs which avoids tedious re-keying for both clients and brokers. It can also analyse financial statements, compliance data and existing policy documents assisting brokers in suggesting the most suitable insurance packages to meet clients' needs and budgets.

Recorders mission is to increase the adoption and efficiency of  insurance for small businesses. And we believe the best way to do this is to reduce the amount of admin for brokers so that they can spend time building high trust relationships in order to get the best possible understanding of the clients needs and then use the rich and structured data captured in Recorder to arrange the best value cover with carriers.

Recorder has been testing a beta version of its first product with 15 brokers over the last 3 months – so far the feedback has been really positive on achieving our goals of reducing data entry and re-keying for both clients and brokers throughout the process of putting cover in place. Clients are able to submit their information online via a broker branded webform, brokers are instantly notified when the client has submitted their data and can arrange time to discuss things with the client before pre-populating their presentation to the market or proposal form using the data received via Recorder without the need to re-key it.

We are looking forward to officially launching Recorder at BIBA in Manchester on the 15th of May. The best thing about Recorder's first product is that it will be completely free for brokers! Please come by and see us at stand A80 on Wednesday or Thursday or at our ‘AI in Insurance’ networking drinks at Dukes 92 from 5pm on 15th – please register for the networking event here so we have an idea of numbers.