Adaptability

December edition (looking at November), 2023

Artificial Ignorance

A well covered topic of late, but I still see a distinct lack of maturity out there. James Yerkess came over and had a chat with me at Insurance Innovators and mentioned that he'd heard a really good question on stage: is your AI proprietary or open source? The real issue is not many executives expousing its virtues could answer this seemingly simple question. And given the typical insurance stance on public or open use of data, it's an important one for sure! And I now ask regularly "what do you mean when you say AI?", usually to be disappointed with the answer.

The moral, ethical and general human challenges of AI and specifically generative AI, and how we apply it to our world, has increased a lot in the past few years. From the relatively slow start of its conception in the 50s to now where we are seeing an exponential curve of development. With Quantum Supremacy becoming a reality after the theory in the 1980s we have to ask ourselves - have we really thought hard enough about what it all means and how we apply this extraordinary emerging power to our world?

I’m not talking about “Skynet” theories - I’m just talking about our general ability to serve humans and not simply feed our out of date economic models. Will we ensure it’s a force for good? And if yes, then how will we do this?

The good news is there has been a shift recently in AI regulation coming into play, general sensible pushback and concern coming from the C-suite and even companies like Meta and Google have embedded Responsible AI into their organisations. An approach Emma Ann Hughes of Insurance Post and I suggested was something insurers could learn from, click here.

One principle I could offer as an example - not one job should be lost to intelligent machine capability, and that displacement should be a process of real positive intent, re-skilling and applying people to new more valuable tasks.

?Further examples - perhaps we should never outsource our:

• Emotional reasoning?
• Life decisions (the decisions that impact humans should always be by and with the humans impacted)
• Creativity
• Control...

This is a question, and one that is raised in a number of responsible systems and guidelines.

"Not one job should be lost to intelligent machine capability, and that displacement should be a process of real positive intent, re-skilling and applying people to new more valuable tasks."

There are many people and institutions tackling this issue, for example - the UK governement. And it is even covered in principle with the work I've been part of with the bsi. developing standards for Responsible Innovation. And not so long ago Boris Johnson told a half empty room in New York that the UK were going to pioneer AI driven futures. Fortunately Rt Hon Michelle Donelan has put some substance behind this. And it needs to be directed at being part of a reimagined future - so having some idea of what that is might be is a useful starting point. AI applied to a supply chain economic model will often business case best as more productivity, fewer people or resource required proportionally. It expands the pounds and contributes less to the people. The corporate extraction system feeds the few. And very few of those projects typically have a healthy enough investment in managing the bigger opportunity and serve the people better, re-skilling them and freeing the human capital.

In my opinion a new universal code of conduct is needed, and many are emerging across different disciplines, so this could perhaps be a framework of controls across these.

?AI for good means focusing on things like:

• Freeing human capital
• Helping to solve the major issues humanity faces
• Determining solutions to make our most creative ideas happen
• Building a body of powerful thick insight to draw from?
• 7bn+ people and counting - how can we make it work?
• And build trust through the appropriate access and use of OUR data

To name a few.

I am optimistic, there are huge potential benefits in this technology driven revolution. I also see and experience times where people aren't good enough at making sure it's better for people. In my opinion, the current constructs of guidance and “accreditation” isn’t good enough either, and they are far too optional, we have already seen great swathes of automation “displace” humans, and it has a huge negative impact on people (even if this is only "short-term" or "minimal"). In this revolution we need to make sure it doesn't impact people adversely. So, how do we get back control? For now I think it’s an obligation each of us carries, if you are involved in anything AI / automation related you have to ask yourself - does this serve the human cause, does it really help people and have we put in place the necessary measures to help people through the changes this brings?

Prime Perks: Amazon'fy my health please

I got to share my thoughts on ?? Amazon's ?? latest moves with Joanna England and Insurtech Insights. I love a "rundle" (thanks Scott Galloway) and they are clearly providing a lot of value with this offering. That doesn't make it a slam dunk of course. Having said that, the immediate signs look positive. And incumbents should take some time to reflect. ?? And I finally fulfilled a dream and got a mention alongside Margeaux Giles !! ?? Click here.

Podcast: Should insurers fear or embrace AI?

I really enjoyed this session on "fearing or embracing AI in insurance". On the Insurance Post podcast with Emma Ann Hughes and her guests Bijal Patel and Chris Kitchener. ??We cover a lot of ground on a massive topic. Largely concluding that if you get your data cleaned up, build AI capability on top of the right foundations, keep the human in the loop and make sure you're ready to answer questions of accountability once the regulators catch-up it is absolutely something to continue to embrace. ??Listen for more depth. ??https://lnkd.in/eqtbxWDi

GRiD Partnership

We were excited to announce a new partnership. ?? EIS Ltd look to benefit from membership of Group Risk Development (GRiD) and explore the opportunity for net new growth. We passionately believe that our technology, combined with the insight and expertise of the GRiD community, can accelerate and deliver that growth to the benefit of all involved. Click here to read more.

Insurance Innovators Advisory

Roy Jubraj and I had a great time being Chaired by the ever insightful Matt Gilham on stage 3 at Insurance Innovators.

Claims is the "moment of truth" and we got to unpack how to drive transformation success in claims, and cover some of the pitfalls and keys to success. Lots of great interactions afterwards with Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) and others.

The Customer Gap

I was lucky enough to have a thoroughly enjoyable evening with InsTech, skillfully guided by Robin Merttens. Both discussions on and off the stage were hugely valuable. And it was so nice to see so many former colleagues and clients.

The frame EY and Chris Payne introduced on the night provided a clear way of looking at the opportunities we have in this industry. Whilst they were primarily discussed or observed in the context of General Insurance and Life & Healthcare it's clear they apply to most insurance verticals.

Having our shared partners Smart Communications. and being on stage with Mike Bianchi ?? was a great way to ensure we articulated this in customer experience outcomes. And this makes the point that this is also really about creating ecosystems.

And I particularly enjoyed all the other sessions. A great line up and some honest and open dialogue always helps!

Question time: James Russell

esure are on a mission to fix insurance for good. And we are super proud to be enabling this ecosystem, which continues to flourish. ??

Read more from the super smart James Russell on how they are transforming claims. A clue: it's not all about technology. ??

?? “We’re working with Amazon Connect for customer communications and with EIS, as the core back-end administration platform, with Kofax and SmartCOMM – so, a lot of leading tech providers to make sure we’ve got a technology platform that puts us on the best footing possible to support our front-line claims specialists and CX." ??

Podcast: How inflation and the Consumer Duty transformed insurance in 2023

Thank you to Scott McGee and my fellow podders Sarah Ouarbya, Martyn Mathews and Branko Bjelobaba FCII.

We covered a lot of ground. It's clear we all see Consumer Duty as an opportunity and not an obligation. We are in most cases only at the start line of this. Acting on the knowledge insurers have of customers and shaping products, services and experiences needs to continue at pace.

And inflation is driving price increases, but that's not the only factor. Switching appears to be driving shopping behaviour. Inflation in insurance is a long term problem, there's issues with supply, repair networks etc. That all need to be addressed.

Hear why I think we need policy centric insurers need to giveway to customer centric insurers.

Click here. Or for Apply users: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/insurance-post-podcast/id1500569201?i=1000635632697

Transparent Pricing

I also recently bumped into James Hillon who used to be my client in Co-operative Insurance. We discussed how we both still get asked about the innovation we undertook to explain to people their individual pricing. This was a digital experience that ultimately told you how your home or price was being calculated, and even how certain changes (at this time there was a lot of flooding) was being shared across all customers, and so on. Whilst I can't replicate the experience or link to it, there's this nice little video that shows how things can be explained. It just goes to prove, with a little thought these things are possible.

Thanks for reading this newsletter, whenever I see the readership stats I am always incredibly grateful that you took the time.