Technology - changing the status quo

Digitalisation is unstoppable and it is happening at a speed that we have not seen before. New technologies, such as IoT, robotics, artificial intelligence , blockchain, and big data, offer endless possibilities of change the way we live, work and communicate. Undoubtably, technology will be a fundamental part of most people's jobs in the future, with everyone, at all levels, needing much more advanced technological capability, compared to today. Specialist skills in data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, human-centric interactions and information security will be among those most in demand.

Talking of insurance business, machine learning and artificial intelligence will play an important role in claims assessment but can never dislodge the need for human expertise in my view. I see machines being able to assess a large percentage of claims but they would be handling the standard types that allow for straight-through processing, and thus allow humans to focus on the remaining 20% of claims which are complex and will definitely require human expertise. While acknowledging that AI will likely result in lower headcount in claims, AI will actually be used more as tool for ‘Augmented Intelligence’ as it is meant to enhance the ability of humans to perform their jobs better rather than a switch to automation. Machine will learns from interaction with humans and build predictive data and then identify outliers, but it will be the human experts who are the final authority on how the claims should be settled. The use of machines will be a phased approach and human experts will have to continually input adjustments into the machine which it will recognise and learn, and over the long run there will be greater convergence but it can never totally replace human expertise.

What do you think ?