What Can It Do for Me?

A couple months ago, like so many of us, I began to explore the use of generative AI technology. 

I asked ChatGPT to write a column for me for Leader’s Edge that was both funny and about insurance brokerage mergers and acquisitions, which was the main focus of that month’s magazine.

Before actually opening the tool and navigating its prompts, I was confronted with a mix of emotions. One of those was concern. There were so many unknowns. What would it produce? Could I trust it? How would it change my work? Our industry’s work? And why should we change? Why should I? It’s easy to just throw up your hands in the midst of such a quickly changing technology environment and quietly bow out saying nope, not for me.

But ultimately I felt strongly enough that this generative AI is different, and I plunged in. If you read the result, you saw that it produced a decent summary of M&A with a bit of humor on the side. It wasn’t terribly insightful, but there weren’t any major errors either. If you want a fun surprise, try asking it for suggestions for places to eat locally and tell it not to include Yelp.

While pithy essays and local restaurants are amusing and even slightly helpful, what I’m really interested in is how the insurance industry is going to use this technology. While often slighted for being mired in legacy technology and slow to innovate, the industry has surprised me with its quick interest in generative AI.

We have already seen companies in our ecosystem begin putting it to use. For example, Coalition, which offers active cyber and tech-risk coverage, has launched a generative AI chatbot, which uses Coalition’s own documentation and data to answer brokers’ questions about cybersecurity coverage and best practices. Global TPA Sedgwick is integrating AI capabilities in existing platforms to promote claims document summarization, data classification, and analysis. Another brokerage is working on an underwriting tool that will help with loss control scenarios for clients. (For a deeper dive into these use cases, look for the generative AI feature in next month’s Leader’s Edge.)

But just as we are experimenting with this technology in ways to ease our processes and improve client service, your clients are doing the same—looking for ways to improve their own goods and services. And with this does come new risk—cyber, liability, fraud. Our products and markets will evolve to protect business owners as they always have, ensuring they continue to have a safe space in which to innovate.

No, it’s not perfect yet; I could drive a Mack truck through some of it. But in the end it’s pretty amazing and significant. And continuing to experiment with it and support your clients in their experimentation—that’s the focus of your attention.