Early adopters of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools are working hard to employ the technology, which can help insurers innovate, enhance customer experience and boost internal business efficiencies. At the same time, they are carefully containing the potential risks of this new technology.
Executive Summary
For a multinational insurance company like Zurich Insurance Group, which can find itself delivering large, complex policies in multiple languages to a single international customer, there's a logical use case for Gen AI's large language models in providing consistency across markets. But that's just one of the ways in which the global insurer has deployed $1.8 billion in technology investments to improve customer experience and efficiency. Zurich says it's using more than 160 AI-powered solutions to help transform the entire insurance value chain.During a recent media event, executives described a suite of APIs, Zurich eXchange 2.0, allowing the company to seamlessly scale Gen AI solutions—such as coverage checks, policy comparisons and claims insights—to boost internal efficiencies and to offer services and embedded insurance products externally.
Tech executives at Zurich Insurance Group recently described their “digital transformation journey,” which embraces AI and Gen AI tools while putting in place all the necessary safeguards—to protect their customers and themselves.
Ericson Chan, group chief information and digital officer for Zurich Group, said the company’s business digitization enabled some of Zurich’s record profit in 2023 of $7.4 billion with a “very good combined ratio of 94.5.”
During a recent tech media roundtable, Chan said that Zurich is “leading in AI usage” in the insurance industry, is “definitely an early adopter” and is already “realizing benefits.”
“Over the last three years, Zurich has invested $1.8 billion in technology, mostly focused on digitalizing the business and improving efficiency and customer experience,” according to Zurich in its 2023 annual report.
As a result of Zurich’s digital investments, Chan said, almost 90 percent of its retail distribution is digitized, providing straight-through quotations, for example. Zurich said it is using more than 160 AI-powered solutions to help transform the entire insurance value chain.
