Verisk Q&A: Digital transformation in life insurance, ethical AI

October 21, 2021 7:15 AM

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Digital Insurance spoke with Maroun Mourad, president of global underwriting and leader of the life unit at Verisk about life insurance technology and what’s ahead for the industry.

The following responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Q: Can you speak about how life insurance fits in at Verisk?

Maroun Mourad

Verisk

A: We got into the life insurance space about 3 1/2 years ago through organic and inorganic efforts.

On the organic front we used solutions such as voice-based smoker detection and avocation models, EHR-triage engines, fraud detection, as well as mortality and morbidity models.

On the M&A front, we acquired a few companies. FAST Technology--the name stands for flexible architecture and simplified technology. It is a leader in low / no-code and we hope it will keep leading the way in helping insurers transform their businesses.

Q: What kind of technology will be used?

A: I expect to see more AI and machine learning to be used across the policy lifecycle including mid-term adjustments and self-servicing. No consumer should have to fill out a form and we should be able to do all self-servicing.

I see more partnerships between insurtechs and legacy companies as insurtechs are complementary to the overall insurance industry itself. Traditionally, for example, it took about 60 days to underwrite a policy but because of insurtech technology that’s accelerating.

We are seeing, on a micro level, how the economy has shifted especially related to the labor force and the gig economy. People want benefits and to be more portable as opposed to being tied to an employer for insurance benefits.

Q: What’s the role of ethics in AI?

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Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

A: This is an important topic. Verisk has been serving the P&C insurance industry for the last 50 years. We have been collaborating with regulators for five decades and are trusted data stewards by our customers.

Ethical AI is a topic we debate in areas like responsible handling of data, data security, tokenization and encryption.As well as preventing the misuse of data to avoid discriminatory practices and outcomes.

We are in the middle of the conversations and we have a lot of solutions that have been applied. But we have to be mindful of and insistent about receiving consumer permissions before using the data.

Q: What's ahead for the industry?

A: There are a lot of models and algorithms being developed by plenty of smart people right now. The trick is to make sure the companies are good data stewards, handle data security properly and obtain the necessary permissions before applying the data and models to solving real insurance problems. That requires insurtechs and their teams to have deep insurance domain expertise in addition to data analytic and tech expertise.

I believe the industry realizes consumer expectations and demands are shifting. But it’s important for insurers to partner with insurtechs so they can deliver on those enhanced customer experiences.

Consumers are enabling the transformation, they want to be engaged in traditional and non-traditional ways. They want insurers to know when something happens and they’re willing to share personal data to have a better and a more tailored experience.