we have Conduct regular surveysn underwriting for more than 15 years Understand the status of features and technology—or no—Help it develop. in our latest Report Covered rewritewe ask What percentage of underwriter’s time is spent on non-core tasks. this time, We’re seeing some incremental improvements Year–Exceed–Year comparative for us 2021 Survey but there’s more Compare third of Underwriter’s time spent on non-core Activities such as data collection or management activities.
But more importantly, our 2024 survey overall expresses hope for the future that new automation and AI technologies can help transform the role of underwriting and actually reduce the time spent on non-core tasks.
I’ve been around long enough to remember other waves of new ideas and technologies, such as knowledge management, IoT, and analytics. While each has found a place within the overall insurance business and technology ecosystem, one could argue that none has truly completely transformed the underwriting function. But in my 30-year career, we’ve been conducting industry surveys, and I personally have never seen numbers like this:
Embracing automation and artificial intelligence
According to the above data, as artificial intelligence and automation develop, the percentage of time underwriters spend on non-core tasks will decrease significantly, not just incrementally. Across life, group, individual and commercial lines, insurance executives believe artificial intelligence and automation tools will significantly change underwriting, and do so relatively quickly.
Carriers have been experimenting with these technologies over the past three years, such as through pilots in data collection, data synthesis and underwriting recommendations. While not all of these pilots are likely to be successful, the overall conclusion seems to be that there is reason for optimism this time around in terms of addressing the non-core share of actuarial tasks. In fact, if you’re not already pursuing some kind of AI underwriting-driven strategy, you may already be falling behind, based on our survey.
Here are some key data points from our recent underwriting executive survey:
- 81% of underwriting executives surveyed believe that artificial intelligence and new generations of artificial intelligence will create new roles “to a great extent” or “to a great extent.”
- 65% of executives believe their employees will need to upskill as AI becomes integral to creating new roles and enhancing existing ones.
- 42% of executives believe they need to tap into external talent pools to leverage the technology’s full potential
Empowering AI-led underwriters
Combined with modern automation tools and advanced data ingestion capabilities, AI may be the most transformative force in modern underwriting, balancing efficiency and complexity within a controlled domain. It enables natural language processing to interact with customers and brokers to solve problems and understand requests so they can be routed to the correct solution automation. Advanced decision-making elements and pattern recognition also allow a wider range of self-service requests to be handled without direct intervention. Additionally, AI can orchestrate automation to provide a complete self-service solution.
Let’s be clear: The underwriting role will not disappear, but it will transform as each carrier develops the best ways to blend human and machine decision-making to improve the speed and efficiency of underwriting outcomes.
Your next move as next-generation artificial intelligence augments your workforce
From my perspective, in order to be successful on any AI journey, operators need to consider three things:
- An AI-led strategy lays out plans to leverage these new tools within existing environments. It needs to be rooted in a strong digital core. As AI technology evolves to become more agent-like, underwriters can even further increase their productivity by breaking down workflows and delegating tasks to these AI agents.
- Talent strategies reimagine work and redesign workflows to prepare management teams and underwriting organizations to take full advantage of the new capabilities these solutions offer. A skills-based approach will be key, and at the same time, insurers will need to combine AI integration with process reshaping to ensure responsible AI principles are adhered to at all times.
- A culture that enables exploration and experimentation while protecting core decisions. Insurers may need to take a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach to AI adoption, taking advantage of employees’ willingness and eagerness to experiment with AI.
If you would like to learn more about the Accenture Insurance Underwriting Executive Survey, please browse Covered rewrite Or feel free to contact me directly.
