The insurance coverage trade in Kenya is progressively shifting in the direction of the brand new age of synthetic intelligence (AI) expertise in an try to enhance their companies.
With the emergence of ideas corresponding to machine studying and generative AI (GenAI), insurers are leveraging expertise to higher gauge dangers, fight fraud, and supply tailored pricing alongside a variety of different functions.
In Kenya, Prudential Insurance coverage is among the many newest to hop on the bandwagon after partnering with Google Cloud final month to develop an AI lab designed to speed up the underwriter’s adoption of machine studying and GenAI.
In a press release following the deal, Prudential stated the lab will present a sandbox setting and course of for its staff to develop scalable AI merchandise and functions, together with entry to main language fashions, superior and safe GenAI, knowledge analytics and end-to-end cloud supply.
Earlier in April this yr, medical insurance expertise platform M-Tiba introduced the mixing of AI into its claims processing system, a growth aimed toward lowering the wait time for approvals to lower than 12 hours.
The agency additionally aimed to make use of the expertise, significantly machine studying fashions, to enhance effectivity and arrest fraud, which it stated would scale back administrative and medical prices for medical insurance suppliers, finally serving to them to supply extra inexpensive insurance coverage merchandise to their purchasers.
This got here months after Jubilee Insurance coverage introduced in June final yr that it had lined up Sh2.25 billion to be expended on digital transformation, together with investing in robotics, AI, and knowledge analytics because it sought to roll out customised covers and enhance service supply.
However how precisely does the usage of AI smoothen up insurance coverage operations?
Apollo Group CEO Ashok Shah, in a column printed within the Enterprise Each day in March, stated that AI is more and more turning into a strong device within the struggle towards insurance coverage fraud, which has bedevilled the sector for years as policyholders attempt to money in on dishonest claims.
“By way of superior analytics and sample recognition, machine studying algorithms can establish anomalies and irregularities in claims knowledge. This not solely helps stop fraudulent claims but in addition streamlines the claims course of for real policyholders,” he said.
“By lowering fraudulent actions, insurers can improve their profitability and preserve extra aggressive premium charges,” Mr Shah added.
His sentiments are echoed by Chrisantus Khulabe, the senior supervisor, knowledge analytics and digital forensics at PwC Kenya, who says that automated system controls built-in with different third-party programs might help detect fictitious claims by evaluating claims knowledge with different sources corresponding to historic knowledge, coverage info and public data from regulators and different establishments to establish inconsistencies.
“Automated programs can accumulate a number of knowledge factors and assist in detecting staged accidents or intentional accidents by analysing declare knowledge towards elements corresponding to location, sort of injury, medical studies, distinctive motor options in addition to the variety of passengers concerned to establish any suspicious patterns,” stated Mr Khulabe in acolumn within the Enterprise Each day in June.
Along with curbing fraud, as Fred Ruoro, CIC Basic Insurance coverage managing director, notes, embracing digitisation will current insurers with an enormous capability to succeed in beforehand underserved or untapped markets.
With AI’s capacity to analyse huge quantities of information from a number of sources, insurers can now make data-driven choices in real-time which might, in flip, allow them to develop personalised insurance coverage choices that cater for the distinctive wants and dangers confronted by native policyholders.
“By harnessing expertise, insurance coverage corporations can prolong their attain to everybody from city to distant areas and supply micro-insurance merchandise tailor-made for folks within the low-income bracket,” observes MrRuoro in a commentary.
Nonetheless, for expertise and the attendant digitisation efforts to bear the supposed consequence within the sector, Mr Ruoro says it’ll require a concerted effort from all stakeholders, arguing that insurance coverage corporations have to be keen to put money into expertise infrastructure and expertise growth to construct the capabilities essential to drive the transformation.
“Collaboration between underwriters and trade gamers is crucial to foster innovation and drive the adoption of recent applied sciences, this may create an enabling setting to not solely enhance the uptake of insurance coverage options, but in addition improve effectivity which can profit entities inside the ecosystem,” he added.
