Yet another survey-based report about the use of AI by insurers flitted into my inbox this week. It came from the fintech AutoRek, and surprised me slightly because it led off with something I’ve written about here often.

“Insurers are accelerating AI exploration and M&A activity, but most lack the operational foundations to support meaningful scale,” the company declared, based on its survey. “Although 82% [of 250 respondents] believe AI will shape the industry’s future, only 14% have fully integrated it into financial operations.”

So far, so pleasing for a morning’s emails. Then I read another which included some words about AI from Chubb Chief Evan Greenberg. I was again refreshingly surprised, this time because when it comes to AI, Evan is clearly a guy who gets it.

His annual epistle to shareholders has grown far beyond our market’s standard vaguely gloating (or faintly apologetic) explanation of the previous year’s results. This year’s Letter from Evan is a 15-page, Buffettesque analysis of Chubb’s performance, its markets, and the future.

(Before you paint me as a fully-fledged, paid up member of the Evan Greenberg fan club, and before I praise his thoughts on Artificial Intelligence, I have to admit that I don’t agree with everything in his annual statement. I found his observations about MGAs particularly simplistic. For the record, he claims that backing “managing general agents is a bad bet in the majority of cases.” Maybe he placed too many chips on the wrong horses.)

Now for the praise. When it comes to understanding the implementation of AI, and its true possibilities and benefits for underwriting, the letter shows that Mr. G has landed very much more precisely than most insurance CEOs. He has a clear vision of how “AI will shape the industry’s future,” to use AutoRek’s words, and knows what to do to make it real. I find it particularly refreshing that someone at his level has so clearly grasped the obvious implications of AI on our sector, and has put a sensible process in place to drive it forward within his organisation.

He writes that Chubb’s “tech-, data- and AI-driven enterprises” support “increased insight, speed and efficiency in all aspects of the underwriting and claims processes, as well as deeper insights into risk – leading to better underwriting and pricing precision, improved customer experience, wider distribution and marketing capabilities, and new market opportunities.”

Greenberg’s comment that Chubb plans to cut headcount “significantly” due to AI implementation has attracted the lion’s share of attention to the tech-focussed paragraphs of his letter. But it’s the bit in between that is most interesting to me.

He says: “For us, the real story is the coming together of AI (algorithmic and large language models) with foundational technology, data, and process reengineering to automate and transform the organization, business by business, at a deeply granular level.”

To do that, he writes, Chubb deployed a variety of tech talent to work closely with people on the front line “who know intimately how the business works and what’s required for change… It is iterative, gritty work. It takes time and sustained focus – hard yards. We believe it is the only path to harnessing the real power of a digital age in a large, established company.”

Four things come out of this.

1. To take advantage of AI at a level that allows you to lose a significant portion of your workforce, processes must also be re-engineered from the ground up.
2. It’s not going to happen overnight.
3. This isn’t a job for the IT department. It is a process that involves everyone, at least a little bit, and needs their buy-in.
4. It’s going to be difficult.

Evan Greenberg has summed up my thoughts about AI for insurance very well. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Perhaps he has been reading Insurance Technology Digest in Reuters The Insurer!

Guillaume Bonnissent is CEO of Quotech.