Insurers resorting to use of big data and AI

Insurance companies are resorting to big data and artificial intelligence as they try to enlarge commercial insurance’s coverage and seek to protect themselves from insuring ineligible policyholders.

The insurers are being forced to resort to big data and AI in a bid to mitigate growing risks to their operations from factors like anti-selection and insufficient information on policyholders, according to Shanghai Renascence Insurtech Limited Company.

Anti-selection basically means people acting on known information to gain an advantage to secure an insurance policy without telling the truth about themselves or their pre-existing medical conditions to the insurers.

Accident insurance, critical diseases insurance and medical insurance are under great pressure and better pricing strategies underpinned by effective risk control and more precise profiling of the would-be insured are necessary, said Xing Jing, chief executive officer of the insurance technology startup during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.

Insurers therefore need to rely on big data and technologies to improve their capability of catching possible risks in insuring certain people. Insurtech companies will be able to support the insurance firms in this regard since they have accumulated massive data on people’s behavior, social networking and life habits.

“We are launching more innovative and tailor-made life insurance products together with the industry players, aiming to get more people covered and deliver more tangible benefits for the policyholders,” Xing said.