Underwriters plan rapid AI ramp-up to cut admin and sharpen risk assessment

Around 70% of underwriters surveyed by professional services firm Accenture expect their work to be affected by artificial intelligence (AI) within three years. Yet, only 14% are currently using AI.

“We have been doing research like this for 18 years and we’ve never seen underwriters embrace a new technology like this,” says Matthew Madsen, MD and Global Lead for Insurance Operations Transformation at Accenture. The firm surveyed 430 senior underwriters across life, commercial P&C, and personal P&C insurers in 11 countries. Underwriters plan to use AI to improve data quality, reduce admin, enhance risk assessment, speed up submission intake, and modernize policy platforms.

Alongside the surge in AI demand, underwriting is also being transformed by increasing regulatory complexity, rising customer expectations, looming talent shortages, and rising pressure on insurers to grow, says Madsen.

“Underwriters told us there are three factors that will drive investments in their firms: ease of doing business, underwriting quality and talent.”

Madsen was speaking at a recent online event hosted by the Qorus Insurance Community. The event, which included speakers from AXA, Securian Canada, and Canadian insurtech Foxquilt, examined how AI and automated workflows are changing risk assessment, decision-making, and pricing.

Key takeaways:

• Underwriters expect AI to affect 70% of their work within three years, even though only 14% use it today.
• Underwriters plan to use AI to improve data quality, reduce admin, enhance risk assessment, speed up submission intake, and modernize policy platforms.   
• Increasing regulatory complexity, rising customer expectations, looming talent shortages, and rising pressure on insurers to grow are also driving change in underwriting.
• AXA is moving beyond pilots by inserting AI into broker submission ingestion, guideline checks, contract comparison, and selected risk factor detection.
• Securian Canada’s AI guardrails cover privacy, explainability, fairness, and bias controls, delivered through a simple customer experience.
• Foxquilt’s automated workflow aims to rate, quote, and bind a policy within five minutes and its best time is two minutes and 14 seconds.
  
  

Half the executives polled at the event confirmed their companies are actively transforming their underwriting while 28% reported their firms are partially modernized. Others have yet to start transforming their underwriting.

Check out the event highlights!