From Pilots to Scale-Ups: Implementing AI in Insurance
During a “power lunch” discussion at the 2025 Insurtech Insights Europe conference, industry experts explored the real-world value of generative AI (GenAI) in the insurance sector. Laura Drabik of Guidewire led the conversation with Tom Wilde, CEO of Indico Data, and Terry Buechner, global insurance core systems lead at AWS. They examined where AI is currently adding value and where its potential is being overhyped.
The Scale of Disruption: AI’s Impact on the Insurance Landscape
Wilde highlighted GenAI’s disruptive potential, noting the significant number of software engineers globally. He explained that GenAI has empowered individuals to become programmers, which has profound implications. The key challenge, according to Wilde, is how to control this technology to ensure it’s used effectively within an insurance company, especially when modifying crucial areas like pricing models.
One key question is how to harness this technology in the right way, ensuring proper controls are in place.
AI’s Strengths and Limitations
According to Wilde, GenAI excels in areas such as summarization, including summarizing underwriting and claims models with impressive results. He also highlighted the breakthrough of turning unstructured data, like underwriting guidance, into a programmatic endpoint, allowing software to interact directly with documents.
Buechner emphasized AI’s ability to ingest and summarize documents at scale, which he sees as particularly valuable in transforming document-intensive processes like claims and underwriting. He mentioned that AI is well-suited for the claims space, including verifying IDs in the first-notification-of-loss process and providing first-call resolution.
He emphasized the capacity of AI to ingest and summarize documents at scale.
“There’s still the need there for a person to be involved,”
Buechner anticipates a few more years before fully-automated underwriting becomes a reality, particularly in commercial lines. “There’s still the need there for a person to be involved, for human judgements and the experience that comes with being in the insurance industry for many years. But it’s a very fast-moving area so that may change. But it’s not going to change overnight.” added Buechner.
Moving Beyond Proof of Concept
Drabik referenced Deloitte research, revealing that 76% of insurers have implemented GenAI in at least one business function. However, she noted that only 15% have effectively scaled these initiatives, making it difficult for companies to receive the full benefits. Buechner presented a Boston Consulting Group study, indicating that only 26% of surveyed companies have the necessary capabilities to go beyond proof of concept and generate tangible value.
To scale up, Buechner advises focusing on projects that leverage GenAI’s strengths. He suggested defining clear goals, measurable success factors, and a “test-and-learn” culture, which is not always present in traditional insurance operations. “Build in that culture of test-and-learn where, not only do we build upon the capabilities [unlocked] by starting small and building upwards from there, but we’re also able to pull back if it’s not working because the technology has changed or the regulations have changed. We have to be able to scale up when something is working well but also to scale back down when it isn’t.”
