The main benefit of AI will be to redirect insurance employees from administration to work that requires specialist expertise and judgment, helping improve customer retention, Accenture says.

AI is delivering measurable gains for insurers, the consultancy says, with 81% reporting at least a 5% improvement in gross written premiums from data and AI initiatives, and 86% of employees finding AI tools increase their productivity. 

Underwriters spend about 40% of their time on administrative and other non-core tasks. 

Accenture says AI can allow them to focus more on assessing complex risks and pursuing new business by quickly extracting information from submission documents, assembling relevant data and present it in a useful format. 

For claims and customer service staff, AI can summarise information and identify policy details so routine customer enquiries can be handled more efficiently.  

The result should be more time for employees to deal with complex claims and sensitive customer interactions, Accenture says. 

So far, only 23% of insurers have achieved enterprise-wide AI integration, and most report AI skills gaps. 

Accenture says insurers should identify where employees lose time, customers experience delays, and manual processes impede decision-making. 

"The next phase should not be about deploying AI everywhere simply because the technology is available. Instead, insurers should begin by identifying the specific problem they want to solve,” insurance lead Alex Acworth says.

See Analysis.