The human loop is essential to adopting new technologies and insurers will have to understand their employees’ artificial intelligence (AI) IQ when implementing changes, Health & Protection’s IPMI breakfast briefing has heard.
The audience also agreed that AI will not be a silver bullet and needs to be implemented alongside an insurer’s existing systems to be effective.
WTW managing director and head of technology consulting for the UK and Ireland Algirdas Dineika emphasised that no matter if it is the organisation or the technology within it, AI will not be effective without the human element.
“Interoperability remains critical. AI technologies and providers will need to integrate themselves into existing technology ecosystems,“ Dineika (pictured) said.
“Adoption will depend on humans not being afraid to use agentic AI, and organisations will need employees who are comfortable working alongside these systems.
“Increasingly business users will become technology aware people,” he added.
Human feedback loop
And people will continue to play a central role in the evolution of AI through a critical “feedback loop”.
“AI technology is evolving at unprecedented speed. The feedback that goes from the real-world usage back into the technology companies about what works and what does not is unprecedented,” Dineika continued.
“Everyone is feeding back the use cases, applications, the success stories and the failures.”
Companies then use that information to improve their systems.
“The feedback loop is the critical element that will continue to evolve AI at a very rapid pace,” Dineika said.
“This continuous feedback cycle is a key driver of AI’s rapid evolution, with new applications emerging almost every month.”
Guardrails
However, attendees also highlighted that people will not just operate AI systems; they will also govern them to protect an organisation.
“It is the guardrails you put around the deployment of AI; AI is not infallible, it is hackable,” said Janette Hiscock, chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa at UnitedHealthcare Global.
“It is not a silver bullet; it is knowing what you are using it for, ringfencing that and having the guardrails.
“What we are learning about is that human loop because of fears around the whole subject of ‘Oh, my God. AI is replacing everyone.’
“Somebody still has to hold those guardrails and hold it accountable,” Hiscock added.
“That learning piece is massive for us as an insurer, specifically of what is the role of the human loop in that.”
The right stuff
With people being crucial to the effectiveness of AI, what skills do they need as business models change?
“When we talk about AI deployment in an organisation, transformational skills are just as important as the actual technical capabilities,” Dineika said.
And people need to work on developing what Dineika calls their AI IQ.
“AI is a new technology that can achieve great results if people know how to use it effectively, and employees’ AI IQ will be a determining factor in AI adoption,” he added.
Joanne Buckle, principal and consulting actuary for healthcare at Milliman, said: “AI is moving faster than our capacity to keep up with what it already can do, let alone what it can do next week and the week after.
“Unless your organisation is full of people who love change and run screaming towards it, then it’s hard to see how you get them along that journey.”
Buckle said that a lot of people will not be made redundant by AI, but they will find it difficult to adapt to the speed of change and will fall behind very quickly.
“So how do you bring those people along [the journey]?” she added.
For Hiscock, not everybody has to be a “technologist”, but they have to feel part of the journey.
“Culturally and from a leadership perspective, my job is to make everybody feel inclusive because it is happening.
“We are part of a much bigger ecosystem,” she added.
