Briefing: How UKGI should respond as AI becomes more popular with consumers

During a recent interview I did with Bridgetech group chief executive Matthew Porter, he highlighted to me how the uptake around artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbots is continuing to grow.

The article I was speaking to Porter about focused on how technology is being used to help vulnerable customers – an important consideration following the introduction of the FCA’s Consumer Duty rules in 2023 and the regulator ringfencing those in vulnerable circumstances as a demographic to be particularly aware of here.

Porter told me that his firm had created an animated video that aims to help customers through the claims journey. The software company had also deployed an AI powered chatbot.

He believes there are “communities that really want to talk on the phone and there are communities that really don’t” – for him, this means the uptake of AI-backed tools “has been extraordinary” and “is just growing and growing and growing”.

Porter added: “The AI powered chatbots are getting smarter and smarter over time. As the chatbots and technology grows, develops and gets better, it is seeing uptake.”

Phone vs AI

I found these comments to be very interesting given how often the importance of being able to talk to someone over the phone is stressed when it comes to providing high quality customer service.

Research conducted in 2023 by technology advisor Ensono, which surveyed 500 UK insurance customers, proved this perception, finding that 56% of respondents prefer to speak to someone over the phone about their insurance.

I too would prefer to speak to someone over the phone – whenever I renew my home and motor policies, for example, I make sure to call instead of handling things online.

However, as Porter highlighted, the uptake around AI powered propositions is starting to grow. June 2025 research from insurance software provider Guidewire confirmed his take, revealing that the number of customers who are comfortable with AI deciding their policy price without human intervention rose from 31% in 2024 to 37% in 2025.

Similarly, the survey’s UK respondents saw more customers being happy for AI to assist human call handlers in answering questions – with 39% agreeing with this statement today compared with 30% the prior year.

Time for change

However, challenges remain in technology adoption across the UK general insurance sector.

For example, according to Direct Commercial Limited’s (DCL) latest Broker Barometer, published in September 2025, 68% of brokers feel that providers are not fully utilising technology to streamline claims, directly leading to drags on communication effectiveness.

Technology adoption has also been an issue for brokers. Speaking at the Chartered Insurance Institute’s Shaping the Future of Insurance: Innovation and Impact conference on 1 October 2025, Phil Williams, Clear Group’s group chief commercial officer and managing director of retail, explained that there are “three and a half times more global use cases for insurer implementations of AI than for broker implementations of AI”.

This topic was also highlighted during Insurance Times’ first TechTalk Live event – a roundtable held on 16 July 2025 at London’s 14 Hills restaurant, in association with insurer Hiscox – with participants flagging that insurers are using AI far more than brokers.

Jason Cohen, executive director at Specialist Risk Group owned broker Hamilton Leigh, said: “There [are] brokers that are using it for documentation, production and maybe some marketing stuff. I don’t see loads of brokers adopting it at [a] large scale.”

On the flip side, research from insurance technology provider RDT showed that optimism for AI-backed propositions is high, with a strong consensus among respondents that the industry will adopt AI in a manner that benefits customers.

Published in June 2025, the data showed that 34% of respondents were very confident that this aforementioned scenario would be the case, with a further 40% feeling confident – only 26% of respondents rated their confidence as neutral or less.

So, given the increased demand for AI propositions, it feels that now is the time for firms to move to a system where human employees and AI collaborate closely – a hybrid if you like.

I feel human interaction is important and a valued part of the insurance process, but given how times are changing, having AI do some operations all under the control of humans seems to be the way forward now.