AI must not distract from insurance’s knowledge loss, says CII chief executive

Artificial intelligence (AI) should not distract the insurance industry from the risk of losing human expertise as experienced professionals retire, according to Charted Insurance Institution (CII) chief executive Matthew Hill. 

Speaking at the CII New Generation Broking Cohort’s Knowledge at Risk: What Happens When Experience Retires? event, Hill said the debate around AI often focused on whether the technology would reduce demand for junior workers.

But he argued the more important question was what role humans would continue to play alongside AI.

“My personal view is that [humans] always will [play a part],” Hill said, arguing that AI should be viewed as a tool to equip people to work more effectively rather than as a replacement for them.

The comments came as the cohort presented research warning that the insurance industry risks losing technical judgement, relationships and institutional memory as experienced professionals leave.

Leadership matters

Hill said some of the most valuable workplace knowledge could not simply be documented.

“Leadership that is unobserved is pointless,” he said, highlighting the importance of junior employees seeing how senior leaders behave and interact.

The cohort’s research similarly found that knowledge is often transferred through informal exposure and “osmosis” rather than formal training.

However, Hill cautioned against treating knowledge transfer as an exercise in preserving established ways of working.

Experienced professionals could carry assumptions about how things should be done, he said, meaning firms must ensure knowledge-sharing does not restrict innovation.