’The key message is that digital is not going to replace humans’, says deputy chief underwriting officer, but will ’improve productivity in the market’
Within the Lloyd’s market, some commentators are concerned that increased usage of digital enhancements – such as artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLM) – might harm face-to-face interactions.
However, these tools “stand to dramatically increase and improve interpersonal relationships”, according to Anthony Shapella, deputy chief underwriting officer at global (re)insurer SiriusPoint.
Shapella told Insurance Times that “the key message” around increasing digitalisation and the onset of more technological tools across the Lloyd’s market is that these are “not going to replace humans”.
He added: ”Digital enhancements are going to make interpersonal interactions far stronger, more effective, with deeper insights in the future.”
Shapella’s comments come after Lloyd’s of London reopened its underwriting room on 18 September 2023 following a two-month closure due to refurbishment work.
The marketplace initially closed its underwriting room on 10 July 2023 so that it could introduce some “much needed improvements”, according to Lloyd’s chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown.
For him, this meant ”identifying where technology can simplify and improve our processes, while freeing brokers and underwriters to provide the expert advice and counsel our customers need in uncertain times”.
In July 2024, a Lloyd’s spokesperson confirmed this perspective, telling Insurance Times: “What underpins the recent transformation of the underwriting room [is] a thoughtful integration of old and new to blend digital transactions with human interactions, artificial intelligence with emotional intelligence and machine learning with learned experience.”
Shapella noted that “if done correctly”, this blend of digital transactions and human interactions can lead to ”higher value conversations based on expertise, risk insight and empirical evidence, all enriched through digital execution”.
Underwriter workloads
Shapella believes that the digital investment Lloyd’s has made to date – and continues to make through its Blueprint Two digital transformation programme – should minimise the “time consuming back and forth on routine data and coverage issues”.
Read: Broker and underwriter footfall at Lloyd’s rises after underwriting room revamp
Read: Blueprint Two’s ‘continual slippage’ in delivery raises market concerns
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He explained: “This includes confirming coverage, checking wordings, assessing whether a claim is valid.
“Instead, the interaction will be focused much more on what needs to be discussed around the risk and underwriting.”
AI, therefore, becomes a useful tool that facilitates high value conversations centred on underwriting – face-to-face interactions can focus on risk mitigation and claims strategies, for example.
Shapella added: “Technology will free up the underwriter from [having to undertake] the more mundane and lower value-add items of data reconciliation, validation and coverage assessment.
“The toolset will allow for much deeper question formulation, more efficient underwriting and conversations that are much more targeted to the real risk driving issues on each account.
“This will improve productivity in the market.”
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