Zurich ‘well-positioned’ with launch of updated AI platform

Zurich’s updated generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform will help the insurer be “well-positioned” in responding to customer needs.

That was according to Christian Westermann, group head of AI, who said that the enhanced platform would help the firm better understand and quantify risks.

In a media roundtable last week, Zurich announced the launch of eXchange 2.0, which will include new developments and features.

This includes using application programming interfaces to scale generative AI solutions – such as coverage checks, policy comparisons and claims insights – and will reuse these globally.

Westermann said: “AI and generative AI are with no doubt a game-changer in the insurance industry. Our customers expect protection in any of their lifetime situations, at any place.

“We need to understand and quantify their risks and help to manage them better. With AI and generative AI, powered by Zurich eXchange 2.0, we feel extremely well-positioned to respond to all their needs.”

Solutions

Zurich currently has more than 160 AI-powered solutions that can be used within the insurance value chain.

These solutions include an employee bot based on generative AI that was rolled out to over 50,000 employees to support with day-to-day tasks.

It also offers a generative AI solution for the analysis of policy wordings under multinational programmes to support the issuance of local policies.

Zurich said that through exposure on eXchange 2.0, these solutions can now be leveraged globally.

However, Ericson Chan, group chief information and digital officer of Zurich, said that the human factor would still be important as AI is not “bulletproof”.

“AI brings tremendous opportunities to improve the ways we work,” he said.

“Meanwhile, we are cognizant of the risks it brings.

”A comprehensive framework is necessary so we can leverage AI with confidence. Even with that, it will not be bulletproof. Therefore, we always practice a ‘human-in-the-loop’ principle when leveraging generative AI.”