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Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

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Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#21

Post by ecopoesis »

rasz_pl wrote: post #18
new299 wrote: post #15

I have no information on this, but the cynic in me thinks this is likely a total non-story/spin. I find it unlikely anyone would be so confident a AI system that they are "planning to introduce" that they'd schedule staff cuts. What's more likely is that staff cuts were already planned. This puts a great spin on a (I would guess most likely free/cheap) experimental deployment of Watson.

This is a non story because insurance (and banking) replaced human workers with expert systems a looong time ago.

That's just not true. Source: my sister is a commercial underwriter at a large US insurance company. And while they do have software that gives a suggestion for a premium, it does not know enough to be accurate, so she has to always adjust it.

This is definitely an industry where more automation could easily be done, but the big insurers are a conservative, risk adverse group.

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#22

Post by zaque1213 »

nikanj wrote: post #9

Feels like many insurance companies have replaced humans with a simple printf("No payout"). They only pay in the rare case when someone manages to raise a social media shitstorm.

Not according to the loss runs I see at the insurance firm I work for.

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#23

Post by dosomeresearch »

rasz_pl wrote: post #18
new299 wrote: post #15

I have no information on this, but the cynic in me thinks this is likely a total non-story/spin. I find it unlikely anyone would be so confident a AI system that they are "planning to introduce" that they'd schedule staff cuts. What's more likely is that staff cuts were already planned. This puts a great spin on a (I would guess most likely free/cheap) experimental deployment of Watson.

This is a non story because insurance (and banking) replaced human workers with expert systems a looong time ago.

This is a very ambitious attempt to replace complex and messy human powered business workflows with an AI system. Most current business uses of "AI" tackle tightly defined problems, like assigning invoices to a certain group, filtering out spam etc. Even if the implementation is successful, they will still have to retain quite a few people to deal with exceptions generated by the automated process.

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#24

Post by viewer5 »

ecopoesis wrote: post #21
rasz_pl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a non story because insurance (and banking) replaced human workers with expert systems a looong time ago.

That's just not true. Source: my sister is a commercial underwriter at a large US insurance company. And while they do have software that gives a suggestion for a premium, it does not know enough to be accurate, so she has to always adjust it. This is definitely an industry where more automation could easily be done, but the big insurers are a conservative, risk adverse group.

> it does not know enough to be accurate, so she has to always adjust it

What kind of stuff does it miss?

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#25

Post by isoos »

rasz_pl wrote: post #18
new299 wrote: post #15

I have no information on this, but the cynic in me thinks this is likely a total non-story/spin. I find it unlikely anyone would be so confident a AI system that they are "planning to introduce" that they'd schedule staff cuts. What's more likely is that staff cuts were already planned. This puts a great spin on a (I would guess most likely free/cheap) experimental deployment of Watson.

This is a non story because insurance (and banking) replaced human workers with expert systems a looong time ago.

Having seen how these expert systems are created, replacement is way overdue. For example a team of 10 "senior mortgage professional" spend weeks of figuring out what difference it makes if the co-applicant's age is 60 or 62. They argue, and arrive to a conclusion that it increases the risk by 0.01 (whatever).

Event the simplest logistic regression training + evaluation will provide value to most insurance, mortgage or other money-related decision/"expert" systems.

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#26

Post by TeMPOraL »

bernardlunn wrote: post #5
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the studies showed that changing habits and implementing massive software systems tend to fail?

Changing habits work when it is done in lots of small steps. Like run 5 mins longer each day. Enterprise systems are like saying, next year I will run a marathon.

And halfway through, it suddenly is swimming and not a marathon, you need to wear a tie, and whether you'll be racing in water or in lava is to be decided in the future.

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#28

Post by charlieflowers »

new299 wrote: post #15

I have no information on this, but the cynic in me thinks this is likely a total non-story/spin. I find it unlikely anyone would be so confident a AI system that they are "planning to introduce" that they'd schedule staff cuts. What's more likely is that staff cuts were already planned. This puts a great spin on a (I would guess most likely free/cheap) experimental deployment of Watson.

I only skimmed, but it indicated that 34% of a pool of ("primarily") 47 workers would be replaced.

So ... 16 employees. I suppose that's interesting, but it's not as big as the headline made me believe.

Re: Insurance firm to replace human workers with AI system

#29

Post by mysterydip »

ecopoesis wrote: post #21
rasz_pl wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a non story because insurance (and banking) replaced human workers with expert systems a looong time ago.

That's just not true. Source: my sister is a commercial underwriter at a large US insurance company. And while they do have software that gives a suggestion for a premium, it does not know enough to be accurate, so she has to always adjust it. This is definitely an industry where more automation could easily be done, but the big insurers are a conservative, risk adverse group.

Not to marginalize your sister's job, but couldn't that essentially be training for an "AI system" (NN or otherwise), and over time it will reach similar conclusions with increasing accuracy? Maybe they're doing that at her work already behind the scenes.
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