While most of us are just getting a taste of artificial intelligence (AI) in insurance, the hype around it seems to be stabilizing. In my work with the Big “I" Agents Council for Technology, I'm hearing more people in the insurance industry talking about how AI is being used today and what agencies should consider when adopting AI. 

AI has the potential to impact our society in ways that are both exciting and scary. But it's important to remember the adage that we often overstate how quickly a change will impact us and understate how much change will ultimately occur over time.

With that backdrop, it's safe to assume that AI will have material impacts on all of society over time, but that the immediate impacts may be less than the early hype might assert. Even so, there are things we in the insurance industry can and should be doing today to keep learning, enhance our capabilities and minimize our risk when it comes to AI. 

Here are some best practices and considerations agents should lean into as they explore AI. 

1) Keep an open mind. Like it or not, artificial intelligence is changing the insurance industry. I recommend that everyone act with intention in learning what they can about AI. That can come from listening to podcasts, reading blogs, watching webinars, getting involved with industry associations, talking to your peers and having open conversations with your carriers and technology partners. 

2) Try it for yourself. One of the best ways to learn about AI is by trying out an AI tool for yourself. There are several very good free AI tools available. Sign up for one of them and begin experiencing how it works, what it can do for you, and what limitations you encounter. 

3) Don't use private data in free, public AI tools. Exercise extreme discretion with what information/data you use to input with your prompts in any AI. While privately and purpose-built models can be safer, never enter any personally identifiable information into a free, public AI tool such as ChatGPT.

4) Understand what AI is and is not. While none of us know how AI will evolve, today, AI is “just" incredibly sophisticated statistical modeling and predictive algorithms. As impressive as AI can be, the output of an AI tool is highly dependent on the quality of data feeding the specific AI. AI tools focus on solving and executing specific things based on why the tool was built by humans. 

At this time, AI is not able to experience emotion and largely cannot differentiate between right and wrong. AI tools can be prone to delivering factually inaccurate information, fully made-up examples, or even harmful bias.

5) Always review and validate AI output. Even the best AI is only as good as its data, the programming behind it and the quality of user prompts. It is critical to insert human oversight in reviewing any output from AI to assess whether it addresses your need, accuracy, tone, brand voice, etc. 

In an industry driven by contracts and compliance, your agency is likely accountable for actions and content generated by your agency – whether by human or AI. As the technology continues to mature, it's a best practice to involve humans to review and validate the output AI is generating whether you're using it internally or externally.

6) Set expectations and provide guidance for your team. If you're an agency leader, it's important to talk about the risks of AI with your team, set expectations, and begin to offer formal guidance to your team in how you expect and allow them to use AI for work or while at work. 

If you're implementing an artificial intelligence tool as part of your insurance agency's processes, make sure to focus on your staff. We all have different thoughts about AI, and you may have employees who fear AI will take their job. Be clear that is not your goal, that AI can help them do their job more efficiently and remove mundane repetitive tasks so they can do more rewarding tasks.

Even if you personally aren't using AI or making it part of your agency's processes, your team may be using AI. They may even be using AI tools to support them in their job, such as using free generative AI tools for research, brainstorming, letter writing, sales or service replies, and perhaps even renewal or policy reviews. 

AI tools may help your staff save time on routine tasks, but given the risks discussed above, it's essential to have a clear policy for your team about when using AI is permitted and for what activities.

7) Be transparent with your customers. If your agency is using AI to generate any content or interaction with your customers, experts recommend that you notify them. If you use AI for customer service interactions, offer customers a means to interact with one of your staff.

8) Be aware of potential issues with errors & omissions and licensing. E&O and licensing are ripe for impact from AI. We've discussed the possibilities of inaccurate output from AI, and it goes without saying that inaccurate information and customer advice can lead to E&O issues. In fact, some are speculating that carriers, especially E&O, may begin requiring some form of AI disclosure or an auditable AI policy or procedure document. 

It's also likely that AI will develop to the point it could be deployed with more direct customer interface. It seems that will lead to interesting questions about licensing, especially if the AI tools are construed to service, negotiate or solicit insurance. 

9) Decide if you're an AI builder or consumer. When exploring AI solutions, it's important to be honest about the capabilities and desires of your agency. There are certainly agencies capable and interested that will invest in experimentation and building their own custom AI solutions. This holds true with any new technological advancement over the years. The industry and society need these people and companies.

But the reality is that most agencies and people won't have the desire or capability to build AI solutions from scratch. Rather, most will be educated consumers of products built to solve established use cases or enable new capabilities. And that's OK! After all, how many agencies build their own comparative raters, CRM, or management system? Some clearly do, and we are grateful for the paths they help us forge. But most are consumers of products built and tested to solve what we each need. 

10) Clean up your data. Since AI models are driven by data, having clean and consistent data, and lots of it, makes AI more accurate and usable. Even if a custom AI is still aways off for you, there are other business benefits from clean data and consistent processes.

With AI evolving so quickly and the promise of business impact being very real, it's important to pay attention, learn as much as you can, and be intentional about how you implement artificial intelligence in your insurance agency. We at the Agents Council for Technology encourage an open and inquisitive mind, that you stay plugged in to AI developments, but also be aware of these cautions and considerations. 

Chris Cline is the executive director of the Big “I" Agents Council for Technology. This article was originally posted on Agent for the Future.