As the re/insurance sector continues to evolve with technology, the underwriting process has seen considerable changes made in recent years, with the term bionic underwriting slowly making headwinds across the industry.
Bionic underwriting leverages generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), large language models (LLMs) and machine learning (ML) to automate labour-intensive tasks across the underwriting process that would have usually been handled manually.
In an interview with Reinsurance News, Erez Barak, Chief Technology Officer at Earnix, a provider of AI-based SaaS solutions, explained what some of the key benefits are that bionic underwriting brings towards the re/insurance sector.
“Bionic underwriting offers insurers the ability to automate and streamline underwriting processes, augmenting the role of the underwriter. It can help facilitate more informed underwriting decisions, by integrating the traditional rules-based approach with advanced analytics,” he said.
“Additionally, it enhances business agility and enables faster decision-making by automating underwriting processes, facilitating improved and more informed straight-through-processing,” he added.
Moving forward, Barak highlights some of the key ethical considerations that are associated with bionic underwriting.
“Bionic underwriting almost requires by nature, using machine learning (ML) to extend artificial intelligence (AI) under the cover. Focusing on the businesses themselves, they want to ensure that they are making decisions that are fair and responsible. The infrastructure of how companies are making these decisions, peppered with ML capabilities, falls towards this notion of responsible AI.
“Those decisions made by ML and AI have to be what the industry refers to as responsible. This would involve ensuring that the metrics align correctly, which ultimately means making sure that every decision is fair.
“There is no non-responsible AI, there is only responsible AI, and as such, underwriting and underpinnings of bionic underwriting require the same river.”
Moving past bionic underwriting, we then asked Barak about what some of Earnix’s future goals are within the next couple of years.
He said: “The financial industry is turning the corner, if you may, in terms of innovation with AI and driving the responsible use of AI, and we (Earnix) are at the forefront of that. We understand the workflows that these organisations have, the types of customers they are dealing with, and we have a deep understanding of the best practice system.”
“What we bring to the table is a platform that allows a shorter learning curve for anyone who is using Earnix, to be in the same box essentially. It’s about enabling this world for highly regulated industries, and that is at the heart and soul of what we bring towards the sector,” Barak concludes.
