AI becomes an insurance agent

The IBM Watson cognitive system has already tested many professions, including the scientific field, law, medicine, meteorology ... In most cases, Watson can work more efficiently than people. Over time, the "labor productivity" of the system increases as the system becomes more powerful and functional.

This year, Watson tries himself in insurance, and successfully. Japanese insurance company, using the services of IBM, was able to reduce costs by reducing the number of employees, people in the state. And not one or two people, but 34 at once. According to the company's management, IBM Watson is able to increase labor productivity by 30%. Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, which is the name of the company, believes that funds invested in IBM’s cognitive system can be returned within two years or even less.

Calculations show that thanks to the actions taken Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance can save about one and a half million euros per year. Installing a cognitive system cost the insurer about 2 million euros. Plus, about 150 thousand per year costs equipment and software maintenance.
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As for reduced employees, the Japanese company paid them all the money due, including severance pay. Problems with the employment of skilled workers should not arise, especially since Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance gave excellent recommendations to all.

The basis of the platform installed in the company's office was IBM Watson Explorer, a service that, according to IBM representatives, is a cognitive technology that can think like a human being. In addition, IBM Watson Explorer can analyze and interpret huge amounts of data, including unstructured textual material, audio and video files.

For an insurance company, such functions are extremely necessary, since IBM Watson Explorer is able to process thousands of medical records of insurance company clients, as well as evaluate various factors that have an impact on the work, health and life of these people. Accordingly, it will be much easier for the insurer to calculate the amount of payments to each specific client.

After the payments are calculated by the system, they must be approved by a company employee. The findings made by the cognitive service, the manual will check to avoid errors.

According to the Nomura Research Institute, clerks from insurance companies are far from the only type of employees whose work can be replaced by cognitive technologies. Institute experts say that by 2035 about half of the work that people do in Japan will be able to do robots.



The Japanese insurance company is not the only insurer who used the capabilities of Watson to estimate the amount of future payments to its customers. Dai-Ichi Life Insurance also works with the cognitive system, although the management decided not to fire its employees - everyone remained in their places.

Soon, artificial intelligence will play an important role in the country's politics. Already in February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan will introduce a cognitive system in order for the service to help the ministry staff to find solutions to various problems and answer questions with full argumentation during cabinet meetings and parliamentary sessions.

In particular, in response to a question about the country's energy conservation policy, the AI ​​will help to find complete information on this topic, helping to answer other similar questions.

If the experiment is successful, then other state agencies will also experience this experience.