Building a Successful A.I. Strategy

The technologies behind artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly affordable—and understandable—to those in the insurance based financial services sector.

Moving from data-driven to AI-driven digital environments is evolutionary.  Business leaders should outline a clear strategy for adopting AI and address sizable cultural and organizational barriers for their AI initiatives to succeed. Your competitors are doing this, now. That’s a very fair assumption.  Will you be disrupted by their vision?

IBM, which almost became a victim of ignoring seismic trends when they essentially owned the data sector, defines AI as “a program that can sense, reason, act, and adopt.”  As opposed to machine learning, which improves how it performs specific tasks over time, algorithms associated with AI improve performance as projects and data points are exposed to more and more data.  AI features multi-layered neural networks, which make learning from data and adapting their responses possible.

Despite concerns about replacing human beings, AI solutions are designed to work alongside diverse, decision-making employees in their own interests.

There are three categories of AI:

1.      General AI – is currently unachievable – it is AI that can perform all of the intellectual tasks a human can.  Currently, no form of AI can think abstractly or develop creative ideas in the same way as humans. Whew!

2.      Narrow AI – which is applied to very focused tasks, is the most commonly seen form of AI in consumer technologies.  It is a powerful tool for completing routine jobs based on common knowledge, such as playing music on demand via a voice-enabled device.  Narrow AI commonly includes visual recognition and natural language processing (NLP) technologies as well.

3.      Broad AI – is generally considered the most useful and integral AI category for business.  Business leaders can integrate a broad AI solution with a specific business process where enterprise-specific knowledge is required.  Data scientists will then use this information to train the system to perform relevant functions traditionally allocated to humans.  Broad AI typically relies on exclusive data sets associated with the business in question.

AI has already exceeded human intelligence in specific areas, which has led to “deployed AI.”  Deployed AI is the automation of a major business component that solves real problems for customers, employees, or both in new, better, and more efficient ways.

However, AI continues to rely on human participation to drive business value.  For example, virtual assistants and chatbots are likely already part of your firm’s DNA. At Insurex, our partners are working with incubator firms and well-established companies on taking their AI strategy to the next level.  The benefit of having an agnostic roundtable of experts who understand the sector and the capacity for AI is obvious. 

To build a successful AI Strategy:

• Get employees involved – your talent must understand why AI is important and what their roles will be in a new environment.
  

• Educate team members – employees at all levels must understand how AI will impact the business, including business leaders, who need a high-level understanding of how AI solutions will work and the means to identify and prioritize opportunities.  If non-technical users’ interface with AI, they must receive a general introduction to those tools alongside training.  Those in technical roles must understand all the relevant features and functionalities of the new solutions.
  

• Budget appropriately – not just for the technology itself.
  

• Be realistic – focus on incremental value.  Being disruptive can catapult your firm in a massive way. But testing your AI tools before any launch is essential- something some firms learned too late.
  

Where smart machines are augmenting human work, board members and C-suite executives need a working understanding of AI before they define how they will implement it successfully within their organizations.  They need to establish technology solutions that ensure that the technical implementation and strategic adoption of AI builds toward their long-term goals.  Insurex is eager to deconstruct AI for you.  It’s a journey worth starting, or extending, now.