Insurance organizations are under pressure to deliver consistent service at lower and lower costs. Today’s claims organization must balance the expectations of customers (who now have generative artificial insurance at their fingertips) with economic realities of the global market. As personal line losses in the US property/casualty sector reached nearly $33 billion in 2024, there has never been a better time for change.

A recent report by Deloitte points out that premium hikes and stricter criteria for risk by underwriters led to short term wins in property casualty underwriting in early 2024, but goes on to say “insurers can no longer evaluate risks through the rear-view mirror.” The report urges insurers to continue streamlining infrastructure, operations, and business models to accommodate new tech. Fortunately, this “forward looking” future has benefits to both insurers, adjusters, and claimants. 

Artificial Intelligence Eliminates Routine Tasks – Freeing up Mental Bandwidth and Adjuster’s Time

Using artificial intelligence (AI) in the claims industry can help reduce the time knowledge workers spend on manual tasks. This is no small bonus: piles of paperwork have plagued the insurance industry for decades, as medical records processing and summarization tasks can take hours when done by hand. In fact, a survey conducted by Accenture and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in late 2022 revealed that the average underwriter spends 40% of their time on non-core administrative tasks. The survey results suggested that while underwriters do their best to triage work that appears on their desks, sometimes as little as 10% of these submissions get a response. 

Why does this matter for adjusters? While underwriting turnaround time boosts speed and customer service for the customer (and broker) when writing the policy, the same is also true further down the value chain. Easier access to data buried in medical records and case files means a quicker response from the adjuster processing the claim. When claimants have questions, claims adjusters can spend more time giving out answers and tailoring their approach. In short, less time spent doing paperwork leaves more time to responding to the person behind the claim. 

The impact of this automation goes far beyond time saving benefits: in an insurance environment plagued by turnover, adjusters with the power of AI at their fingertips are well-positioned to provide a more compassionate, higher quality claim. 

AI Insights Lead to Better Decision Making

The “piles of paperwork” in the insurance industry benefit from AI in more ways than one. A faster document review process can streamline the claims adjuster’s job and offer more time to focus on the claimant. AI-driven document review can also help the adjuster triage: using AI tools to process low-risk claims and assess them for additional complexity. Adjusters can intervene faster in high risk claims, and plan treatments that get claimants back to work faster.

In addition to improved recovery times and a more focused use of resources, AI tools are also good at measuring risk – something claims industry professionals know plenty about. AI algorithms can identify abnormalities in claims data far before human professionals, and the faster processing time helps AI models see trends that human workers might not catch at all. AI can handle data issues within the claim documents, such as unfilled fields on a form or incomplete reports, which human users (who don’t have the insight from millions of data points) may have missed. These resources are effective for fraud prevention, predictive analytics, or even interviews with the claimant in the months following the claim. 

Summarization of the vast data resources involved in a claim not only gives the claims adjuster additional insight into the process, it also provides added detail and nuance to the claim. This process helps the claims adjuster, underwriter, and insurance company retain profitability over time. AI tools also help the claimant themselves, as faster claims processing means quicker resolution and a better experience.