Caifl News, October 28th (Reporter Xia Shuyuan) Currently, digital technology is becoming a new driving force for development, nurturing core elements of new industries, new models, and new momentum, especially the significant development achieved by the new generation of artificial intelligence technologies represented by ChatGPT. How can the insurance industry seize the strategic opportunity of "AI+" to achieve resonance with business operations?

Recently, at the Second Insurance Technology Data Intelligence Conference, President Li Ke of Sunshine Ins stated: "Now insurance companies generally attach great importance to the application of digital intelligent technology, but I think the actual implementation is not fast enough." In his view, the information asymmetry between business and technology lines, as well as problems in collaborative innovation mechanisms, have become important obstacles hindering the pace of application of digital intelligent technology in the insurance industry. Dong Zhong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China United Insurance, stated that the biggest bottleneck for the insurance industry to embrace the AI trend and achieve digital transformation is the lack of compound talents.

Zhaohui, Deputy General Manager of National Life Asset Management, believes that as society ages, the marginal contribution of capital and land decreases. To enhance total factor productivity, it is necessary to focus on data and persist in technological innovation, continuously unlocking the inherent value of data. In addition, many industry insiders suggest that insurance institutions should strategically value the training of compound personnel in IT and insurance, strengthen technological cooperation and ecosystem development, and promote the innovative application of large model technology in the insurance industry.

The wave of large models is entering a stage of deepening applications in the insurance industry, transitioning from equal management to reduced management and upgrading.

By 2024, the wave of large models will enter a key stage of deepening applications and widespread implementation. In the insurance industry, the application of large models has gradually evolved from initial exploration to deeper development.

Through continuous tracking of the progress of the application of large models by insurance institutions, Wei Chenyang, a researcher at the Tsinghua University PBC School of Finance and Director of the China Insurance and Retirement Financial Research Center, has discovered that the application of large models in the insurance industry has fully permeated.

"Since breakthroughs have been made in generative AI technologies such as ChatGPT, the insurance industry has extensively deployed them across the entire business chain, exploring the application potential of large model technology in almost every aspect of business from marketing, underwriting and claims processing to customer service," explained Wei Chenyang.

It is worth noting that when initially encountering and validating large-scale model technology, insurance companies generally adopt a cautious and pragmatic strategy, prioritizing pilot projects that can directly reduce costs and increase efficiency. These use cases include but are not limited to smart office assistants, coding support tools, and employee knowledge Q&A assistants.

In Wei Chenyang's view, the reason why these use cases have become the first choice is that the technology has a high maturity level, the implementation difficulty is relatively low, and it can quickly see the effects of cost savings and efficiency improvement. After validating the value of large-scale model technology, insurance institutions begin to focus on scenarios that can bring higher business value.

Gong Minghua, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Vice President of the China Insurance Association, stated that insurance companies can improve internal management, increase operational efficiency, and expand profit margins by deeply exploring customer data, enhancing pricing risk identification, autonomous claims processing, cost management, and process optimization.

In addition, insurance technology has not only expanded the coverage of insurance but also increased the depth of insurance coverage. "Through product design and precise quotes, we can develop small, low-priced, concise, personalized insurance products and services, meeting the needs of more financial consumers, especially those with medium and low incomes, significantly reducing the purchase threshold for insurance products," said Gong Minghua.

Wang He, President of the China Actuarial Association, believes that the digital transformation of the insurance industry is characterized by three features: more thorough perception, more comprehensive interconnection and intercommunication, and deeper intelligence. By accurately predicting risks and actively managing risks, large-scale model technology will help insurance companies transition and upgrade from "coarse forecasting" to "precise prediction" and from "equal management" to "reduced management."

The landing of large-scale models in the insurance industry faces multiple challenges, and the urgent need to build complex organizations.

Despite the significant effects of large-scale models in customer service, claims settlement, and office support in the insurance industry, its application is still in its early stages in more core and complex business processes such as product design and pricing, risk assessment and management, accompanied by a series of challenges that cannot be ignored.

Gong Minghua stated: "Insurance technology and data intelligence are promoting the comprehensive and in-depth development of the insurance industry, optimizing internal management processes of insurance companies, reducing operating costs, but also facing issues such as data governance, risk prevention and control, protection of consumer rights, and talent shortage, leading to risks such as customer information, cybersecurity risks, product innovation risks, and space cross-contamination."

In Li Ke's view, the insurance industry is not moving fast enough in the actual implementation of large-scale models, and a major reason is the information asymmetry between the business line and the technology line, as well as the problem of collaborative innovation mechanisms. This problem exists between the business and technology lines within the insurance company and also in the cooperation between insurance companies and technology companies.

In the view of Dong Zhong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China Allied Group, the biggest bottleneck in embracing the AI trend and achieving digital transformation in the insurance industry is the lack of compound talents.

Gu Wei, Vice President of Sunshine Insurance Group, believes that the industry has caught up with the development of AI, but has not kept pace with changes in business or the demands of scenarios. Building compound talents and compound organizations is the most difficult part of AI innovation.

Wang Lei, Director of the Taiping Group's Institute of Smart Data, also stated: "The shortage of compound talents in both business departments and technical lines has greatly hindered the entire digitization process."

Industry insiders suggest strengthening technological cooperation and ecological construction, paying attention to the cultivation of compound talents in IT and insurance.

How to capitalize on the strategic opportunities of 'AI+' and accelerate the transformation of new technological achievements into real productivity for enterprises, achieve resonance with insurance operations, and become the core focus of the industry.

Zhao Hui, Vice President of China Life's Asset Management, introduced that leading overseas institutions have shifted from using technology-based financial institutions to advanced technology service providers who truly understand finance, expanding further. More asset management institutions are replacing investment analysis work with human+AI systems, forming a differentiated competitive advantage.

In his view, technological innovation is unstoppable, with artificial intelligence technology reshaping the financial industry as breakthroughs in AI and large language models develop. The industry should focus on digital finance, strengthen the construction of new quality production capabilities, and continuously improve overall factor productivity.

According to the co-CEO of Taikang Technology, the research and application of large-scale technology requires profound technological accumulation and extensive resource support. Strengthening technological cooperation and ecosystem development is the key to promoting the practical application of large-scale technology in insurance companies.

Li Ke expressed that technology companies can help insurance companies solve operational problems more effectively by utilizing their innovative technology and market experience. Some scenarios and data of insurance companies provide a foundation for the technological applications of technology companies, promoting the productization of technology and the realization of value.

"Let me give a small example. A while ago, we initiated a customer service robot project with a technology company. Shortly after entering, the technology company pointed out that although Sunshine was performing well in intelligent customer service, their technology was relatively traditional. They immediately helped us build an intelligent dialog system. With just this small action, the efficiency of the entire script arrangement increased by more than ten times, saving manpower and significantly improving the user experience," Li Ke explained.

Dong Zhong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China United Group, suggested that insurance companies should strategically focus on cultivating talent with a combination of IT and insurance expertise. At the same time, he also called on relevant universities and institutions to pay attention to industry development trends and demand, and to reform the current curriculum, professional system, and degree system accordingly, in order to cultivate more interdisciplinary talent for the industry.

Wang Lei believes that through AI technology, the labor-intensive status quo of the insurance industry can be changed, allowing digital employees to undertake complex task planning, execute professional operations, and efficiently interact with external systems. This can free up manpower to focus on creating higher value, marking a profound transformation of traditional insurance work patterns.