Tom Quirke, Chief Underwriting Officer, established and continues to lead Ageas’s central Data Science team.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a powerful transformative technology over the past few years. Inspired by the introduction of Ageas’s responsible AI framework, Tom shares his thoughts on the importance of developing and deploying AI in a thoughtful and conscious way.
Much like the technology itself, the use of AI in the insurance industry is not new.
Ageas has used AI for years, from the first use of machine learning models in 2016 to the first live Generative AI use case at the start of 2023. We’ve deployed it across the business, for example to detect fraud, to provide more accurate assessments of risks and pricing, to streamline claims processing, and as an AI assistant to support our people to provide brilliant service for our customers.
While AI offers unprecedented opportunities, its responsible implementation has become not just an ethical consideration, but a strategic imperative and a potential source of competitive advantage.
What is responsible AI?
Responsible AI refers to a set of principles that help guide the design, development and deployment of AI. It ensures AI systems are safe, trustworthy and ethical. Examples of responsible AI principles include transparency and explainability, human oversight, and performance and resilience.
Our approach to responsible AI
Our use of AI is all about creating tools that can assist our people, and we see responsible AI as a key part of our employee proposition. To support this ambition, we have developed a standard and framework to embed responsible AI principles in our work.
The responsible AI framework is a comprehensive and collaborative risk assessment that involves a wide range of stakeholders and experts, including business SMEs, AI specialists, and compliance functions. It encourages us to assess the potential risks associated with any new AI tool, and then subsequently to identify and implement mitigations for those risks.
This approach is integrated into the entire process of developing an AI solution for a business problem, encompassing decisions about which data to use, how it is utilised, its production deployment, and its operational implementation.
While we have always used AI ethically, this new framework offers a consistent and robust method to evidence and document our practices, ensuring absolute transparency and developing trust. It reassures our people that we are acting responsibly in the way that they would expect us to.
Ultimately, an effective and efficient responsible AI framework leads to robust, reliable, and trusted AI tools. It protects customers, and it enhances operational effectiveness and resilience.
Responsible but not restricted
The possibilities for AI innovation are exciting, and the companies that view responsible AI not as a burden but as a strategic advantage will set themselves apart.
With the combination of our AI capabilities and the responsible AI framework, we are ready to transform and elevate our organisation safely, purposefully, and with the upmost transparency.