Putting people at the heart of tech transformation

One lesson I've learned over my career is that before deploying even the most promising technologies, we must first ask ourselves what the benefit is for the people we serve - and the trust they place in us.

I’m deeply passionate about my team's work at Swiss Re to harness data, drive innovation, and build secure, scalable infrastructure with new technologies.

Even so, technology was never the destination; it’s the road we travel to reach our goals. This applies as much to the new wave of artificial intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) tools as it did to the systems we built in the past decades. And no matter how powerful a given technology is, it cannot deliver its full potential unless people trust it.

Understanding trust is the focus of a new Swiss Re survey and report, "Trust in the era of GenAI," where we spoke with global life and health insurance customers on their attitudes about sharing personal health data, at a time when our industry is deploying AI and GenAI for a range of activities to boost efficiency, improve underwriting and deepen customer relationships.

In the process, the Swiss Re team identified this important correlation: people who said they had greater knowledge of how insurers were using AI and GenAI were also more likely to say they trusted insurers with their personal health data.

Put simply, trust begins with understanding.

For insurers, this suggests technology adoption efforts should be guided by "Responsible AI". This approach is underpinned by values like fairness, transparency, accountability, and privacy, serving as a framework as insurers educate customers - and cultivate trust along the way.

This is crucial: life and health insurers have always relied on getting accurate data from customers to accurately assess risk. Now, insurers are seeking to tap a growing array of data sources, including wearable devices, to develop new products that fulfill policyholders' changing needs. Trust will be the foundation of this exchange.

Separate surveys have documented how societal attitudes about AI have been shifting, and Swiss Re's study of insurance consumers showed a similarly dynamic environment. Globally, nearly a third of respondents have grown positive toward sharing personal data with insurers since the introduction of GenAI tools like ChatGPT.

Even so, more than one-fifth said their sentiment towards sharing data had deteriorated. Among their biggest worries are data security and privacy, coupled with fear of potential misuse or errors. Listening to these concerns is essential as we pursue pragmatic solutions that strengthen trust.

Insurers should work proactively to reassure clients that their data is in good hands. Our industry already has an excellent foundation to build on: life and health insurers have long been in the trust business, protecting people from unforeseen circumstances or tragedy.

From Swiss Re's findings, insurers eager to leverage AI and GenAI have much to be optimistic about. Despite regional and generational variation, most respondents trusted insurers to safely manage their personal health data, even when GenAI tools are used to process it.

Moreover, most survey takers globally would buy an insurance policy or file a claim using a chatbot or virtual assistant, under the right circumstances. Nonetheless, most still want insurers to provide a connection to a real human, especially for complex transactions.

If this sounds familiar, it's no coincidence. I've written before that the added value of AI technology will likely only come from a smart combination of AI models and human processes.

Swiss Re's survey illustrates why understanding advanced tools and their impact on customer attitudes is essential to building strong businesses. After all, the transformative power of technology doesn't begin with machines. It begins with people.

_{Disclaimer: The header image was created using AI technology and does not represent a real-life photograph or graphic design.}