AI and Insurance Underwriting: How to Avoid a Squid Game Tug-of-War
The smart path forward with artificial intelligence (AI) integration in insurance underwriting is to avoid turning AI development into a battle between humans and technology; instead, approach the relationship as a collaboration that amplifies the strengths of both.
By the end of 2024, more than 330 million people had spent a collective 2.8 billion hours – the equivalent of nearly 320,000 years – watching the first season of the hit Netflix show Squid Game.1
The Korean show features adults forced to play childhood games – with the added twist of having their lives depend on the results. The season’s fourth episode featured the remaining 80 contestants competing in a series of tug-of-war contests in which the losers were pulled off a ledge to their doom.
Is this metaphorically what is happening to humanity with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)? More pertinent to the insurance industry, are insurers setting themselves up to be dragged off a cliff by integrating AI and ML into underwriting processes?