As far back as the 1980s, the insurance industry was hearing of the wondrous powers of artificial intelligence (AI), leaving the impression that computers were becoming so sophisticated that there would be little need for human intervention in most business decision processes. So, here we are in 2001 with little change in the insurance business and personnel structure, other than the compounded growth of the IT staff. So what happened? Its 2001wheres HAL?

The answer lies in the difference between the pace of technology development and the level of expectations over the last several decades. Its been 45 years since the term artificial intelligence was introduced at a Dartmouth College conference in 1956. Since that time, and probably thanks to Hollywood, weve grown to expect AI to manifest itself as machines acting like real people. So when we look at AI and its application to business, were often disappointed that day-to-day business is still dependent on human reasoning and intervention.
We all seem to agree that there is value in using AI in insurance, but after 45 years the questions remain: What value? What kind of AI?

The AI Name Game
To fully understand AI and its usefulness to insurance, we first need to weed through the AI name game.