If you lose your roof in a storm or have to report your car stolen, do you really want to talk to a robot? (Credit: Limitless Visions/Adobe Stock)
They told us more than a decade ago that U.S. manufacturing workers would not be lost to AI or automation. All the OEM’s and tiered suppliers tried convincing us their manual labor employees would be upskilled to keep their jobs.
But if you walk through those same factory doors today, you’ll find nearly two million missing people, replaced by robots, cobots, AI and automation.
Now, they’re doing it in the insurance world, with thousands of underwriting, claims processing and basic customer service professionals feeling the heat as industry leaders say the same things they did in manufacturing. And much like that business, not one executive, not on the record anyway, will admit the likelihood of insurance workers losing their jobs to automated technologies.
Some insurance leaders say AI won’t replace human workers; it will only move them to another place in the building— allowing them to spend time on things that matter most. I presume they mean positions where empathy plays a role.
After all, if you lose your roof in a storm or have to report your car stolen, do you really want to talk to a robot?
Brian Kuney, a VP for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, told me no one is safe from job displacement when it comes to AI— from manufacturing and insurance to any other business sector.
“If you do repetitive, manual labor, whether it’s on a manufacturing floor lifting boxes or at a computer doing data entry for an insurance company, AI has either gotten you or is coming to get you,” he said. “And it’s not personal. It’s all about keeping up with the Jones’s and pace with competitors. Industries and companies that seamlessly take in and transfer information and products through AI will thrive and evolve, while others slowed by manual labor and repetitive tasks will fall behind and lose customers, period.”
A recent survey by Eskimoz showed most U.S. workers want AI to replace customer support and office assistant roles anyway, as nearly 12% of the respondents said they'd gladly hand the jobs over to machines.
Meanwhile, the average headcount at a typical property and casualty insurance company in the U.S. is roughly 174 people, according to data compiled by IBISWorld. What percentage of that total will remain in the coming years? How many of them know what industry pros like Brian Kuney think about AI taking their jobs.
I wonder how they’d feel about a Harvard Business Review study highlighting specific roles in insurance at most risk. Roles like underwriters, technical writers, programmers, data entry workers, basic customer service and call center reps, accounting clerks, claims intake and administrative support staff.
And if that’s not enough, robots don’t need salaries. AI doesn’t get tired or slow down after lunch. In the long run, technology decreases overhead and helps companies serve their customer base more efficiently and at a much greater volume.
Put simply, machines replace hands. It’s just what they do.
The American folk legend John Henry vowed he’d die before he let a machine beat him, famously saying, “a man ain’t nothin’ but a man.” And he wasn’t wrong, but he was dead wrong about machines. They did replace him, and the hammer he swung was an ironic testament to not only his reliance upon them, but their evolution.
Artificial intelligence has become the biggest sledgehammer and disruptor to industry today, revolutionizing contemporary manufacturing, insurance companies and nearly everything in between. Sitting here, I can’t think of a single business sector that AI hasn’t visited, or will.
Kuney may have put it best when he said “The workforce is shrinking and skill gaps continue. Today, companies must turn to AI to compete within their industries. Do it or die.”
Opinions shared in this piece are the author's own.
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