Blending AI and the human touch: What insurance customers want

Global insurance customers want both the efficiency of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) and human empathy, finds a new report from the Geneva Association, a global association of insurance companies.

The report, Gen AI in the Insurance Customer Journey, found a strong adoption of Gen AI among insurance customers but also concerns over the loss of human touch.

“Nearly 40% rank loss of human touch as the top concern with insurer-provided Gen AI tools,” the Geneva Association says in a press release Thursday.

Gen AI in the Insurance Customer Journey uses a survey of 6,000 insurance customers across the six largest insurance markets — the U.K., U.S., China, France, Germany and Japan. It reveals strong adoption of Gen AI among insurance customers — both insurer-provided and general-purpose tools.

Demand for Gen AI is strongest for product and quote comparisons. Almost 70% of customers have used off-the-shelf AI tools independently when buying insurance.

“As customers become more comfortable and engaged with Gen AI tools, insurers have an opportunity to reimagine service delivery, strengthen transparency, and create more personalized, value-driven relationships,” says Ruo (Alex) Jia, director of digital technologies at the Geneva Association and lead author of the report. “Strong data infrastructure and hybrid models that keep humans ‘in the loop’ for certain interactions will improve the customer experience and enable the agility needed to thrive in today’s AI-powered world.”

The report says while Gen AI can automate some tasks within underwriting, claims processing and fraud detection, “human participation remains critical for complex cases and scenarios.

Hybrid AI-human models

“Insurers are addressing the ‘lack of human touch’ by adopting hybrid-AI human models that combine automation with human interventions — especially in emotionally sensitive contexts like claims handling, where over-reliance on Gen AI can heighten customer dissatisfaction.”

For example, one insurer uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT models to draft nearly all its 50,000 daily claims emails, removing jargon and adding compassionate phrasing, before human agents review and personalize the messages.

Another widely used approach is the chatbot model with an option to speak to a live human agent, “enabling Gen AI to manage routine communications while reserving human involvement for nuanced, high-emotion interactions. Insurers should formalize a hybrid support model where AI handles routine queries and human agents manage sensitive issues,” the report says.

But while insurance customers welcome Gen AI’s convenience and possibilities for personalization, they remain concerned about data privacy, accuracy, and maintaining access to human support. More than 40% of survey respondents worry about data privacy and misinformation when using Gen AI tools on their own for insurance decisions.

Many customers remain hesitant about AI-generated responses due to privacy and security concerns. They also worry about potential for biases.

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“This hesitancy reflects broader societal concerns about the accuracy and transparency of algorithmic decision-making and the ‘black box’ nature of advanced AI systems,” the report says. “A particularly critical issue is the risk of Gen AI ‘hallucinations,’ instances where AI generates plausible-sounding but factually incorrect information.

“In the context of claims processing, this could result in AI erroneously denying a valid claim due to fabricated policy exclusions or misinterpreted contractual terms, leading to financial harm and loss of customer trust.”

The report says human oversight is critical, especially for high-stakes decisions, to prevent over-reliance on automated systems and maintain customer trust.

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.