The release by OpenAI of its Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) creates new opportunities for insurers to boost efficiency and enhance the customer experience, Zurich’s Chief Information and Digital Officer Ericson Chan says.

The ready availability of GPT – a Large Language Model artificial intelligence (AI) that can quickly generate human-like text from large amounts of data – further “democratises” access to the benefits of AI, Mr Chan said, adding its release marked “exciting times.”

Zurich-based Mr Chan’s comments, made on LinkedIn, come after he told the Financial Times the Swiss insurer is investigating application of AI to extract data from claims descriptions and other documents, and testing how it can use GPT AI in claims and modelling.

Zurich is feeding six years of claims data to identify the cause of loss across a whole section of claims and potentially improve underwriting. It has also created a new patent program to protect its intellectual property, focusing on areas such as automated risk inspection and AI systems for processing bills.

AI could create “a huge amount of efficiency,” Mr Chan said, for example by extracting information from long documents and writing code for statistical models.

“You’re not going to replace a developer, it’s a co-pilot,” Mr Chan said. “Similarly, for underwriting, for claims, it is not going to replace people but it is going to make it a lot more efficient.

“There are so many areas where there is so much benefit,” he said, adding the emergence of insurtechs was “healthy to take the industry forward”.