Voice analytics, machine learning and other variants of artificial intelligence (AI) could help life insurers improve quality and compliance, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Chairman James Shipton made the case last week at an ASIC event on how “regtech” could raise compliance standards in the financial services industry.

“ASIC can see a future where artificial intelligence, including machine learning, text analytics, voice analytics, and other technologies are a seamless component of financial services firms’ business models,” Mr Shipton said.

“A future where firms can record, store and analyse all communications with consumers using these tools. This would provide firms with near to real time insights, as well as after-the-fact insights on quality and compliance.

“We believe this can in turn aid strategic business insight analysis, training and development, and improve risk and compliance outcomes at scale – with greater efficiency and at a reduced cost.”

Attendees at the event shared details of a trial to determine if regtech could help solve issues ASIC had identified last year in its review of direct life insurance sales.

Daisee, Deloitte and Call Journey were the three participants in the trial earlier this year using voice analytics and voice-to-text.