Insurers have not yet unlocked insights from their unstructured data or leveraged it through the claims management chain, according to Gallagher Basset.

Sameer Oghanna, the claims management group’s Head of Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Analytics, says insurers have a wide range of data available from voice analytics, social media, wearable technology, telematics and sensors that they are not analysing.

Accenture research shows most companies process only 10-15% of the data they can access, and that is structured data in traditional databases.

Mr Oghanna says machine learning can give insurers a better understanding of premium leakage, risk appetite and expense management, and better identify fraud.

Artificial intelligence can be applied to unstructured, semi-structured and structured data, giving insurers a more predictive, accurate understanding of claims behaviour, risk and customers.

All industries are entering the fourth industrial revolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and insurers must embrace it and expand it or risk falling behind, he says.