The insurance sector is at the early stages of seismic digital change, with tech platforms and artificial intelligence combining to deliver more streamlined processes, creating time for increased customer-focus, and ensuring insurance as a proposition is sustainable in the long term.
A recent report from CSIRO and the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA), AI for Better Insurance, outlined seven key areas for the adoption of AI in Australian insurance. Together, these seven key areas ensure the internal workings of the sector are fit for purpose as we head towards the mid-21st century, and deliver on customer expectations.
It’s important to note that while customer expectations are often described as ‘ever increasing’, those expectations are in line with what is possible, and what they are accustomed to from other sectors they deal with in their daily lives, and it’s now the role of the insurance sector to deliver.
CSIRO and ICA - seven key areas for advancing AI adoption in Australian insurance
Deliver better insurance solutions for all
Using AI to enhance affordability and accessibility, ensuring underinsured consumers can benefit from adequate coverage, and creating tailored insurance products.
Strengthen governance for responsible AI adoption
Enhance existing frameworks with stronger oversight, ethical standards, and accountability, incorporating regular audits, model explainability, and transparent reporting for ethical and effective high-risk AI use.
Foster collaboration and resilience
Promote industry-wide cooperation through working groups, data-sharing, and partnerships to drive innovation, improve risk modelling, and strengthen collective responses to hazards like climate risks and cybersecurity threats.
Adopt AI strategically and proactively
Move from proof-of-concept projects to scalable AI implementations to unlock opportunities in automation, real-time decision-making, and predictive analytics for optimised operations and better consumer outcomes.
Build AI skills for a future-ready workforce
Expand investments in AI literacy and training programs to bridge the skills gap, prepare staff, and foster a future-ready industry through sector-wide collaboration and resource sharing.
Become a trusted partner through transparent AI
Reinforce consumer confidence by increasing transparency and fairness in AI-driven processes, and clearly communicate AI's role in improving affordability, efficiency, and equity.
Innovate insurance
Harness AI to create new products, such as dynamic pricing models and AI liability insurance, to tackle emerging challenges like climate-related risks and enhance competitiveness.
The report identifies five priority use cases for AI in insurance:
Automated claims processing and triage
- Fraud detection
- Enhanced underwriting and risk assessment
- Natural disaster impact prediction and response
- Operational control and compliance
And spotlights six key areas of consumer focus:
- Rising costs are putting additional financial strain on customers
- Decreasing trust in the insurance industry, aligned to declining confidence in Australian institutions
- A generational shift that sees younger people inclined to live without insurance
- Evolving expectations when it comes to consumers and technology
- Trust in AI – people are concerned AI will bring more drawbacks than benefits
- Climate change – by 2030, one in 25 Australian homes could be uninsurable.
For Australian insurers and businesses, the key challenge is to discover and implement solutions that can help deliver on business needs and customer expectations, safely, securely, and compliantly.
Identifying solutions to build a future-proof insurance business
For those working in insurance, the challenge today is clear – to find the solutions that are going to deliver immediate internal and external benefit in the short-term, while setting the business up for success in the medium-to-long term.
ClaimsGateway, which recently won Insurtech Start-up of the Year, helps streamline the claims process, delivering an exceptional customer experience while creating efficiencies internally.
The CSIRO and ICA’s report identified customer centricity and transparency as key challenges, meaning a user-friendly interface, custom workflows, and real-time notifications for a transparent, intuitive experience are essential.
Audit-ready compliance and explicit data capture, meanwhile, support ethical AI use and customer trust – helping businesses assure customers that AI is being used safely.
Internally, by automating low-complexity, high-volume claims, ClaimsGateway enables faster processing and frees up human agents for complex cases, with task automation, custom question sets, and workflow orchestration reducing manual effort and improving accuracy. This, combined with streamlining operations and reducing claims handling costs, helps insurers maintain affordable premiums, improving service quality, while data-driven decision-making empowers insurers to design more relevant, cost-effective products – delivering improved insurance outcomes for all.
The platform also helps insurers strengthen their ethical AI use and governance via explicit consent, role-based access, and compliance tracking, aligning with the report’s call for ethical guardrails and operational oversight.
Informing the next steps for AI implementation
For insurers, delivering an exceptional claims experience is now a must, and those that fail to act are potentially risking the future viability of their organisation.
As the CSIRO and ICA report concludes: “Looking to the future, the insurance industry has an opportunity to evolve into a more collaborative and customer-centred sector. AI can help deliver personalised and proactive insurance solutions, ensuring products meet the unique needs of consumers while maintaining affordability and fairness. By leveraging technology to support communities during crises and to mitigate risks, insurers can enhance their role as reliable and supportive partners in times of need.”