It is hard to imagine that 20 years ago we considered it innovative to receive digitized medical notes and images within a document imaging processing system. Believe it or not, at the time, it took many weeks to receive a client’s medical report electronically before you could even assign it to a claims assessor.
We have come a remarkably long way over the past two decades, and now, artificial intelligence promises even more dramatic change. What can life and health advisors and agents expect from AI in 2025 and beyond? Here are seven top AI trends worth following, keeping in mind AI will best be used as a co-pilot to human engagement.
- Chatbots will become more intelligent.
For most agents and insurers, chatbots offer the fastest onramp to AI adoption. Chatbots help improve the customer experience by allowing customers to receive quick updates on simple queries like policy information or claims status.
In 2025, chatbots will grow more sophisticated, empowering agents and insurers to gain efficiencies in multiple areas of their businesses. For example, our team at INSTANDA partners with Floatbot, an AI solution provider that creates persona-specific chatbots for servicing, claims, advisory and underwriting.
- More agents will look into virtual agents.
Agents have had mixed results with implementing virtual agents — chatbots’ more sophisticated cousins — over the past few years. However, as AI models have improved, VAs are becoming more accurate. In 2025, we envision scenarios where VAs provide claims support and policy advisory to customers seeking singular insurance offerings, freeing human agents to focus on higher-value work, such as creating and managing product bundles for multi-line customers.
- Faster claims assessment and medical underwriting will top insurers’ wish lists.
In 2025, insurers will tap into AI to accelerate their claims and underwriting processes, with the end goal of helping customers start their policies faster and access their benefits quicker. However, we are not yet — and might never be — at a point where claims and underwriting will be 100% automated due to regulatory pressures and other concerns. As a result, agents and insurers must always keep a human in the loop when using AI in these areas.
- Predictive analytics bring hope for improved outcomes and reduced costs.
A decade ago, wearables from companies such as Fitbit and Nike helped insurers incentivize wellness among members through biometric data about key areas like heart health and sleep quality. Now, AI can bring health-minded consumers closer to their health care providers.
One promising innovation in this area is SkinVision, a skin cancer detection app that aims to identify melanoma with nearly 90% accuracy. If the app finds a suspected lesion, its findings are sent to dermatology specialists who offer a medical opinion and recommend the appropriate action. These types of technologies can help improve health outcomes for insureds and, in turn, potentially reduce policy costs.
- AI can expedite health services, lowering insurance risk.
The future of AI is truly limitless. Imagine taking the scenario we described previously one step further and connecting a skin cancer patient with a surgeon who can perform the procedure across continents using robotic technology. Believe it or not, this type of tele-surgery has already happened in China and Rome.
One could even envision a future where we can start to cure complex diseases by leveraging tremendous amounts of medical data collected by AI. For this to happen, people would need to become comfortable sharing their medical information with insurers and AI engines, and insurers and tech companies would need to ensure ethical and transparent use of this data.
- Regulations will expand.
AI will become more regulated in 2025 and beyond for all of the above reasons. The European Union AI Act went into force in Europe in August 2024 and will become law on Aug. 2, 2026. The act includes definitions of high-risk AI activities, such as using AI for pricing and underwriting. In the U.S., the regulatory environment is more complex. In 2024, 45 states and territories adopted AI resolutions or enacted legislation. These rules range from guidelines to avoid algorithmic discrimination to creating state-wide AI task forces.
- Agents must cut through the AI clutter.
To integrate AI ethically and responsibly, life and health advisors and agents must keep abreast of the latest developments and regulations. Start by experimenting for free with publicly available chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or browser extensions like GUIDEE, which uses AI to create slide decks from raw workflows. Newsletters like Superhuman.AI and conferences like Insurtech Connect and Insurtech Insights offer additional opportunities for insurance professionals to learn about and explore AI.