By David Akinmola
Stakeholders in the insurance industry have said that for the sector to address its immediate poor awareness and prompt operational processes to contribute to the economic value chain, Artificial Intelligence must be adopted to change the customer experience in the country.
This was proclaimed by the industry’s players who gathered at the weekend at the 13th yearly Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) Chief Information Officer (CIO) 2025 with the theme: ‘AI-Driven Transformation in Insurance: Elevating Customers Experience’ in Lagos.
Speaking on the theme at the forum the Chairman Nigerian Insurers Association Information Technology Committee, Jackson Ikeibe, argued that automating processes can reduce operational costs, making insurance products more affordable. Ultimately, AI holds immense potential to transform the insurance industry.
Ikeibe said AI has the potential to provide a new frontier of economic opportunity as well as social development, and inclusive and sustainable growth.
However, AI acceptance in the country is still in its infancy despite the growing number of startups and established businesses using AI solutions to deliver customer services.
For him, artificial intelligence would help insurance practitioners to optimise the number of things they are currently doing and also in offerings they are to offer their customers.
“A lot of data come into it and in the process, we can use artificial intelligence to do mining and analytics that align with the data and engender the type of products policyholders really want.
“When artificial intelligence is fully entrenched, we would have a better insurance industry that is responsive to customers needs,” he submitted.
One building a centralised data in the insurance industry, he said the Nigerian Insurance Industry Database (NIID) platform has helped to centralised data in the industry, stressing that the platform has helped the industry to have a handshake with security agencies in enforcing compliance.
He noted the industry has started the process of harmonising data, adding that the initial challenge of trust which hindered harmonization of data in the past is gradually being tackled.
The Vice Chairman, NIA Information Technology Committee Dimeji Ogundele, also appealed to the industry to localise artificial intelligence to suit the available data.
He also canvassed the need for robust collaboration between insurance regulators and practitioners in the deployment and usage of artificial insurance.
Insurance companies were implored to invest more in research and development to create artificial intelligence that would align with their objectives and regulators.
