Cognitive computing is catching on fast among property/casualty insurance companies, which are embracing the new technology in pursuit of labor efficiency more than labor replacement—at least for the time being. Executive SummaryP/C insurers see cognitive computing as a way to augment the data decisions of claims and underwriting professionals rather than a means of replacing them with automated tools, executives of four insurance groups and consultants from Accenture and IBM told Carrier Management.
The computer technology simulates the way the human brain works, learning as it goes along. In “reading” documents, texts, pictures and videos in search of particular words or images, specific patterns are recognized and stored for future reference. The difference between the human brain and cognitive computing is one of scale—people can read and interpret one document at a time; computers can read and interpret a massive array of documents in no time.