People are born inherently good. They want to do good unto others. Perhaps I’m naive, but I firmly believe in this.
But, things can get tricky when there are other motivations at stake.
Insurance companies are just that. They are companies. They aren’t people who are set out to do good in the world. Quite the contrary. While “doing good” or “acting kindly” might be part of their corporate literature, or the public face which they put out to the world; their staring goal and ending goal is always to make money. These are large, multi national and publicly traded corporations. They exist to turn a profit. The aren’t registered charities.
Insurers turn to people to run their day to day operations. Your claim will be assigned to a real life human in the form an an insurance adjuster. And, this person will reach out to you over the phone to make initial contact about your case in an attempt to put a human touch to your case. The phone call(s) which you have with the adjuster will likely be recorded for what they call “customer service” or “training purposes“. And these calls are often very polite, cheery and cordial because people want to connect on a human level.
Have you ever wondered why these calls aren’t generated by artificial intelligence? It’s entirely possible that insurers can reduce their workforce by replacing adjusters with AI. Think of all of the jobs they would be able to cut, and all of the money they would be able to save. Aside from quality control (which I suspect will only get better as the AI gets better), the big miss in that department will be the human touch which adjusters have with claimants in getting them to spill their guts over the phone or over email.
You see, a person will make a connection with another person. The claimant might think that the insurance adjuster is on their side; or perhaps has their best interests in mind. The insurance adjuster might be a very kind, caring and sympathetic person. Or, they might not be and that’s why they are working for an insurance company and not a humanitarian organization. The reality is that the adjuster is there to do the bidding of their employer which is the insurance company. And at the end of the day, the purpose of the insurance company is to make money. Benefits will not rain down from the sky if they don’t have to. The insurance company will make more money denying claims, than approving each and every claim which crosses their desk.
Once you add AI into the mix, that human connection is gone. It becomes a far less personal experience. Less information (both factual and anecdotal) will be shared with the AI than it would with a person. This isn’t a good thing for the insurance company. Part of their business model and strategy is data collection for your claim in order to track the best way to defeat the claim, or minimize their exposure. Do you think that you will share your latest pickleball victory with an AI bot, or with a human being? Once you’ve shared that pickleball win with your human adjuster in passing, they now know that you’re a pickleball player (competitive or not). That information can be passed along to an investigator to take some not so flattering film of you playing pickleball when you’re insisting that your knee remains in pain from the car accident. Is your knee in pain from the car accident, or is it in pain from pickleball? Do you see how quickly the script can flip in their favour with one little tidbit of knowledge of your life? Doubt can be created instantly, and an entirely new narrative can come into play which works to defeat your claim and reduce the amount and frequency of benefits which you’ve been receiving. The insurance company won’t likely get this information out of claimants from an AI chatbot. They are more likely to get this information out of claimants from real people who work as adjusters. But, the juice for the insurer might be worth the squeeze if they’re able to cut their workforce significantly to save on salaries, office space, benefit packages, payroll tax, bonuses, or HR messes. Machines might just be that much cheaper, regardless of quality that it’s worth it.
It’s not just car accident adjusters we are talking about. The same thinking applies for short term disability, long term disability, mortgage disability, fire loss, property damage, travel insurance, health or medical coverage, or any other sort of insurance product or coverage which you can think of. The call(s) will be recorded, data will be collected, and everything which you say or submit to the insurer will be analyzed with a fine tooth comb.
When the insurance company insists on a call, that’s when you know it’s time to “lawyer up” so to say and retain a personal injury lawyer. A good adjuster will aggressively try to get as much information they can out of you before you retain a personal injury lawyer. They know that the information coming from you will be completely unfiltered and unvetted. You will likely slip up and offer information which you should not be offering. You will agree (because you’re nice and want to cooperate) to do things or to attend at clinics which you shouldn’t be attending. You will go along with the insurance company’s plans and let them drive the narrative for your claim. Your narrative will become their narrative which gives you an illusion that it’s in your best interest when it’s not. You will find yourself going to see doctors or therapists at clinics which weren’t your choice; rather they were at the recommendation of the insurance company. Your attending one of the insurer’s preferred clinics, not your preferred clinic. Think of that long and hard and think about how that will play itself out in the long run. Their guys drafting reports on your injuries and your life through their lens (not yours) in order to stay as one of their preferred clinics who the insurer trusts and likes and refers business to….