Assurant

Dr. Yingying Kang, Dir. AI & Data Science, Advanced Analytics, Assurant

Today almost all mainstream industries and businesses are on various stages of digital transformation or data driven processes to reshape the way they communicate with customers, to reassessthe health of their finance and operations, and to renovate their decision-making methodologies. The businesses are competing to obtain and digest as much information as possible. The contact with customers has been more than merely call center or simple surveys, or monthly mail subscription or notifications. Multi-messaging channels and online-offline networksprovide businesses a set of effective tools to proactively communicate with customers, predict their demands and resolve their concernsbefore consequences occur. These transformations empower businesses tremendously. However,they also cause growing pains. It is not rare that the businesses today have to face terabytes or petabytes level of transaction volume with diversified data formats and protocols which are beyond their capacity plans ten years ago. It requires businesses to adopt modernized big data analytics technologies and new operations management methodologies. It also requires the entire executive teams to foster innovative data-driven culture and incorporate the new technologies into their business strategies. This article will discuss about Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technologies, and why they are crucial for businesses to gain their competitive advantage.

Today AI and Data Science have become moreindispensable to businesses. International Money Fund (IMF) and European Environmental Agency (EEA) have reported that the climate related extreme events, pandemics, and economic recessions occur more frequent, more severe, and more unpredictable around the world. This causes additional uncertainties in business operations and consumer behaviors. Businesses need more than ever to own capabilities of converting data into actionable insights efficiently and effectively. Companies of all sizes and locations feel they need to develop Data Science and AI models to drive their business decisions. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that Data Science will see more growth than other field between now and 2029. Gartner analysts estimated that by 2025, 10 percent of enterprises who establish AI engineering best practices will generate at least three times more value with their AI efforts than 90 percent of enterprises who do not.

AI is the science of enabling computers to simulate the human behaviors and decision-making processes to solve complex problems. For example, AI has been widely applied in unlocking insights from unstructured data. MIT Sloan estimates that 80 to 90 percent of enterprise data in Banking, Finance Services, and Insurance (BFSI) are unstructured like technical reports, images, audio and video communications, and it is growing three times faster than structured data.Unstructured data is inherently difficult to analyze due to its formation freestyle and computational complex. AI have been proven a mature technology in managing, analyzing, and generating natural languages automatically, with its capability of handlingthe vast scale and unique processing challenges. Another popular application of AI is to empower Decision Science, which became crucial in large scale business operational optimization since 1980s, especially for airlines andBFSI services. However, the solutions frequently face challenges in promptly incorporating changes from business operations or customer needs. AI and ML automatically build the adaptive Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) or HumanOut-of-the-Loop (a.k.a. Autonomous) communication mechanisms. This effectively bridges the gap between business environments and models,thereforeenhancing the solution accuracy and scalability tremendously. Today more business decision makers apply AIto obtain data-driven decisions.

Comparatively, the Blockchain technologies are undervalued by industries. The concept behind Blockchain, immutable ledger, is not new to banking and finance, which has gained its position in capital markets and trade finances.However, only few people realize the value of the Blockchain technology to businesses, especially to the modernized data management which require secure and tamper-proof recording of transactions.

IBM has defined the Blockchain as a shared and immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking any tangible or intangible assets in a business network. Data is well known to be one of the most valuable assets to a business for its long-term success. The faster reliable information is received, the better a business can gain trusts from customers. Blockchain technologyis an ideal solution because it provides immediate, shared and completely transparent information stored on an immutable ledger that can be accessed only by permissioned network members. In this network, all parties share a single view of the truth. The immutable records of transactions are recorded only once, and no participant can change or tamper after it has been recorded to the shared ledger.A set of rules is stored to speed transactions and executed automatically. This eliminates the duplication of effort that is typical of traditional business networks. It also removes the possibility of tampering by intentional or unintentional behaviors and builds a ledger of transactions the whole network members can trust.Such a tracking and tracing processcan be applied to track any transactions or services, with risk and cost avoidance for all parties involved. It assists businesses to gain great confidence, efficiencies, and opportunities.

Although many enterprises began to realize the importance of AI technologies to their leading positions, these technologies are still at novel stages to many industries. There are many misunderstandings regarding how to implement these technologies and utilize their solutions. It will cause either haste decisions with huge wastes or irreversible consequences or create unnecessary hesitates and further loss in their leading positions. To make the implementation successful, it requires the entire C suites and executive level resolution,strong technical leaders with elite teams to transform technologies and adopt data driven management methodologies. It is critical to transform business operations into data driven processes that are transparent, measurable, analyzable, and responsive. This enables AI, Blockchain and ML to automate business processes, andaugment decision making and business strategies effectively.