ICMIF Supporting Member Microsoft, the Summit’s host, sees the insurance sector as being at a tipping point, shaped by changing customer expectations, on-demand solutions, a softer market, growing climate and biodiversity risks, and the increasing importance of data-driven decision-making. These shifts raise new questions about how insurers can maintain trust while adapting their business models.
Microsoft highlights several specific challenges for mutual insurers, including the need to develop new revenue streams, improve expense efficiency and underwriting performance, and strengthen digital capabilities.
The session positions AI as an evolution rather than a new concept, with recent advances in cloud computing and data availability accelerating adoption. Microsoft outlines a progression from classical AI and machine learning to generative AI, which can create content and support reasoning, and then to agentic AI, where AI-powered agents can plan, connect to systems and complete tasks in dynamic environments.
According to Microsoft, contact centres, underwriting, claims and risk are the main insurance processes where generative AI can deliver value. However, some insurers struggle to move from pilot projects to scaled implementation. Microsoft views agentic AI as a foundation for the ‘frontier firm’ in insurance, where human-led teams work alongside agents to improve employee experience, strengthen customer engagement, accelerate innovation and redesign core business processes.
Examples shared in the session include an Italian insurance company’s AI voice assistance, which is said to have resolved 1.3 million calls without human interaction, and a UK insurer’s digital coaching support for agents. Microsoft also refers to multi-agent approaches in claims handling and to the use of geospatial data through the Planetary Computer to support stronger business decisions. The company emphasises that progress towards this future depends not only on technology, but also on business strategy, culture, execution capability and change management.
To prepare for the future, Microsoft encourages insurers to define a clear vision, build execution capabilities, and assess both their technology and data estate. The company also frames AI adoption around three core questions: whether an organisation can do it, whether regulation allows it, and whether it should do it. Responsible AI principles such as fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, and inclusiveness are presented as essential to this approach.
Speakers:
- Patrice Amann, Regional Industry Leader – EMEA Insurance & Banking, Microsoft (France) & Dr Dorota Zimnoch, Global Industry Advisor for Financial Services, Microsoft (UK)
