AI, Analytics and the Future of Health Insurance

Before assessing the potential impact Artificial Intelligence can have in the health insurance industry, it's important to understand what the term "AI" really means. In general, AI refers to a series of algorithms that can collect, process and analyze data on their own, without being explicitly programmed, to make predictions and insights far beyond the capabilities of manual processing. Originally conceived back in the 1950's companies have been attempting to design and improve machine learning models for decades only to have seen little commercial success. But thanks to hardware advances and the emergence of big data analytics, companies are recognizing and taking advantage of the true power of AI. In the health insurance space, there are many opportunities where AI and analytics can be applied to increase organizational productivity and drive new competitive advantages in today's fast-paced and complex business environment. One of the channels to increase productivity is through improved fraud detection, which is a major issue in the health insurance industry.