AF Group Claims Exec Embracing AI, But He Won’t Measure Success by Replacing People

This article is part of an on-going series about technological and AI-related developments and advancements in claims processes and claims departments.View Series

AF Group has embraced the use of artificial intelligence in its claims operations, but the person overseeing its implementational has no interest in one promise of AI: reducing the number of claims professionals that work for them.

The Lansing, Michigan-based company is a national holding company established in 1912 with 10 affiliated insurance brands including Accident Fund, CompWest Insurance and AmeriTrust.

The company began adding AI technologies to its claims department earlier this year. To get a handle on the changes, Claims Journal spoke with Kim Leggette, senior vice president of claims at AF Group.

Leggette has made several rounds as a claims executive. He has previously held leadership positions at Aviva Insurance of Canada and Kemper Insurance with responsibility for auto, property and commercial claims. Before that, he was the global chief claims officer for personal insurance at AIG.

The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Claims Journal: What new technology are you integrating into your claims department/processes?

Leggette: I’ll break it down into two areas, one being artificial intelligence the two pieces we’re working on there is what we call smart summary, which basically uses technology to summarize notes and information on the file geared towards a better customer experience, when a customer calls in for information. The second piece on that AI is smart documents, which in a similar fashion, it helps the adjuster’s efficiency by summarizing documents into a format that allows them to get through 200 medical records and documents in a much faster time.

And then on the data science piece two areas where we’re working on: More detailed claim complexity scoring, so we have components of that now, but it’s really geared towards getting the claim in the hands of the most skilled person, who is best to handle that claim. And then the second one we’re working on is data science around fraud modeling, really geared towards identifying opportunities we potentially miss, but making sure there are real opportunities, and not just collating a bunch of information, and sort of I called
“Throw it up against the wall.” We’re really trying to dial it in to make sure that if our SIU investigators are investigating that, they’re spending their time on meaningful investigations.

CJ: Why are you implementing this technology? What problem is it solving or will it solve?

Leggette: So, the technology as a whole is going to solve two key problems that I see. So, one, as you see a lot of this is really geared towards making the employees’ jobs easier, more meaningful for them, and philosophically my belief is if an employee is happy that generally transitions over to the customer side. Happy employees, happy customers, are really about simplifying their job, making it easier, and then just getting the right claim in their hands that match their skill set.

CJ: How is it working?

Leggette: We’re in the midst of doing the work now. I would say you know early phases of the work are very favorable. I’d say the outcomes that that we’ve tested right now are very favorable for us. The focus is on employee engagement, making the job easier for them, customer experience. I will say the thing that we’re not overly focused on and not pushing for a benefit is and a lot of people think of these items as efficiency. meaning job reduction, and that’s not where we’re going. For us, the focus is on employee engagement and making their life easier, and the outcome for the customer.

CJ: How do employees feel about it?

Leggette: The people involved right now feel really good about it. I think anyone that’s in a complex claim world loves the summary of the information. They get massive amounts of of packets and data come into them, so it’s a clear time savings for them where they can focus over time more on meaningful events. So, the feedback has been really positive. Also, as you would imagine, our SIU team is really excited about the work of getting the right claims to them as well, to let them focus their investigations in a meaningful manner.

CJ: How do you feel about it?

Leggette: I’m actually feeling really good about the components we have. As priority, I’m also feeling really good about the team that’s working on it and our ability to execute as well.

CJ: How do you or will you measure the success of this technology?

Leggette: For us, the key metrics are, it’s back to employee engagement feedback from our employee and staff. And the other pieces that is customer experience would be a second measurement. No. 3 would be, I’d call it a measurement of our accuracy, of those components: Are we accurately creating work for the right claim reps? Is the work we’re doing as a whole more accurate? The one thing I said, and we’re not really measuring, is again this is not an efficiency play for us. Our measurements aren’t centered around FTE headcount type reductions, it’s all about measurements that would give us indication that that employees’ morale is up and that our customers enjoy our claim service more than they did in the past.