Prudential Financial
Insurance has always been a data business. The insurance company’s products, made up of actuaries and whose business is based on tracking morbidity and mortality, have vast data repositories to predict life expectancy, predict health status, and provide financial protection. It has long been assumed to be developed and analyzed.
Rapidly emerging advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities have enabled us to acquire, analyze, and predict outcomes with much greater accuracy in data. Against this backdrop, long-time insurance industry pioneer Prudential Financial recognizes an opportunity to disrupt traditional legacy businesses. A senior executive at Prudential asks, “How does a 150-year-old insurance company get rid of Amazon?” Can we leverage our in-house capabilities to turn it into a profitable business?”
Founded in Newark, New Jersey in 1875, Prudential Financial is a Fortune 100 (55th) and Global 100 (85th) company, offering insurance, retirement planning and investment management products and services in 40 countries. of consumers and institutions. Prudential, originally named the Widows and Orphans Friendship Society, then the Prudential Friendship Society, is now the largest insurance company in the United States with assets of $1.4 trillion. The Rock of Gibraltar logo has been known to generations of customers, and the company’s slogans “Get a Piece of the Rock” and “Strength of Gibraltar” are still widely known as Prudential.
Jersten Moody, who was hired in June 2020 as the 150-year-old company’s first Chief Data Officer, is at the forefront of Prudential’s data and AI-powered disruption and transformation efforts. . Moody previously served as State Farm’s first chief data and analytics officer, a position he held for three years, exceeding the CDO industry average tenure of 18-24 months. Prior to that, he held data and technology leadership positions at Unilever and Thomson Reuters. In his role at Prudential, Moody is responsible for the company’s data his platform, data automation, AI and his ML, and data his governance functions. In this capacity, she works closely with each business area of the company.
Moody characterizes the data and AI transformation effort at Prudential as an effort to “go where the customer is” and lower perceived barriers to life insurance, such as health checks. She explains: “Our latest initiative is working with our customers to refocus our plans on longevity, as opposed to traditional insurance thinking that considers mortality, and in doing so, will help us to We offer a highly personalized approach to planning and health and wellness.” Moody describes it as “a different point of view that focuses on how life will be in the future for our customers.”
As an example of the AI-driven transformation underway within Prudential, Moody cites the rollout of new underwriting processes using AI to replace traditional rule-based underwriting operations. The use of this AI has increased the speed and flexibility of our analysis, allowing us to predict lifespans with 98-99% accuracy. This improvement in speed and accuracy contrasts with the traditional industry average accuracy in his 75% range. The ability to apply AI and advanced machine learning approaches has reduced underwriting time “from 22 days to 22 seconds” and eliminated the need for cumbersome physical examinations.
Out of these disruptive efforts, in 2022 Prudential Financial launched a new independent venture known as High Peak. This is a fintech/insurtech startup funded and nurtured from within Prudential. Moody, co-founder and current interim CEO of the company, isn’t typical of an industry chief data and analytics officer. She is currently seeking her successor as CEO to focus on her full transformational mission.
High Peak’s first product is called Acusite, an AI-driven longevity model derived from Prudential’s use of machine learning and AI to innovate and transform the underwriting process. Acusite is now licensed by High Peak to provide similar insight into customer lifespan estimates to other organizations besides Prudential. The product is differentiated by his three times larger data set than traditional long-life models, which allows it to predict life with much higher accuracy, making it applicable across a wide range of industries.
- For insurance, less customer input enables faster, more accurate and more cost-effective policy decisions.
- By considering different risk categories for financial planning, we offer significantly richer and more personalized plans for our customers.
- Potential application for customer health.
High Peak’s ambition is to bring value to Prudential’s new industries and audiences, which she describes as an “expansion of the data value stream,” Moody said. Moody continues: “This is the result of over six years of research and development efforts to leverage our extensive data on filing histories and claims. I have learned that I can do things with precision and speed, which has made the insurance buying process, which is important for online buyers, simpler and easier.”
Moody summarizes the transformation that has taken place within Prudential: “AI is a differentiator. It brings exponential value and speed to traditional processes,” she continues. “Classic machine learning techniques have been improved. explainabilityAnd these algorithms make decisions easier to understand. “All of this has to be done in a responsible way,” she added, emphasizing the importance of responsible AI and “keeping humans up to date.” rice field.
Reflecting on his time at Prudential and launching the High Peak business, Moody concludes: Outperform your competitors with core functionality and deliver it as a service. ”
