Improving and Scaling Decisions -- Data Science and Automation in Insurance with Luca Baldassarre of Swiss Re

Historically, much of the automation/augmentation in insurance has occured in consistent, structured types of risk (e.g. auto). At a reinsurer like Swiss Re, risk is complex, inconsistent, and global in scale; LLMs are a major unlock. And this is just one of many learnings from Luca.

Key Takeaways

• [00:12] Luca's background PhD and two post-docs, with a focus on the core math of machine learning
• [01:43] Background on Swiss Re's business
• [05:14] What are the primary functions in a given business line?
• [07:51] Where's the bulk of the headcount in the business?
• [09:45] What does a claim between an insurer and reinsurer look like?
• [13:32] When did we start transitioning from paper pushing into the first wave of digitization?
• [14:54] Fair to say that Swiss Re is involved primary in less standard types of risk given focus on reinsurance and complex primary insurance? And therefore less automated today?
• [16:25] What's the role of your team? 
• [19:15] How do you address this problem of underwriting/pricing tail risk?
• [20:22] Breaking down data extraction into 1) extracting known data fields into structured systems 2) extracting information on a bespoke/one-off basis
• [25:13] Have you observed post ChatGPT that your colleagues were starting to use these tools organically? Or have you tried to disallow this behavior?
• [26:23] How exactly have you seen this tech changing workflows?
• [27:27] How have you thought about implementing these models? What challenges have you run into?
• [29:21] Are these tools something you'd like to buy externally or build in-house?
• [33:49] Do you think that the document-based Q&A format will hold as the long-term form factor?
• [35:53] Zooming out from doc data extraction in underwriting/claims, are there insights you can add in other areas e.g. new product development?
• [40:38] Are there other major categories or excitement or time investment for your team that we should be talking about?