Sixfold Resources

Today’s LLM-based AI solutions boast powerful capabilities that just three years ago were only found in science fiction. Modern AIs, driven by advances in machine learning & computational methods inspired by the human brain, continuously gain new capabilities from the data they encounter, enabling them with previously unattainable potential.

However, when it comes to operating within complex, highly regulated sectors like insurance, not any ol’ AI solution will do. In this post, I want to explore why carriers are turning to a new generation of vertical AIs purpose-built to address the industry’s unique needs and challenges.

Horizontal solutions only leverage the Internet’s surface

“Horizontal” LLM-based chatbots (e.g., Open AI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude) are competent at a wide range of tasks, but you’d never trust them to execute a consequential insurance underwriting workflow.

Well, I mean, you could. But your underwriters would still need to engage in dozens (or even hundreds) of rounds of prompts, follow-ups, and clarifications to surface the information they need—all of which would require close review & scrutinization for accuracy, compliance, and hallucinations. They'd need to invest time in sorting through pages of answers to find important facts, correlate & de-dupe information, build timelines, and draw relevant connections. After which, they'd have to relate all of these processed facts back to their risk appetite to evaluate the quality of the risk.

Horizontal, multi-use AI solutions deliver little—if any—operational efficiencies for a complex enterprise use case like underwriting. The industry needs something more from its AI.

How vertical solutions overcome the data dilemma

One key area where general-purpose LLM chatbots and wrappers crucially fall short is lack of access to specialized data. A LLM’s “knowledge” can only run as deep as the data it’s been trained on. With a horizontal solution, you’ve generally been limited by what’s publicly available online. To echo a common observation: these models offer “the average of the internet.” They might be perfectly helpful in, say, planning out a keto-friendly dinner for two, but much less so when it comes to assessing risk signals on insurance applications.

In order to be useful in underwriting, a generative AI solution must have been — as table stakes —trained on informative but isolated datasets such as loss histories. Even anonymized versions of these datasets aren’t available for AI training purposes (they can’t even be purchased).

To access this invaluable cloistered data, an AI vendor must cultivate relationships with specialized data gatekeepers and arrive at a precise alignment on use and security. It’d be impractical for a horizontal AI provider to address every possible enterprise niche. To pry these data doors open, you need highly specialized vendors with a singular industry focus.

Vertical solutions: a partnership of insurance nerds and tech geeks

Beyond special data access, a vertical AI solution is designed to address the highly specific needs of its sector. The complexity and regulations inherent to insurance underwriting require a team that is as well-versed in emerging tech as they are in long standing carrier challenges. 

A vertical AI solution likely incorporates a medley of intelligent tools under a single platform umbrella. A foundational LLM, for example, may be tapped for specific functions (e.g., summarization), but higher-level capabilities can only be achieved when the LLM is partnered with purpose-built functionality dedicated to specific tasks (e.g., external data APIs, vector stores, etc.) The solution’s precise structure must be guided by experts with an intimate understanding of today’s industry challenges—and an eye on the ones soon to be in effect.

Keep your eye to the verizon

Horizontal AI solutions are amazing, but they fall short in core underwriting tasks due to their shallow expansiveness; lack of access to specialized data; and ultimately the fact that they’re just one building block that must be partnered with industry-specific capabilities to deliver value to carriers. 

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn

I’m beyond excited to announce that Sixfold has been officially selected to take part in the 12th cohort of Lloyd’s InsurTech accelerator program, Lloyd’s Lab. 

Lloyd’s Lab was recently recognized as a top-25 European start-up hub by the Financial Times and Statista and ranked the very top insurance-focused accelerator out of 19 countries and +2,000 organizations.

The program will give our team the opportunity to collaborate with Lloyd’s mentors to develop innovative solutions for the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace. Over the course of the 10-week “fast-track, fast fail” program kicking off in late April, our team will build, test, and iterate innovative solutions that “challenge how we do things and help the Lloyd’s market better serve its customers.”

Sixfold was one of just 22 insurtechs invited to travel to London to take part in Lloyd’s “Pitch Day” event. This year saw the largest-ever application pool for the program—Pitch Day invitees had to be culled down from more than 250 applications submitted by insurtechs spanning 33 different counties. 

For our pitch, I showcased how much we have built to serve underwriters in the past 10 months to 1,000-plus virtual and in-person attendees from across the Lloyd’s market ecosystem. We were selected into the program as one of only 12 teams by a panel of market leaders, mentors, and the Lab team, and we were the only underwriting solution to be accepted into the program! 

Members of Sixfold’s product and design teams will spend 10 weeks working out of the iconic Lloyd’s building in London. We will focus our efforts on accelerating and optimizing triage and risk appetite match capabilities within the scale of Lloyd’s markets. 

We’ll demo the fruits of our accelerator labor to the entire Lloyd’s market in early July—stay tuned for details!

Lloyd’s Lab unique approach to fostering global innovation is helping to tackle some of the world’s biggest insurance challenges. Progressing the Lab’s mission of supporting innovative insurance solutions across the globe, this latest cohort focuses on developing solutions to some of the biggest risks faced by businesses and communities in the Americas such as challenges arising from natural hazard prediction to risks associated with cybersecurity.

Thank you to Lloyd’s for believing in our vision and helping us bring it to fruition. We can’t wait to show the entire Lloyd’s market—and the rest of the world—what we have in store.

This article was originally posted on Linkedin

I’m thrilled to announce that Sixfold has been named a winner of this year’s Zurich Innovation Championship! Since 2018, Zurich Insurance Group has overseen an annual “collaboration program” with select startups from around the world to develop new offers and services for their customers. The yearly Championship has rapidly expanded to become the industry’s largest open innovation contest with thousands of applicants from over 30 countries resulting in more than 50 active initiatives implemented through Zurich Insurance’s global business. 

‍Celebrated for Pioneering Innovation

Sixfold was only one of nine teams selected out of a pool of more than 3,000 global applicants to take part in the accelerator portion of the Championship. Our team will take on the “Commercial Insurance” challenge to engineer technical solutions that “improve transparency and accountability, enhance risk management capabilities, and foster sustainability transition through a culture of trust and innovation.”

For the next four months, our team will collaborate with leaders from Zurich North America (ZNA) to build AI-powered risk analysis & summarization solutions to augment underwriter workflows through the automation of high-volume (but not necessarily high-value) tasks.

Improving Insurance Efficiencies

Unlike traditional accelerator programs, which focus on product development, the Innovation Championship aims to accelerate the adoption of a new solution within Zurich Insurance’s global business. We’re thankful to the leadership at Zurich Insurance for believing in Sixfold’s mission and our team, and we look forward to building an amazing solution that results in improved efficiencies that benefit Zurich’s customers, insurance brokers, and other stakeholders. 

This collaboration comes only two months after Sixfold’s selection to participate in the 12th cohort of Lloyd’s exclusive accelerator program, Lloyd’s Labs, which kicked off in April and we will be demoing in July. 

We’ve only just begun Sixfold’s second year — and it’s turning out to be a BIG one!

This article was originally posted on Linkedin