What the insurance profession can learn from the Post Office scandal

We have a lot to thank Mr Bates for. Not only has his campaign for subpostmasters addressed a huge injustice, he has also taught us that the shortcomings exposed in the Post Office scandal provide a case study that we can all learn from.

This is especially true at the beginning of an age of artificial intelligence (AI), where systems are less predictable than ever before.

So, what kind of expertise do non-technical individuals need in order to exercise control over complex, technical issues?

The answer lies within both an organisation’s culture, and its governance. One example of this is around data bias and artificial intelligence. Three years ago, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) developed guidance on AI that stressed discrete actions that an organisation can take to retain control of data and processes. They included:

• Adopting a three-level response, looking at the data itself, at the algorithms being used, and the practices for managing and overseeing it.
• Looking at the processes a firm is using to assess and implement artificial intelligence into the decisions it makes.
• Introducing a monitoring framework to ensure that legal and regulatory obligations, including ones relating to gender, race and disability, are respected.
• Adopting tools for testing historic data for evidence of any discriminatory features.
• Ensuring that those managing and overseeing artificial intelligence in a firm receive regulator training in the ethical issues and developments associated with it.
  • Making sure that business partners and suppliers join this initiative. This means carrying out thorough due diligence on all suppliers and refusing to excuse them of their responsibilities.  

These steps alone don’t guarantee successful data management, but they do help to create a culture where the mistakes that were made during the Post Office scandal – of not questioning the quality of data and allowing conflicts of interest to go unchecked – can be avoided. Crucially they can ensure that voices like Mr Bates’ are heard within weeks, rather than decades, of something going wrong.