Artificial Intelligence – AI

Welcome to Risky Business Commercial Insurance with Butler Byers. This is Paul Martin, the business commentator, and joining me as always, Colin Rooke, Commercial Risk Reduction Specialist with Butler Byers. Colin, as we get rolling into the end of the first quarter of 2024, I imagine we’re talking about that already and looking at Q2, I mean, you look at the headlines and you look at listen to newscast or whatever, and the story of the day, AI this, AI that, AI is going to solve all our problems, AI is the cause of all our problems. Artificial intelligence is really gaining a lot of attention, and I guess it is in the business world too. I’m wondering, we haven’t really talked a lot about this, but anytime there’s a major development in business, I guess it probably has some impact on commercial insurance. So thought maybe we better talk about that. And I’m guessing, but I’ll let you fill in the blanks. Are there implications with AI and commercial insurance?

Yeah, AI, it’s a really good topic. Obviously people are at this point aware of AI. There’s a lot of talk in the news, really everyone is talking about AI and really mixed emotions around it. If you’re really into tech, this is something that’s quite cool. I spent a ton of time talking with my son. He uses AI all the time, and he’s usually the one pointing out to me what new app or new program is coming out and what it can do. And if you’re less sort of in the know or aware, it’s really easy to have a lot of AI related concerns. So what I want to do is just talk about ways that AI will impact or the workforce in 2024 and beyond. So I’ll start with some stats around it, ways that it’s going to change the workplace, but then I do want to talk about the risks to your company or how to prepare for this new reality with AI.

So it can do a lot of great things, but then there’s steps you need to take as well just to make sure you’re doing it the right way and you’re thinking, again, of the risks. And I’ll tie that into how is this going to impact commercial insurance program? Why would an underwriter care? And then if we’ve got some time, I just want to talk very quickly about a really neat to me way that hackers or cyber criminals are
getting your info that I honestly can’t believe I hadn’t thought of. Almost a little ashamed, but also I find it very interesting.

Well, now you’ve got our interest. So let’s first talk about AI though, and the implications for those in leadership positions in business. What considerations do you need to be thinking about here?

Yeah, so the global AI market is expected to grow by about 35, 40% each and every year. And I know that’s just predictive, but really the point is that AI is here to stay and it’s going to continue to change how we look at work. And so some of the things that, key things that are really going to help the workplace is one enhanced decision-making capabilities. So for example, HR professionals are able to leverage AI, which in the field there’s a lot of burnout. HR professionals do a ton of work, a ton of stress, and frankly, they’re often working in areas outside of what they went to school for. So you’ll hear from HR professionals, I’m spending a lot more time training and working on implementation than I am policies and procedures and big picture stuff. Well, AI can really help with that. AI can help with workflows and building out performance objectives and evaluations and helping other managers in the company look for screening questions for new employees.

So one of the great ways that AI can help, another thing, and everyone that’s heard about AI is pretty aware of this, but increased productivity. So the stats show that depending on the role and depending on the type of company you’re in or you own or manage, up to 60, 70% more efficient. And just if you look at workflows, all the redundancies, there’s just a lot in there that you can automate. So that’s going to change the workforce or continue to change in 2024. The other thing that one of the ways it’s going to impact the workplace is a lot more focus on the legality and ethics around AI. So now that it’s not new, as new and exciting as it was anymore, there’s a lot of questions and concerns about policies and procedures, the access to data infringements on personal information. And so you’re going to hear a lot more about policy makers saying, okay, this is how you can use AI and this is how you can not use AI.

And there’s a lot of concerns around where they get their information and are they taking it from a source that frankly you are allowed to borrow. And then when it comes to hiring, overall, employers really need to think about skill-based hiring when it comes to AI. So if you’re dabbling with AI, you want to understand, okay, how can AI help us in these areas like productivity? You really need to hire people that are either familiar or have the ability to learn and adapt, work around and help implement AI for your company. So these are sort of four ways where it’s going to impact the workplace in 2024. And then I’m going to talk next more about, okay, how to prepare a workforce for the use of AI.

Well, these are big, all of those are big topics. I suppose the legal part is that’s likely long ways until we get that sorted out. But some of the things that you talked about in terms of just the interface between employer and employee, that hits us right today, and it hits every company regardless of size. And I’m guessing that’s where a lot of the attention is being focused these days.

Yeah, absolutely. And so when you talk about the pros of AI, like productivity and then what the media is saying, one of the things that you need to be thinking about is how does that impact my current workforce? I mean, there’s a lot of worker unrest around AI and what it can do, and does it affect my job security? So when you talk about, again, productivity and automating routine tasks, if you’re not careful in explaining what tasks you mean to automate and how that will impact your current workforce, you risk low morale, increased turnover, and frankly, just great employees leaving, thinking their job may be threatened when there’s a chance that it’s not threatened at all. And so very, very important, you think about, okay, what do my people think about ai? And really consider if there’s not a broad understanding the impacts it could have.

Another issue, and I touched on the focus on legality and ethics and transparency around ways it’ll impact the workplace is regulatory concern. So if you’re using AI, and AI is operating as the 13th man in your company, you have to realize that anything AI produces you will help be held accountable for that content. And so again, are you infringing on any laws? Knowingly or not? Knowingly is something that
you really need to be aware of. Another big issue is increased cybersecurity risk. So again, you’re using a bot or any sort of AI-based technology. We have cyber criminals that are aware of this. And so what cyber criminals do is they’ll create dummy sites to data poison, so they know that people are looking for certain info. They create sites that would be very juicy to artificial intelligence, and therefore when accessed, they may be downloading well, either a virus itself or they can actually use different methods or tools to change ability, which then opens up the organization to, they call it stealth attacks as a result. So again, something to think about that you’ve got an automated program acting as your company. Well, how vulnerable is that program? The other thing, and again, it’s a little-

Just before you jump into that, Colin, we’ve got to take a little break and I don’t want you to lose that thought, but let’s come back and pick that up in just a moment. You’re listening to Colin Rooke, Commercial Risk Reduction Specialist with Butler Byers. This is Risky Business. We’ll be back after this break.

Welcome back to Risky Business Commercial Insurance with Butler Byers. I’m Paul Martin and Colin Rooke, Commercial Risk Reduction Specialist with Butler Byers is joining us today. Colin, just before the break, I kind of cut you off there. I’m sorry about that. But you’ve been raising some questions that I think employers and those in management positions and businesses really need to be getting their head around as with the arrival of AI. And it’s no longer just a novelty, it’s actually working its way into our day-to-day operations.

Yeah, it is. And one of the points I want to end on is sort of the risks of the use of AI, and then I’ll talk about what you can do about it. And I think this is probably next to worker unrest. One of the most more important things to consider is distribution of harmful content. And so you have to realize that AI is still computer based. It is still learning and on what is asked of it or the way things are asked, it is going to deliver certain content. And so if mistakes are made in the prompts, whether intentional or not, you really need to watch the content that emerges as a result. And so if you’re not, there’s a lot of reliance on AI to do the work for me. And so you type into AI, a certain subject matter, you sort of paraphrase, it looks good, you maybe really don’t read the whole thing, but it looks like a great response.

And then later you realize there is offensive language or AI took a slightly political position that you didn’t realize it did, or may have taken a certain stance on a topic that you didn’t quite realize AI was taking. And then you also have to realize that the end user ultimately thinks you are the one that did this. And so it’s something to be very cognizant of, especially when you have individuals in the workplace using AI. They may be misrepresenting the organization they work for and not really being aware that they’ve done it. And so to prepare for this to mitigate risks, which is what we’re here for and what we specialize in, it’s just it’s very important to have comprehensive policies around the use of AI. I mean, that’s first and foremost, what am I allowed to do with it, if anything at all? So we can help with that, but it’s very important to have policies in place around AI.

Well, and then another point is I talked about worker unrest. Kind of the number two issue here is foster psychological safety. Let the people know AI is a tool, not a replacement. You don’t have to fear AI. And when we talk about automation, it’s typically redundant tasks that if you ask the individual, if they like to do those redundant tasks, they will typically say no. And so then you can appease a lot of these concerns by explaining, yeah, we’re going to automate a ton of what you do, but not to render you up to lead, to free up your time for bigger and better things. And I think when you look at what we’re planning here, it’s going to be the stuff you hate doing. And that’s another really big step in preparing for this future with AI.

Well, this gets us into the realm you just keep, every time we open a door here, it leads to two more corridors, and I think we could chase around on this forever. But before we run out of time today, you teased us a bit at the beginning of the program with something that is a cyber threat that is so obvious we forgot to even notice it. Maybe I’m going to get you to elaborate on that right now.

So I spent a ton of time over the last 10 years learning everything I could about cyber, cyber risks. We do this program, I’ve had other vocational speeches, and I’m pretty good at predicting what could cause a breach and I missed this one. QR codes, you can’t trust them,that’s the new thing. So QR code sends for quick response. We’ve all seen them, those squares that have a ton of data embedded. Sometimes it can be an article, a website, a menu at a restaurant. Well, they’re taking QR codes and they’re either replacing it. So the QR code at the end of the table at the restaurant, that could lead you to a hacked website. It could look just like the menu, but it’s not. They’ll put posters up in airports, public places, they’ll create a fake event, scan this to learn more about it. There’s the virus right there. So what’s interesting though is these hackers, cyber criminals have learned that people trust them. People trust the QR code, they see a QR code, they’re not worried about scanning it. And so now the new thing is we’re going to modify those. We’re going to hack your device. We’re going to jack your URL. We’re going to send viruses. We’re going to Phish using that. But yep, I hadn’t thought of that. And it makes complete sense. Scan this to download the app for this program you want, well, it’s a virus.

They’re starting to put them on TV screens now. Commercials will actually feature a QR code and say, here, screen this or scan this while you’re watching a television program or something. And so they’re coming not just in fix like the poster that you see in the hallway, but it’s actually they’re bringing ’em right into your house.

And for example, let’s say you’re streaming. You’re streaming your favorite Netflix show and you didn’t pay for ad free and then up pops a commercial with the QR code, and it’s a product you’re interested in. And suddenly that’s now it’s a virus.

Colin, you never cease to amaze me with the things that you remind us that we should be cognizant of and how even just the most innocent things in day-to-day business life, really, you need to look past the obvious and to understand what implications those have for my businesses. And I guess that’s the reason for this program, is we talk to business leaders, to owners, to those in management to say, we’ll help you through this. There are lots of things out there that you don’t have time to think about. That’s what we do. So reach out to Butler Byers and we’ll be pleased to walk you through. There’s step-by-step plans, and to just remind you of some of the most recent threats that are out there that you probably didn’t even expect. You’ve been listening to Colin Rooke, the Commercial Risk Reduction Specialist with Butler Byers. I’m Paul Martin, this is Risky Business. Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you next time.