Travelers on Muse: “It’s early days”
Travelers is exploring the opportunities and threats posed by Muse and AI shopping assistants, but executives expect a measured pace of adoption and say the insurer’s investments in digital distribution have prepared it to respond.
Speaking during Travelers’ third-quarter earnings call, Michael Klein, executive vice president and president of Personal Insurance, said Muse is currently focused mostly on personal insurance.
“The first thing I would say just broadly about Muse and AI assistance, it’s early days, right? I mean the actual volume of observable activity is pretty minor.”
Klein pointed to several factors that could slow the pace and scope of change, including consumer adoption, technology, data, and legal and regulatory considerations.
He outlined three questions insurers need to answer when engaging with an AI assistant: whether it is authorized to act for the consumer, whether the consumer confirms the accuracy of the information provided, and whether the customer understands the coverage.
“First and foremost, is that AI assistant actually authorized by the consumer that’s doing the shopping. Secondly, is the consumer affirming and confirming that the information provided is accurate. And third and probably most importantly, does the customer actually understand what they’re buying.”
Those questions become more significant as the insurance purchase becomes more complex.
“Those things aren’t sort of particularly transparent and clear as you engage digitally in this space,” Klein said. “And those considerations grow in importance with the size and the complexity of the asset or the risk that you’re insuring.”
Travelers’ response is to continue experimenting while drawing on digital capabilities built across its commercial and personal insurance businesses.
“So we’re engaged in exploring the opportunities and the threats here. We’re going to continue to test and learn and make sure that we’re prepared to respond and we’ve been building digital capabilities across the organization for a really long time.”
Chairman and CEO Alan Schnitzer emphasized that consumers already have the ability to buy insurance digitally, but completed digital transactions tend to involve simpler risks.
“People might use the technology to shop and do some price discovery, but very often, they opt out to talk to a person.”
Schnitzer said Travelers anticipated a more digital market two decades ago. Its investment in direct-to-consumer capabilities was intended to build expertise that could serve the wider business.
“We didn’t invest in D2C because we thought we were going to be a leader in D2C. We invested in D2C 20 years ago because we wanted to make sure we have the capabilities of a digital company.”
That included learning how to engage with distribution partners and service customers. Schnitzer said the acquisition of Simply Business also reflected the expectation that insurance would become more digital.
“We think this is going to be sort of a measured adoption to the extent there is adoption,” he said. “But wherever it goes, we are very prepared for.”
The comments come as Meta positions insurance as a use case for its AI agents. On October 12, Meta introduced Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full, citing “navigating an insurance claim” among the tasks the models are designed to handle.
“Whether the job is navigating an insurance claim, understanding a lease, or making sense of someone’s finances, a model has to interpret the information in front of it and work through the problem,” Meta wrote. Muse Wonder will soon power experiences in Muse, rolling out first to subscribers.
