Insurance giant Prudential is using Google’s MedLM, a family of endowment models tailored to healthcare use cases, to transform the complex and fragmented health insurance experience for its customers.
The move makes Prudential one of the first global insurers to adopt MedLM – typically used by healthcare organizations to develop AI applications that provide better experiences for healthcare professionals and patients – for claims processing and broader healthcare support.
Originally launched in Singapore and Malaysia, MedLM analyzes medical reports, invoices and other claims documents, providing summaries and recommendations for claims assessors, reducing manual data entry and minimizing errors.
According to Arjan Toor, CEO of Healthcare at Prudential, initial testing has shown impressive results, doubling the rate of automation of claims reviews and assessments with improved accuracy. This will result in faster payouts for customers and allow Prudential to manage higher claims volumes, he added.
Toor also emphasized the importance of maintaining human oversight, noting that the goal is to empower loss assessors by giving them the tools and information to make faster and more accurate decisions , rather than replacing them completely.
Beyond claims processing, Toor envisions a future where AI plays a more important role in personalizing healthcare journeys. “Our goal is not to develop a generic solution that works for everyone. The key is how do we do it [healthcare] relevant and personalized based on the specific needs of specific customers?”
Grace Park, Chief Data, Analytics and AI Officer at Prudential, explained the broader strategic value of data and AI, noting their role in improving the customer and insurance agent experience, improving access to healthcare, and strengthening business resilience .
She highlighted Prudential’s newly launched AI Lab, a collaborative initiative with Google Cloud that provides the company’s 15,000 employees a platform to contribute ideas and experiment with AI applications. This helps to democratize access to AI and promote a culture of innovation within the organization.
Park emphasized the importance of prioritizing relevant data and building the right platform to integrate internal and external data sources to ultimately provide personalized services. She also explained Prudential’s commitment to developing its workforce, starting with leadership and extending to other employees to ensure everyone understands and can effectively use AI tools.
Park addressed privacy and security concerns related to AI, particularly in the sensitive areas of healthcare and finance, saying: “We evaluate every process and make sure we involve the right parties in security before one AI solution comes to market.” Combined with Google’s one-way data sharing with Prudential, this ensures that customer data is handled responsibly and securely.
Moving forward, Prudential plans to expand the use of MedLM and other AI technologies to other areas of its healthcare business. The company envisions a future in which it can play a more proactive role in improving health outcomes for its customers by leveraging data and AI to connect the dots between patients, healthcare providers and insurers, and ultimately a more efficient and patient-centric healthcare ecosystem to accomplish.
“This is just the first step in leveraging generative AI to deliver seamless, digitally enabled healthcare experiences at every step of our customers’ healthcare journey – from diagnosis to treatment to recovery and prevention,” said Toor.