By Helen Richardson, senior product manager, UK & Ireland, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Insurance
Insurance providers in the UK sit on a goldmine of information. Within their systems lie billions of data points about customer behaviour, policies, claims, and interactions. This data is arguably their most valuable asset. Yet the question now facing the market is: how ready is that data for the age of artificial intelligence?
Generative AI and other emerging technologies promise to reshape insurance into something far more personalised and engaging. But without clean, connected, and reliable data at its core, the sector will struggle to realise those opportunities.
Why “AI Ready” Data Matters
“AI ready” data means that a provider has a single customer view – a unified record that reflects the full relationship between the individual and the insurer. This requires linking records across functions such as claims, pricing, renewals, and marketing, and ensuring details are up to date and error-free.
Take something as simple as a change of address or a misspelt name. If one department updates it while another does not, that fragmented view limits the value of the data. Worse still, entire swathes of data may be left dormant or inaccessible – a missed opportunity to improve the customer experience and business performance.
The goal should be one consolidated customer record – often referred to as a “golden record” – that reflects all interactions, including those from acquired businesses. Only then can insurance providers have confidence that new AI-driven tools will be drawing on accurate, complete, and contextually relevant information.
Solving the data management puzzle
Solving this data management puzzle has not been easy, for several reasons:
- Mergers and acquisitions: Consolidation means insurance providers inherit vast new data sets that must be integrated quickly and accurately.
- Historical shopping and switching rates: According to the LexisNexis® Risk Solutions Insurance Demand Meter UK[i], motor insurance shopping hit record levels in 2024 amid the cost-of-living crisis and rising premiums.
- High product penetration: The Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Lives Survey [ii]notes that UK individuals typically hold 16 separate insurance policies. Multiply that across the population, and there will be millions of daily interactions that generate new data points.
Every quote, mid-term adjustment, claim, or marketing campaign represents not just a customer touchpoint but also a data opportunity. The challenge is stitching those points together in a way that builds a deeper understanding of the individual.
AI’s Potential to Personalise Insurance
With structured, accurate data in place, the transformative potential of AI becomes clear:
- Customer service: Generative AI can power virtual assistants that provide tailored, contextually aware responses.
- Product recommendations: AI can identify coverage gaps and suggest policies more aligned to a customer’s needs.
- Claims handling: At First Notice of Loss, AI can summarise unstructured feedback into structured claims reports, expediting triage and investigation.
- Marketing: Generative tools can craft personalised renewal letters, newsletters, and promotions.
Beyond today’s use cases, future applications are already on the horizon. A white paper from SAP Fioneer[iii] points to proactive management of extreme weather risks – for instance, warning customers about flood or wildfire exposure and offering support before disaster strikes. For UK insurance providers, meeting these expectations is fast becoming not just a differentiator but a necessity.
Creating the Golden Record
So how can UK insurers move from aspiration to action?
Advanced data linking engines offer a solution. By scanning billions of records across different systems – from quotes to claims to renewals – they identify common threads and merge them into a single, persistent identifier. This becomes the “golden record,” a continuously updated 360-degree view of each customer.
Such systems don’t just rely on internal data. They also draw on external sources, such as public information and proprietary data from data linking engines such as LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ LexID® resolve ambiguities and fill gaps. The result is a scalable, automated way to cut through the complexity that has historically slowed down data management projects.
Why Clean Data Is the Competitive Advantage
In a crowded UK market, customer data is the true differentiator. Yet for insurance providers with decades of history, multiple acquisitions, and millions of customers, making sense of it can seem daunting.
But the prize is significant. Clean, structured, AI-ready data reduces friction at every stage of the customer journey – from smoother onboarding to faster claims handling – while freeing human staff to focus on empathy and complex problem-solving. It also enables insurance providers to deliver the kind of personalised, proactive service that consumers increasingly expect in the digital age.
Time to Act
By investing in solutions that enable the single customer view, insurance providers can unlock the full value of their data. With clean and connected records as the foundation, AI can deliver on its promise – not just to transform processes, but to transform the very relationship between insurance providers and their customers.
[i] https://lexisnexis.turtl.co/story/demand-meter-uk-q1-2025/page/1
[ii] https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/financial-lives/fls-2022-general-insurance-protection.pdf
[iii] https://www.sapfioneer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Whitepaper-Insurance-Everywhere-09022024.pdf
