Introduction
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a central enabling technology across financial services, with the insurance sector representing one of its most fertile yet complex application domains. Insurers operate at the intersection of uncertainty, regulation, long-term financial commitments, and evolving customer expectations. Traditional actuarial techniques and rule-based systems, while foundational, increasingly struggle to cope with the scale, velocity, and heterogeneity of contemporary data sources. In response, insurers are turning to AI-driven systems capable of learning from data, adapting to changing environments, and supporting decisions in real time.
Within this context, consultancy plays a critical role. The effective adoption of AI in insurance is not merely a technical challenge but an organisational, cultural, and strategic one. AI consultancy must therefore bridge advanced technical expertise with domain-specific knowledge, regulatory awareness, and change-management capability. This paper focuses on AUGMENTED, a trading name of GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC, as a case study of AI consultancy designed specifically for insurance companies.
Historical Context and Institutional Background
GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC, founded in 1896, represents a historically grounded British institution that has evolved to remain relevant in successive waves of technological change. Through AUGMENTED, it positions itself within a collective of global thinkers and practitioners who provide next-generation AI solutions to insurers. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the nature, scope, and implications of AUGMENTED’s AI consultancy work, situating it within both academic theory and industry practice.
Insurance Value Chain and AI Application
The insurance value chain encompasses underwriting, pricing, policy administration, claims management, fraud detection, and customer service. Each of these functions is increasingly data-intensive and time-sensitive. AI technologies, particularly machine learning, natural language processing, and decision-support systems, have demonstrated the capacity to augment human expertise across these domains.
For example, predictive models can enhance underwriting accuracy by incorporating non-traditional data sources, while automated claims triage systems can reduce settlement times and operational costs. However, the deployment of such systems introduces challenges related to model governance, explainability, bias, and regulatory compliance. Consequently, insurers require sophisticated guidance to ensure that AI adoption aligns with both business objectives and ethical standards.
Consultancy Philosophy and Approach
AI consultancy differs from traditional IT consulting in its emphasis on continuous learning, experimentation, and adaptation. Rather than delivering static systems, AI consultants must design processes and infrastructures that evolve over time. In insurance, this involves close collaboration with actuarial teams, risk managers, compliance officers, and senior leadership.
Effective AI consultancy must therefore integrate technical design with organisational transformation. This integration is central to AUGMENTED’s approach, which positions AI not as a replacement for human judgement but as an augmentation of institutional intelligence.
Methodology and Augmented Intelligence
A defining feature of AUGMENTED’s consultancy work is its focus on augmented intelligence: collaboration between human decision-makers and AI systems. This approach emphasises co-design, iterative development, and real-time decision-making, ensuring that AI solutions are context-sensitive, transparent, and aligned with operational and regulatory requirements.
AUGMENTED operationalises this principle through diagnostics, stakeholder engagement, data infrastructure analysis, and continuous adaptation of machine learning models. The consultancy ensures AI systems complement rather than replace human expertise, enhancing productivity, decision quality, and organisational agility.
Governance, Ethics, and Risk Management
Bias, explainability, and accountability are central to AUGMENTED’s AI consultancy. Models are developed with fairness assessments and performance monitoring, ensuring compliance with regulatory frameworks and ethical standards. Governance structures embed human oversight while enabling automated insights, balancing innovation with control.
Integration of Academic Research
AUGMENTED maintains strong links with leading academics and researchers. Models and frameworks are informed by peer-reviewed research and validated in real-world insurance contexts. This bidirectional relationship strengthens the consultancy’s methodological rigour and ensures solutions are grounded in both theory and practice.
Intellectual Property
GENERAL INTELLIGENCE PLC owns a UK registered trade mark in Class 42 for the word AUGMENTED in respect to: ‘Technological Services’.
It also owns the domain name augmented.uk.