IAN HERBERT | Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Financial Management, School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University
ALISTAIR MILNE | Professor of Financial Economics, School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University1
ALEX ZARIFIS | Research Associate, School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University

This article uses insights from knowledge management to describe and contrast two approaches to the application of artificial intelligence and data technologies in insurance operations. The first focuses on the automation of existing processes using robotic processing intervention (RPA). Knowledge is codified, routinized, and embedded in systems. The second focuses on using cognitive computing (AI) to support data driven human decision making based on tacit knowledge. These approaches are complementary, and their successful execution depends on a fully developed organizational data strategy. Four cases are presented to illustrate specific applications and data that are being used by insurance firms to effect change of this kind.