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A researcher exploring the role of AI in the future of the European insurance industry has celebrated her graduation from ��ɫ��Ƶ.

, from Frankfurt, Germany, was conferred with her PhD from UL’s Kemmy Business School (KBS), joining more than 2,000 fellow students graduating as part of the University’s winter ceremonies.

The daughter of an insurance professional, Juliane had sworn never to follow her father into the industry and undertook her bachelor’s degree in politics, sociology, and economics at Zeppelin University, Germany. However, her curiosity was piqued during her study abroad internship at Lloyd’s of London – the global marketplace for insurance. She completed her degree in London after being offered a job at a registered Lloyd’s broker, before returning to Germany to begin a master’s at the prestigious Institute for Insurance Studies at TH Köln, Cologne.

Juliane’s master’s thesis, which explored how trust can be built in the use of AI in insurance sales and distribution, would drive her curiosity and shape her next steps in education.

“Everyone was saying that insurance was a ‘people’s business’ – that no AI or technology could ever get rid of the human aspect. But as AI systems were being used in more ways, the conversation changed to ‘it’s a people’s business, but we also need AI’. People began wondering, given that the insurance industry is using such vast amounts of data from wearables and cars, how we can make sure that it’s ethically correct.”

It was the idea of ‘trustworthy AI’ that piqued Juliane’s interest and formed the basis of a PhD topic that she is truly passionate about. She noted that the topic was already pervading discussions around the future of medicine, healthcare, and criminal justice – but the finance and insurance side remained relatively unexplored. Considering the debate around trustworthiness, Juliane argued that examining trust and AI deployment in insurance offered real traction by providing researchers and policymakers with a specific domain and a set of profound socioeconomic consequences heightened by AI deployment.

“Insurance was always said to be one of the most trust-intensive industries because it has an intangible product. From a consumer perspective, the purchase decision is difficult because of the lack of experience-based characteristics. They are paying a premium today for a promise of performance in the future, which is difficult to measure and verify because of the lack of immediate return and the significant time delay between signing a contract and receiving payment or services,” she explained.

Juliane was treading on new ground with her research. She took a deep-dive into trust models dating back to the 1990s, focusing on human-first interpersonal relationships between insurance brokers and clients. She then compared them to modern-day processes, where AI has been integrated, to figure out where they intersected and what evolution looks like.

Juliane went on to devise a matrix through which she and future academics could research the relationship between AI and trust in insurance, and she worked closely with key AI experts in Germany’s insurance industry. Her research yielded fascinating insights into how AI has been integrated thus far – and highlighted the importance of human interaction within the industry.

“When we conducted our interviews, the understanding was that AI is not here to replace anyone; it’s here to make people quicker and more efficient, and to help them get the job done,” said Juliane.

“It was always about how we can combine the advantages of both AI and the humans working there – it was a very integrated view.” 

Professor Michaele Völler, Director of the Research Centre for the Insurance Market and Juliane’s Germany-based supervisor, added: “Thanks to our excellent network with practitioners in the insurance sector, we were able to secure leading AI experts as interviewees. The interviews themselves benefited from Juliane’s very special profile. She is not only an expert in the fields of AI and insurance but also in behavioural sciences. She could facilitate a deep and meaningful discussion even with the top experts, gaining particularly valuable insights.”

Juliane’s research suggests that, with AI being integrated into decision-making processes, sector-specific formal guidelines and clarity around ethics are needed.

“This is exactly where the research topic comes in: we will need to have some guardrails on what we are allowed to do, what we shouldn’t do, and what people want,” she explained.

“Consumer advocates should come into the mix and point out where they do and do not agree, because we’re still figuring out where to use AI and where not to use AI. Coming up with rules will be a very important step.”

While Juliane’s research focused on the German insurance industry, several Irish institutional actors and industry players have expressed interest in exchanging ideas around her learnings. 

Juliane now hopes that her PhD will form a strong basis from which the topic can be further explored, both on an academic level and across the industry. 

“Ultimately, we would like to attract interest from policyholders and regulators from the industry, to come up with an insurance domain-specific AI governance approach, whereby we could build upon what trustworthy AI really means in the context of insurance,” she said. 

The timing could not be more suitable, with Juliane’s UL supervisor, Professor Martin Mullins, adding that “this is now a very hot topic for policymakers in Europe and ultimately the main goal of Juliane’s research has been to protect consumers.”

Counting her three-hour viva among some of the greatest moments of her PhD journey, Juliane reserved special praise for her supervisors – Professor Finbarr Murphy, Executive Dean of the Kemmy Business School; Professor Martin Mullins, Department of Accounting and Finance ��ɫ��Ƶ; and Professor Michaele Völler, Institute for Insurance Studies at TH Köln, Germany. She also expressed her gratitude to her examiners: Professor Alex de Ruyter, Birmingham City University, and Dr Brendan McCarthy, Department of Accounting and Finance ��ɫ��Ƶ.

“What I must say, and I think it’s something unique to UL and the Centre for Emerging Risk Studies (CERS) research group – is that they made me feel a sense of belonging without being there physically. They made me feel so welcome that it didn’t even matter that I was sitting somewhere else, doing research from a completely different country,” she said. 

While Juliane takes a breath to celebrate the milestone of completing her PhD, she revealed she is keen to explore the next steps around her pioneering research.

“I would love to continue it because I think there is so much promise and interest in this topic,” she said.