Paul Murray, CEO of Swiss Re Life & Health Re, highlighted that mental health claims have increased significantly this year, noting that the reinsurer is managing this trend through its AI-driven Wysa app, which has shown significant improvements in users’ mental health.
In an interview with CNBC’s flagship program Squawk Box Asia, Murray outlined the sharp rise in claims about mental health.
“There are some issues here,” Murray explained. “One is that the taboo on talking about mental health has gone away, which is a very good thing for society, but it means the cost of insurance policies to support mental health is also rising.
“So, part of our role is to pay claims, but also think about how do you manage costs? We did this really interesting thing using artificial intelligence. We worked with a company called Wysa to create an app where people could have conversations about some of the mental health challenges they were facing.”
Swiss Re has partnered with Wysa to develop Wysa Assure, the first mental health app for insurance. It is an AI-powered platform designed to provide accessible, confidential support to help prevent and reduce the impact of negative mental health events through early intervention, ultimately improving overall mental health.
Murray highlighted the success of the app, noting that Swiss Re observed a 30% reduction in depression rates among people using Wysa Assure. This shows that AI-driven applications play a vital role in reducing claims costs.
He said: “It’s an app, so you communicate with the app, and the artificial intelligence enables the app to direct questions based on input from the communicator.
“It really works. We’ve just launched this technology, but we’ve already seen a 30 percent drop in depression rates in people who use our Wysa app, which is really remarkable. That’s probably the equivalent of five to six treatments. And it’s economically very efficient. So it’s really, really powerful.”
He continued, “But we also need to look at product design for mental health claims. If you look at Australia, for example, we’ve seen a 700% increase in mental health claims for people in their 30s in 10 years. Sometimes you have to ask what’s actually happening there, and we’re doing a lot of research to understand that and try to design products that can still be paid for in the future, while managing costs.”
Murray concluded that artificial intelligence offers great promise for improving productivity, noting that if people are unable to work due to mental health issues and Swiss Re can help them return to work, this is a positive outcome.