Aviva extends AI underwriting tool to critical illness cover
Aviva has expanded its AI-powered underwriting summarisation tool to critical illness insurance, extending technology it first deployed for life insurance in November 2025. The move makes Aviva the first insurer to apply the system to critical illness underwriting.
The tool converts complex medical reports into concise summaries to help underwriters make faster and more consistent decisions. In life insurance underwriting, it has cut review times per case by around 50%, according to the insurer.
Critical illness underwriting presents greater complexity than life insurance, requiring the system to handle a wider range of medical conditions and risk factors. Testing has shown the tool delivers comparable accuracy to its life insurance application while streamlining underwriting at the point of application.
The system also supports post-application auditing, allowing insurers to review underwriting decisions and maintain consistency across cases.
Robert Morrison, Chief Underwriting Officer at Aviva, said the expansion represents "another important step in our commitment to making protection insurance faster, simpler and more accessible for our customers using generative AI."
Aviva plans to introduce AI summarisation for income protection underwriting next, continuing to embed the technology across its protection product suite. The development reflects wider adoption of AI for insurance underwriting as carriers look to streamline decision-making and improve accuracy on complex products.
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