From life cover to income protection: Lessons from scaling AI across protection underwriting

Robert Morrison, Chief Underwriting Officer at Aviva, reflects on what we’ve learned from introducing AI-powered medical evidence summarisation across Life Insurance, Critical Illness and Income Protection applications, and what those lessons mean for advisers and their clients.

Published: 01 Oct 2026 5 mins read

Over the last year, AI has gone from being a promising innovation to an established part of the underwriting process at Aviva. What began with life insurance has rapidly developed into a capability supporting life, critical illness and income protection, showing how quickly focused experimentation can be scaled into meaningful business impact.

For advisers, however, this isn’t simply a story about technology. It’s a story about what we’ve learned from using AI in real underwriting environments and how those lessons can help create faster, more consistent journeys for advisers and clients, while maintaining the robust underwriting standards that remain central to every decision we make.

Why accuracy remains the foundation of good underwriting

When we first introduced AI-powered medical evidence summarisation, improving efficiency was an obvious aim. But from day one, we were clear that speed could never come at the expense of accuracy.

Medical evidence plays a critical role in helping underwriters assess risk fairly and consistently. Whether reviewing a GP report, consultant letter or specialist assessment, underwriters need confidence that the information they’re using is complete, relevant and accurately represented.

That’s why rigorous testing has been such an important part of our approach. Extensive testing has demonstrated a 99.7% accuracy rate for the AI-generated summaries, while reducing the time underwriters spend reviewing each case by around half. Underwriters remain responsible for every final decision.

For advisers and clients, that’s an important distinction. Successful innovation isn’t about making decisions faster at any cost. It’s about removing unnecessary friction while preserving the care, expertise and attention to detail that good underwriting demands.

Supporting expertise, not replacing it

Much of the wider discussion around AI focuses on automation. Our experience has reinforced a different lesson.

The greatest value comes when technology supports experienced underwriters rather than attempting to replace them.

Medical reports can be lengthy and highly complex, often containing years of clinical history from multiple healthcare professionals. AI helps organise and summarise that information, allowing underwriters to navigate large volumes of evidence more efficiently and focus their attention where it matters most.

In practice, that means underwriters spend less time searching through documentation and more time applying their expertise, judgement and understanding of individual circumstances.

The result isn’t automated underwriting. It’s better-supported underwriting.

That distinction remains important as new technologies continue to develop across the protection market. Ultimately, advisers and clients want confidence that decisions are being made carefully, consistently and fairly. Technology can support that process, but human expertise remains at the heart of it.

Where AI can make the biggest difference

One of the most interesting lessons we’ve learned is where AI delivers the greatest benefit.

The technology is particularly valuable when reviewing longer, more detailed and medically complex evidence. These are often the cases that require the greatest amount of underwriter time and can create the longest periods of uncertainty for customers waiting for an outcome.

Our journey from Life Insurance to Critical Illness and then Income Protection reflects that learning. Each stage has helped us better understand how AI can support underwriters in handling increasingly complex medical evidence and varying case types.

At launch our underwriting AI capability was market leading, and we believe this remains the most advanced application of generative AI currently operating within UK protection underwriting, supporting decisions at the point of application.

For advisers, that’s significant because complex cases are often where communication, service and case progression matter most. When clients are waiting for decisions, every improvement in efficiency has the potential to contribute to a better overall experience.

What this means for advisers and clients

Most of this activity happens behind the scenes, but advisers may increasingly benefit from the outcomes it helps create.

More efficient medical evidence review can support smoother progression when reports are required. It can help reduce avoidable delays, improve consistency and shorten the time between receiving evidence and reaching an underwriting decision.

Perhaps most importantly, it helps support the experience advisers work hard to create for their clients.

Applying for protection can already feel complex, particularly when medical evidence is involved. Clients want reassurance that their application is moving forward and confidence that their information is being assessed carefully and fairly. By helping underwriters review evidence more efficiently, AI can play a role in delivering that reassurance.

Looking ahead

The rollout of AI-powered summarisation across Life Insurance, Critical Illness and Income Protection marks an important milestone in our underwriting journey, but it isn’t the end of the story.

What excites me most isn’t the technology itself. It’s what we’ve learned from applying it in real underwriting environments and how those lessons can help shape the future of protection.

The last year has reinforced a simple principle: successful innovation isn’t about replacing expertise. It’s about combining technology with human judgement to deliver better outcomes.

For advisers and clients alike, that’s where the real opportunity lies: creating underwriting journeys that are faster, simpler and more consistent, while maintaining the care, accuracy and expertise that sit at the heart of protection underwriting.