AI Insurance Planners to Appear in the Second Half of This Year... Financial Services Commission Announces Legislative Notice

Financial Services Commission Announces Legislative Notice on Enforcement Decree and Supervisory Regulations of the Insurance Business Act

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-ho Kim] From the second half of this year, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) voice bots will be permitted when recruiting insurance over the phone. Additionally, in response to the COVID-19 era, insurance agents will be able to recruit insurance without meeting customers in person.

On the 16th, the Financial Services Commission announced that it will give public notice of the 'Enforcement Decree and Supervisory Regulations of the Insurance Business Act' based on these contents. The Financial Services Commission expects that through this improvement plan, various methods such as face-to-face, telephone, and online will be mutually combined and complemented. In particular, it is expected to enhance the effectiveness of consumer protection while reducing the inefficiencies of existing recruitment methods.

First, regarding face-to-face insurance recruitment, the obligation for agents to meet customers in person will be exempted. Previously, insurance agents in face-to-face channels were required to meet consumers at least once and explain important matters of the insurance contract. However, considering the COVID-19 situation, the Financial Services Commission has allowed telephone explanations without face-to-face meetings, provided that safety measures such as explanation and recording of important matters over the phone are in place.

Also, the repetitive signature procedure during mobile subscription will be abolished. Considering consumer inconvenience, electronic signature input will be required only once at the start of the subscription process, and consumers will only need to carefully review important matters and each document’s content before clicking the signature field.

As an improvement plan related to insurance telephone recruitment, the use of AI voice bots will be permitted. This decision was made because the method where insurance agents read the entire standard script themselves over the phone has issues such as fast explanation speed and inaccurate pronunciation. However, when using AI voice bots, if consumers ask questions or request additional explanations, agents must respond directly in real time.

A hybrid recruitment method combining telephone explanation and mobile subscription will also be allowed. Important matters can be explained and recorded over the phone, while the subscription process can be conveniently completed via mobile.

Furthermore, the insurance full-sale monitoring (happy call) procedure will be improved to allow the use of voice bots. When recruiting via video calls, necessary model guidelines will also be prepared. The standard script for telephone explanations, which has been criticized for being excessively lengthy, will be simplified.

This Enforcement Decree of the Insurance Business Act will be implemented from the second half of this year after going through statutory amendment procedures such as public notice and approval by the Financial Services Commission. Matters that can be addressed through authoritative interpretation or non-action without legal amendments will be prioritized through necessary measures.

A Financial Services Commission official stated, "We will closely monitor the implementation process of the system and continuously strive to ensure there are no issues in consumer protection."