ERGO publishes white paper on multimodal generative artificial intelligence

ERGO Innovation Lab, the ERGO Group’s incubator for new ideas and spin-ins, has published a roughly 20-page white paper on multimodal generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Titled “The next generation of generative artificial intelligence: Progress and Multimodal Applications in the Insurance Industry”, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments and how multimodal GenAI models work.

Whereas large language models (LLMs) can only process and generate text, multimodal GenAI models are also able to simultaneously process and generate images, videos or audio files. This opens up a host of possibilities for the insurance industry, as multimodal GenAI models can be used to produce new ideas for products, improve landing pages or create audio-visual content.

The white papers touches on these and other examples and also provides useful tips for prompting multimodal models effectively in order to generate the best-possible results. ERGO’s experts also discuss the challenges and limitations of the current GenAI models on the market.

Georgina Neitzel, Head of Innovation Lab, has this to say: “The rapid development of multimodal GenAI offers the insurance industry numerous opportunities. It optimises processes, improves the customer experience and enables more precise and efficient decision-making by leveraging extensive, data-based analyses. At the same time, GenAI democratises and levels the playing field in terms of access to specialist knowledge and skills. But GenAI is not without its challenges or limitations. Therefore, in order to roll out GenAI, it will be necessary to develop a holistic approach that stretches from fine-tuning data strategies to investing in infrastructure and talents. Organisations that are taking action now will secure themselves a key competitive edge going forward.”

ERGO has extensive expertise in the use of language models and rule-based voice assistants. ERGO has been using large language models to classify and extract information from documents since 2023. Since 2020, ERGO’s Conversational AI Team has been using artificial intelligence to develop rule-based phonebots for its customer service. The team is also working on the first GenAI applications, such as the internal “ERGO GPT” that went live for employees in April 2024. Work is also currently under way on developing “Knowledge Assistant” chatbots, i.e. interfaces to existing internal knowledge databases, and GPT-based chatbots for communicating with customers. Meanwhile, the ERGO Innovation Lab tests very early on how new technologies, such as GenAI, can be strategically deployed within the insurance industry.

The current white paper “The next generation of generative artificial intelligence: Progress and Multimodal Applications in the Insurance Industry” is available in German and English to all interested parties free of charge.