IBM’s Watson Sells Blockchenized Insurance Contracts

IBM’s artificial intelligence framework, Watson, is now selling insurance contracts that are integrated with a blockchain network.

“The opportunities that come with AI on cloud and blockchain technologies allow companies from the insurance and InsurTech sectors to digitize and improve their current processes, and we are confident our solutions will jumpstart this transformation,” VAIOT’s CEO Christoph Surgowt said in a statement.

VAIOT recently raised $5.9 million to bring together artificial intelligence and blockchain tech for insurance contracts.

Watson handles the initial process by voice or text on an app, asking key questions like what insurance they are interested in and how much they are looking to pay.

Watson then provides different options for the customer to pick, with the contract then signed.

The contract then is stored on the blockchain with “intelligent contracts” used which apparently allow for the whole process to be automated without human involvement.

In this case they use the Cosmos SDK which utilizes the Tendermint consensus algorithm with VAIOT claiming this allows for blockchain interoperability.

“Advancements in AI, automation and hybrid cloud are helping enterprises around the world achieve new levels of efficiency and customer satisfaction,” IBM Global Technology Services Leader Paweł Raczyński said in a statement, further adding:

“IBM is working with VAIOT to bring together IBM Services’ industry expertise with IBM Watson’s cutting-edge natural language processing capabilities to deliver new solutions that provide a seamless customer experience.”

IBM itself is rising as a key player in artificial intelligence with the company being a pioneer in pushing blockchain technology as well back when it was uncool in corporate halls.

In VAIOT both of these two frontier techs are coming together to perform a service that previously was handled by humans with it to be seen whether that’s the start of automation in the insurance sale business.