President Yoon Yeol-hyun of Kyobo Life Insurance receives the technology initiative of the year award at the Asia Insurance Industry Award held in Singapore on Oct. 30. (Photos: Kyobo Life Insurance)

Kyobo Life Insurance said has developed the world’s first artificial intelligence-based underwriting system that automatically analyzes and approves client contracts.

The system, named “BARO,” an abbreviation of best analysis and rapid outcome, employs machine learning technology, along with the ability to process large amounts of natural language data, according to the insurer.

Like a human underwriter, BARO has the ability to insure or reject clients according to company standards. It may also communicate on a real time basis with a financial planner.

If the submitted applications need a detailed assessment, such in the case of a conditional approval, then BARO hands over the case to a human underwriter, after narrowing down five keywords crucial to the evaluation process.

Capable of assessing complex insurance solutions, BARO is an evolved version of the conventional rule-based system AI that is used by most overseas insurers, according to Kyobo. Baro won the technology initiative of the year award at the Asia Insurance Industry Award.

“We aim to be a life insurer that provides new possibilities for the global insurance industry through digital transformation,” a Kyobo official said.

Kyobo Life is set to introduce new products soon down the line including the 4th generation life-time insurance products showing that the life insurer is about to step up its marketing campaign in the most intensive life insurance market which is the life-time life insurance products market.

The company plans to add the low-dissolution structure to the health guarantees function to the 4th generation life-time insurance product that will be put on the market down the line, officials of the company said.

Kyobo Life has introduced the life-time life insurance new product the health plus 4th generation life-time insurance product in the market on Oct. 14.

The new product has the benefits of the guarantees for the care of various diseases in addition to the payment of insurance money at the time of death.

A benefit of the life-time insurance product is that the policy holders can get the payment of the insurance money for death when GI and LTC develop and can use the payment for various purposes including the hospital bills and other expenses in general, the officials explained.

The new insurance product guarantees the coverage of the treatment for various serious diseases such as heart diseases, cancers and brain diseases, among others.

If a special clause is added, the new life-time insurance product can cover such critical diseases as the light and medium-degree dementia, Lou Gherig’s, Parkinson’s and rheumatism, among others, that afflict the senior citizens such as arthritis. It also guarantees the payment for the hospitalization expenses.

Kyobo Life Insurance Co. has been offering a new lifetime insurance policy for sufferers of dementia, gradually reducing the premiums and preparing for a guarantee for the treatment of the disease.

What’s special about the insurance policy is that it guarantees life-time care, including death and treatment at a low insurance premium. This is the first time that a large life insurer has put on the market such a life insurance policy for sufferers of dementia.

A view of Kyobo Life Insurance headquarters at Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul.