Subcontext has launched technology that it says will allow UK insurers and brokers to distribute protection products through conversational AI platforms including ChatGPT and Claude.
The AI-focused insurance technology business said its integration could enable consumers to ask questions about life cover, obtain prices based on product rules, check eligibility, receive explanations of exclusions and book callbacks without leaving an AI conversation.
The launch follows the FCA’s latest work on the pure protection market, which has called on firms to develop technology-led approaches that could help reduce the UK’s protection gap.
Subcontext said insurers and distributors could deploy their own branded assistants within ChatGPT and Claude, while whole-of-market protection firms would be able to access product panels through its integration with Iress’ The Exchange.
Alain Desmier (pictured), co-founder of Subcontext, said: “Consumers who do not want to buy protection over the phone are underserved by today’s protection market because traditional distribution cannot profitably deliver a quick, easy purchase.
“Conversational AI changes that because it opens new ways to distribute protection on the communication channels consumers prefer to use.”
AI GOVERNANCE
The company said the technology had been designed to address governance and audit requirements alongside distribution.
It follows the FCA’s Mills Review, published in July, which examined the potential impact of artificial intelligence on retail financial services and considered the role of AI agents acting on behalf of consumers.
Mike Laming, co-founder and CTO of Subcontext, said: “We’ve built the agentic insurance stack that sits on top of large language model (LLM) infrastructure to define and distribute protection products on ChatGPT and Claude with governance built in.
“The journey appears within an insurance business’s own brand and also through messaging channels like WhatsApp.”
Subcontext said the ChatGPT and Claude integration forms one of three routes through which it is seeking to support AI-based insurance distribution.
The second is WebMCP, a proposed browser standard currently in origin trial which is intended to allow an insurer’s website to provide an AI agent with information about its products and quotation processes rather than requiring the agent to interpret website content independently.
The third is a governed agent service for channels controlled directly by insurers and distributors, including web chat, WhatsApp, SMS, voice and email.
Subcontext said the different channels operate from a common product definition, with eligibility, pricing and underwriting rules held as configuration and an audit trail retained for AI-generated answers.
Desmier added: “The FCA has been clear that the protection gap starts with adults who never consider protection at all. Those adults are already asking AI assistants about mortgages, children and money.
“There are 31 million adults without pure protection in the UK and we are building the technology that lets our clients serve them in that AI conversation.”
