BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- "In either Chinese or English, it could understand what I was asking and answer me accurately." This experience at an international business matchmaking event led Marshall, head of AI platform at FWD Group, a renowned insurance company in Asia, to collaborate with Chinese AI startup MiniMax to bring large models to insurance operations and safeguard financial data security.
"MiniMax offers an AI Agent that is both professional and empathetic," said Howard, chief future officer of FWD Group. In the future, FWD Group will fully leverage fintech to enhance its localized service capabilities, achieve precise identification and rapid response to customer needs, and improve service efficiency and quality.
Bond of Insurance with AI at an International Conference
With the advancement of AI technology, large models have demonstrated immense value in various domains due to their powerful computing and deep learning capabilities. The key to large model development lies in its applications.
In January 2024, a team led by the co-founders of MiniMax visits Singapore to conduct technological exchanges with Microsoft. (Provided by MiniMax)
"In the context of globalization, the global insurance industry is also facing significant challenges. Among them, the uneven quality of insurance brokers is particularly prominent," Howard stated at an international business matchmaking conference held in Shanghai at the end of 2023. In his view, insurance brokers are the bridge between insurance companies and customers, and their professionalism and service quality directly affect the success of the insurance business and customer satisfaction.
MiniMax is a company dedicated to the research and development of general large models and the application of large model technology. It has developed large model software for many Chinese internet companies to serve overseas users, and is also actively contacting leading enterprises in various fields overseas. At the matchmaking meeting, MiniMax's representatives demonstrated the real cases of text-based and speech-based models to FWD Group. "If you didn't tell me this was a voice generated by a large model, I would have thought I was talking to a real person. It's really too similar!" Marshall said.
The exchange at the meeting left a deep impression on FWD Group, and the door to cooperation was thus opened.
The Insurance AI Agent can realize real-time speech translation and intelligent summary. (Provided by MiniMax)
Private Solution on Cloud Ensuring Financial Data Security
Financial institutions have far stricter data security requirements than other industries, which posed the first challenge for MiniMax when cooperating with FWD Group. Considering the development trend of large model technology and the actual needs of the project, cloud deployment offers greater flexibility and scalability, enabling enterprises to dynamically adjust computing resources and optimize training strategies. At the same time, financial data security requirements must not be compromised.
Typically, cooperation between financial institutions and other companies often adopts private deployment to achieve data security and intelligent services simultaneously. To address this, MiniMax designed a cloud-based private deployment solution specifically for the financial industry. This solution allows for continuous upgrades to the technological capabilities of collaborative projects in line with large model iterations, while also employing technological measures to ensure that all sensitive data "only enters and never leaves." Through security measures such as data encryption and access control, it can also effectively prevent data leaks and unauthorized access risks. Additionally, the solution provides real-time auditing capabilities, monitoring data operations and traffic throughout the entire process to ensure data operation compliance and traceability. These measures form a robust line of defense to safeguard financial data security.
FWD Group recognized the enormous potential of the cloud-based private deployment solution in driving intelligent upgrades to insurance operations, leading to the joint development of an Insurance AI Agent.
Professional and Empathetic Insurance AI Agent to Serve Global Clients
As a global financial services provider, FWD Group plans to invest more resources to strengthen its market presence in Southeast Asia, hoping to fully utilize financial technology products to enhance its localized service capabilities in various countries, achieve precise identification and rapid response to customer needs, and improve service efficiency and quality.
In January 2024, FWD Group approached MiniMax with a new requirement, hoping to explore training for Southeast Asian minority languages, allowing the Insurance AI Agent to serve not only Chinese- and English-speaking customers but also customers in Southeast Asia who speak minority languages.
In response to this demand, MiniMax accelerated the iteration of its self-developed large models: collecting data in various forms, including text and speech, to create a Southeast Asian minority language corpus; and utilizing natural language processing techniques and deep learning algorithms to preprocess and extract features from the corpus, ensuring that the models' capabilities are suitable for Southeast Asian minority languages.
At the same time, the Insurance AI Agent underwent localization modifications. For instance, considering local cultural customs and religious beliefs in Southeast Asia, the Insurance AI Agent avoids using language that could be misconstrued or offensive when communicating with customers; it also provides compliant insurance services to customers in accordance with local laws, regulations and industry norms.
The technological team discusses solutions to meet the specific needs of those speaking minority languages. (Provided by MiniMax)
In April 2024, MiniMax launched "MiniMax-abab 6.5," the first commercialized 1-trillion-parameter, MOE-based large model in the Asia-Pacific region. Based on "MiniMax-abab 6.5," the company submitted the first-generation of the Insurance AI Agent to FWD Group.
After testing, the Insurance AI Agent not only achieved the basic level of an insurance agent in terms of "IQ" but also performed well in terms of "EQ." It can simulate various broker images and personality features according to customer needs and engage in natural and fluent conversations with users. Whether it is needed to be a humorous and witty chat companion, a rigorous and professional business consultant, or even a warm and caring confidant, the AI Agent can handle all situations with ease.
"This is an AI Agent with both professionalism and warmth," Howard said. Due to the high efficiency and precise and innovative features demonstrated by the Insurance AI Agent in multiple application scenarios, FWD Group and MiniMax signed a strategic cooperation agreement.
Currently, the Insurance AI Agent has achieved coverage of languages including Japanese, Indonesian and Thai. FWD Group will gradually deploy it to the relevant markets. In the future, the two sides will continue to work closely to further optimize the Insurance AI Agent based on the characteristics of markets. (Chen Yunfu)
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