Insurance brokers who fail to embrace artificial intelligence risk being overtaken by competitors who are already using technology to reshape how they serve customers, identify opportunities and run their businesses, Victoria University Vice Chancellor Prof. Lawrence Muganga has warned.
Speaking at the monthly Insurance Brokers Association of Uganda (IBAU) CEO Breakfast Meeting at Four Points by Sheraton, Muganga challenged industry leaders to look at artificial intelligence beyond popular chatbots and begin treating it as a strategic business tool.
He said the rapid development of AI presents insurance brokers with an opportunity to rethink traditional business models and reach sections of the Ugandan population that have historically remained outside the insurance market.
“The market is there. Sometimes the packaging is a problem. How we send our messages to these people,” Muganga said, arguing that insurance companies and brokers need to find more effective ways of communicating the value of insurance to potential customers.
Muganga said Uganda’s relatively low insurance penetration should be viewed not only as a challenge but also as an indication of the size of the potential market available to businesses willing to innovate.
He urged brokers to use technology to develop products and approaches that respond to the realities of different customer groups rather than relying on conventional ways of selling insurance.
“Can we find products that can actually suit these people? But it begins by lowering your cost. And AI will do that for you,” he said.
According to Muganga, AI is changing the basis on which businesses compete. Companies that successfully integrate the technology can potentially make decisions faster, improve customer engagement and deploy their human resources toward higher-value activities.
He cautioned brokers against assuming that their professional expertise alone will shield them from technological disruption.
“AI is not going to replace you. But the person who has mastered AI as a broker will definitely disintermediate your business,” Muganga said.
He urged executives to stop viewing technological change as something that belongs exclusively to IT departments.
Instead, he said, every CEO and employee should develop a working understanding of AI and how it can be applied to their particular role.
“At least every CEO in this room, an AI assistant. Not to simply chat,” he said. “All of you think AI is simply ask ChatGPT this and that. No. That is 0.01 percent of what AI is all about.”
Muganga said brokers should explore AI-powered systems that can assist with research, document analysis, client follow-ups, renewals, reporting and other business functions.
The Victoria University vice chancellor also pointed to the potential of technology to help the insurance sector reach customers beyond the traditional urban market.
He argued that the industry could use lower operating costs and digital platforms to develop more accessible products for people who have historically had limited interaction with insurance providers.
Muganga said this could be particularly important for microinsurance, where technology could help companies reach larger numbers of customers at relatively low cost.
“We have a virgin market,” he said, referring to the opportunity presented by Uganda’s large population and comparatively low insurance penetration.
He also encouraged brokers to reconsider how insurance is marketed, saying that products should be presented in ways that resonate with customers’ everyday needs rather than relying primarily on fear of death or misfortune.
“Sometimes the packaging is a problem. How we send our messages to these people,” he said. “The moment we are telling, ‘Buy this insurance because tomorrow you may not be there,’ who told you?”
Muganga urged insurance companies to begin with small experiments rather than waiting to develop perfect AI strategies.
He recommended that companies identify their most repetitive or difficult processes and attempt to automate them, then assess the results before expanding the approach.
“In 30 days, pick the most painful and repetitive process in your company,” he said. “Ask them to automate it and see how that works.”
He also called for broader AI literacy among employees, arguing that successful adoption should not be left to technology specialists alone.
For companies lacking internal expertise, Muganga said universities and technology specialists could help businesses identify processes suitable for automation and develop customised solutions.
While advocating widespread adoption, Muganga cautioned executives against surrendering decision-making authority to machines.
He said AI should support professionals rather than eliminate human responsibility, particularly where decisions affect customers and the reputation of a business.
“The human being should control everything. That signature should be yours,” he said.
“You can use these tools, agents, models all you want, but make sure you have the grip on them. You are the signing authority that has reviewed, examined everything that goes out.”
His comments were reinforced by IBAU Chairperson Ritah Mutesi Kabayiza, who described AI as an “intern” that can perform tasks but still requires direction from its human supervisor.
“For me, AI remains an intern for me. I need them. They do the work for me. But I remain the boss. I know better,” Kabayiza said.
She said AI could help leaders identify weaknesses in areas such as data management and organisational processes, but it could not replace the human responsibility of building workplace culture and managing people.
“AI is both a mirror and a magnifying glass,” Kabayiza said. “It will help me see what I’m not seeing, or see what is wrong with my organisation, or even what is right.”
The two leaders’ remarks point to an emerging challenge for Uganda’s insurance sector: how to combine professional expertise and human judgment with increasingly powerful digital tools.
For Muganga, the choice facing brokers is increasingly about whether they will use AI to expand what they can do — or allow competitors who adopt the technology to move ahead of them.
“We will become more efficient, we will save, we will retain our clients, but we will also be able to reach millions of more people that we have avoided to this point,” he said.
