Aerik Corporation and Upstage Partner to Drive Transformation and Efficiency in the Insurance Industry through Generative AI

Aerik Corporation (Headquarters: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and CEO: Ryuji Katsumoto, Stock Code: 7325, hereinafter "Aerik Corporation") has announced a partnership with Upstage AI (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Hiroyuki Matsushita, hereinafter "Upstage") to contribute to the transformation and efficiency improvement of the insurance industry through the application of generative AI (Generative AI).

Through this partnership, both companies will jointly develop and provide advanced AI solutions specialized in the insurance field, promoting digital transformation (DX) and contributing to the overall improvement of industry services.

【Background of the Partnership】

In recent years, the insurance industry has been facing the urgent task of digitalization and the promotion of DX. Many insurance companies still handle a large amount of unstructured data such as paper application forms, invoices, PDFs, and handwritten documents, making manual input and verification tasks a bottleneck for efficiency. Such cumbersome document processing not only reduces productivity but also carries the risk of human error.

Additionally, insurance business is complex with regulations and compliance with laws such as the Insurance Business Act requiring specialized knowledge and effort. Against this background, the need for DX in the insurance industry is growing, and the application of generative AI is gaining attention as an important theme for the future among domestic insurance companies.

On the other hand, generative AI (including large language models/LLM), which has rapidly developed in recent years, has advanced natural language understanding and generation capabilities, and is expected to be applicable to solving such challenges in insurance operations.

For example, in the benefit payment assessment process, AI can interpret manuals and regulations based on the submitted information to make assessments, and present the judgment results, reasons, and basis. By utilizing generative AI in such applications, it is possible to simultaneously achieve faster information processing and improved judgment accuracy.

By incorporating such advanced technologies into the field, it is expected to improve the efficiency of insurance payment operations and contract review operations, strengthen compliance responses, and enhance customer service.

【Roles of Both Companies】

In this partnership, both companies will play the following roles, leveraging their respective strengths.

Aerik Corporation

Aerik Corporation will provide a wealth of insurance product databases and business expertise accumulated through the operation of the insurance shop "Hoken Clinic" and the development of insurance analysis systems.

For example, Aerik Corporation possesses data such as the terms and conditions of life and non-life insurance companies and utilizes them in the search system "AS FiNDER" to extract necessary information quickly and accurately. Additionally, Aerik Corporation has a wide range of business channels with insurance companies and agencies, contributing to the deployment of solutions within the industry.

Upstage AI

Upstage AI provides business-specific AI solutions that allow companies to safely and practically utilize generative AI. With Document AI technology, which has a wealth of implementation experience with global leaders, and Japanese-focused LLM, Upstage AI makes internal documents and business knowledge usable by AI, supporting the construction and operation of RAG/AI agents. Through the digitization of paper documents, advanced information extraction, and the generation of natural language-based Q&A, Upstage AI transforms paper data that has been dormant in the field into "corporate assets for the AI era," leading the technical application of generative AI in insurance operations.

【Partnership Content】

Under this partnership, Aerik Corporation and Upstage will jointly advance the following initiatives.

Joint planning and implementation of solutions for insurance operations

Both companies will plan and develop generative AI solutions specialized in the insurance field (e.g., presenting the reasoning and basis for benefit payment assessment and underwriting assessment operations) by combining their strengths. They will jointly design practical functions that meet field needs and rapidly build prototypes.

Promotion of Proof of Concept (PoC)

Both companies will collaborate to conduct PoCs of the developed solutions in the actual operations of insurance companies and agencies. By leveraging Aerik Corporation's industry network to recruit collaborators and conducting verification with field data, they will evaluate the effectiveness and accuracy of generative AI and refine the solutions by reflecting feedback.

Market deployment and support

Based on the insights gained from PoCs, both companies will provide the refined solutions as a joint service to the insurance industry. By combining Aerik Corporation's sales channel-based introduction proposals and Upstage's technical support system-based introduction support, they will aim for smooth deployment and establishment in insurance companies and agencies.

【Future Prospects】

Currently, both companies are receiving numerous inquiries from life and non-life insurance companies regarding PoCs (proof of concept) and business system development, primarily focused on benefit payment assessment and underwriting assessment operations.

Aerik Corporation has already started proposal activities combining its business expertise, data assets, and network in the insurance industry with Upstage's generative AI technology, and has gained high interest and positive feedback in multiple cases.

In particular, expectations are growing not only for the efficiency improvement of simple document reading but also for AI utilization that supports "reading," "understanding," and "judgment," and the application of generative AI in the insurance industry is entering a new phase.

In the future, both companies will advance verification in actual business operations through PoCs and aim to construct an implementation model of "organizational knowledge × generative AI" in the insurance industry.

■ Aerik Corporation

Comment by Kenjiro Takedabe, Vice President

Our company has been working on providing solutions to bring innovation to the insurance industry under the banner of "People × Insurance × Technology." Generative AI is a groundbreaking technology that has the potential to transform the way business is conducted. We are very pleased to be able to partner with Upstage, a company with outstanding AI technology.

By combining our expertise and data in the insurance field with Upstage's cutting-edge AI, we are confident that we can create solutions that contribute to solving long-standing challenges in the insurance industry, such as the efficiency of document processing and compliance with regulations. First, we will succeed in PoCs that fully utilize the strengths of both companies and accelerate the DX of the entire Japanese insurance business.

Kenjiro Takedabe, Vice President, Aerik Corporation

■ Upstage AI

Comment by Hiroyuki Matsushita, Representative Director

We believe that this partnership will open up new possibilities for the application of generative AI in the insurance industry. By combining the vast insurance data and business knowledge cultivated by Aerik Corporation over the years with Upstage's cutting-edge Document AI technology and Japanese-focused LLM, we aim to create AI solutions that are truly useful in the field.

Under a secure and reliable environment, we will provide mechanisms that allow field staff to confidently utilize the power of AI, and realize the efficiency and sophistication of important operations such as insurance payments and contract reviews. Through this partnership, we aim to strongly promote the promotion of DX in the Japanese insurance industry and bring positive changes to the entire industry.

Upstage