The latest CII Journal makes a clear statement. AI literacy is now recognised as a core professional skill, sitting alongside numeracy and digital literacy in the updated Professional Map.
That recognition is timely. Artificial intelligence is already part of daily life in insurance, from underwriting and claims handling to fraud detection and customer service. Yet while AI has entered our workflows, our understanding of it often stays at the surface.
To truly future-proof the profession, we need to go further. We need to move from AI literacy to AI fluency.
What AI literacy really means
AI literacy is the ability to understand what AI is, where it fits, and how to use it responsibly. It means having enough knowledge to use digital tools safely and to recognise that AI must be governed by the same ethical and regulatory standards that guide any other business process.
That is a crucial foundation but it is only the beginning.
AI fluency goes deeper
AI fluency is something different. It is the ability to question, interpret and apply AI-driven insights with confidence. It means knowing when to trust an output, when to challenge it and when to rely on human judgement instead.
Fluency is not about coding models or building algorithms. It is about thinking critically about what those systems produce.
An AI fluent claims professional can spot when an automated recommendation may be biased by incomplete data. An AI fluent underwriter can assess whether a model’s risk prediction truly reflects customer behaviour or if it is skewed by historical assumptions.
In simple terms, literacy helps us use AI. Fluency helps us govern it.
The missing link: professional judgement
Insurance has always been a profession grounded in human decision making, in judgement, empathy and accountability. As technology advances, these qualities become even more important.
AI can analyse faster than any human but it lacks context, emotion and moral reasoning. The future insurance professional must be able to combine the precision of data with the discernment of experience.
That is why fluency matters. It ensures that human oversight remains the anchor of trust in a world shaped by algorithms.
Building AI fluency into professional culture
Developing fluency is not just an individual responsibility. It is an organisational one. Firms will need to embed it into learning frameworks, governance policies and even job design.
This could mean:
• Including AI awareness and validation in training and certification programmes
• Creating cross disciplinary teams that combine data specialists with underwriters, claims experts and compliance leads
• Embedding model governance and ethics reviews in product design and decision processes
The goal is not to slow innovation but to strengthen it. Every use of AI should be transparent, explainable and accountable.
A shift from adoption to understanding
The CII’s decision to include AI literacy in its Professional Map is a vital step forward, but the next evolution is already in sight.
As new tools emerge and decision making becomes more automated, professionals must move beyond understanding how AI works to understanding why it behaves the way it does. That is where fluency begins.
The future of the insurance profession will not be defined by how quickly it adopts AI but by how wisely it uses it.
In the age of intelligent machines, wisdom will be our greatest differentiator.
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