ChatGPT delivers fourfold conversion uplift for insurer

Speaking at the Insurtech Insights conference in London yesterday (19 March), Garcia said early data from Spanish insurer Tuio, the first provider in the world to launch an app with ChatGPT last month, shows AI is already a meaningful distribution channel.

He said around 15% of Tuio’s new customers were coming through ChatGPT “and the traffic converts around four times traditional traffic from Google.”

His comments come a month after Insurance Post revealed OpenAI had approved the first insurance app within ChatGPT, built by Tuio and powered by WaniWani, enabling users to receive personalised home insurance quotes.

Garcia described the launch as a breakthrough moment for insurance distribution, noting it took just six weeks to build and secure approval for the app.

“We were the first in the world as an insurance company to be able to launch and be accepted. It took us three weeks to build the app, and then three more weeks to get it accepted,” he said.

The market reaction was swift. 

Within 24 hours of launch, share prices of major brokers including Aon, Willis Towers Watson, Marsh, Brown & Brown and Gallagher fell sharply, reflecting investor concerns about the potential disruption to traditional distribution models.

Garcia said the reaction underscored how seriously markets are taking the emergence of a new “interaction layer” within large language models.

“We can have a debate on how big of a channel this is going to be. I don’t think we can have a debate on if it is actually going to be a channel because I’m sure it is already,” he said.

Underestimating scale

Raphael Vullierme, co-founder and chairman of WaniWani, added he is currently working with 20 more insurers on their own ChatGPT interaction.

He shared most of the market is significantly underestimating the scale of AI-driven traffic because it is poorly captured in traditional analytics tools.

Vullierme said the higher conversion rates seen by Tuio reflect a fundamental shift in customer behaviour, with decision-making increasingly happening in ChatGPT-like interfaces rather than on insurer’s or price comparison websites.

“This shows that the decision is being moved from your website to inside AI,” he said.

“When the consumer or lead arrives on your website, they already have done a much deeper analysis and already are a lot more sure of what they want to buy.”

He added that in some markets, particularly those without strong price comparison ecosystems, AI-driven distribution could rapidly become a dominant channel for direct insurers.

“It can become the biggest channel of most of the kind of direct layer,” Vullierme said.