In its 2024 Annual Report, the Insurance Crime Bureau (ICB) warned that fraud and organised crime costs South African insurers up billions if not actively disrupted. The actual true cost of fraud echoed by the ICB extends far beyond financial losses, it impacts operational efficiency, drives up premiums and erodes the trust that underpins the entire financial ecosystem. In such a high-risk market, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a critical frontline defence, enabling insurers to detect cases earlier and reduce the overall cost of losses.
This is according to Londiwe Mataga, Head of Governance at Miway Insurance, who says that AI is changing how insurers approach fraud risk, shifting the focus from retrospective investigations to proactive prevention.
“By analysing behavioural trends, historical claims data and telematics information at scale, AI is allowing insurers to identify red flags far earlier in the claims process,” says Mataga.
“This has materially improved operational efficiency, strengthened balance sheet resilience and enhanced protection for honest policyholders, all of which helps to limit premium inflation and support the long‑term sustainability of the industry.”
At a practical level, insurers are increasingly relying on advanced pattern recognition and real‑time data cross‑referencing to identify suspicious claims before a payout is made. Machine learning models can analyse thousands of variables simultaneously, spotting inconsistencies that would be difficult or impossible to detect through manual review alone. This includes identifying unusual claims timing, repeated losses across linked identities, or behavioural patterns that mirror known fraud typologies.
AI also plays an important role in uncovering organised fraud networks. Rather than viewing claims in isolation, insurers can use network analysis to map relationships between claimants, vehicles, properties, devices and supporting documentation. These insights help expose syndicate activity, staged accidents or serial claims behaviour, enabling insurers to intervene earlier and share intelligence more effectively across the industry.
“Fraud is rarely random,” Mataga explains. “AI allows insurers to connect dots across policies and claims, revealing hidden patterns that point to potentially coordinated activity. That intelligence is critical in a market where organised fraud remains a persistent threat.”
Technological advances are also reshaping the claims assessment process itself. Image and voice recognition tools are now being used to flag altered photographs, recycled accident images and manipulated audio footage. Behavioural analytics can assess how claims are submitted, identifying anomalies in language, timing or interaction patterns that may suggest misrepresentation. Meanwhile, Natural Language Processing (NLP) is increasingly deployed to analyse written and spoken communication, helping to identify contradictions or inconsistencies across claim forms, call centre recordings and supporting statements.
However, AI is not a silver bullet, and insurers are acutely aware that the same technologies strengthening defences are also being exploited by criminals.
“AI is a double‑edged sword,” says Mataga. “We are seeing fraudsters weaponize these tools to create synthetic identities, falsified documents and even cloned voices that can convincingly mimic legitimate customers. These techniques are becoming more accessible and more sophisticated, raising the bar for detection.”
This evolving threat landscape has prompted insurers to rethink their approach to technology. Rather than relying solely on automation, many are adopting hybrid models that combine AI‑driven detection with human oversight, governance controls and continuous model monitoring to reduce bias and false positives.
“Increasingly, success comes from pairing intelligent systems with experienced people,” Mataga notes. “AI can surface risk at scale, but strong governance, ethical oversight and skilled investigators remain essential to ensure decisions are fair, accurate and defensible.”
The real power of AI, she says, lies in how intelligence is shared, governed and acted on collectively. “We cannot fight fraud in silos, intelligence should be shared across insurers, industry bodies and law enforcement. If used responsibly, AI has the potential to play a critical role here, fundamentally strengthening trust in the insurance system,” Mataga concludes.
Written by Londiwe Mataga, Head of Governance at Miway Insurance