Victoria University Vice Chancellor Prof. Lawrence Muganga has challenged insurance brokers to urgently embrace artificial intelligence (AI), warning that those who fail to adapt risk losing business to competitors who use the technology to work faster, reduce costs and reach more customers.
Speaking at the monthly Insurance Brokers Association of Uganda (IBAU) CEO Breakfast Meeting at Four Points by Sheraton on Friday, Prof. Muganga said AI should not be viewed primarily as a threat to jobs, but as a tool that can take over repetitive administrative work and give professionals more time to focus on activities that require human judgment.
"AI is not going to replace you but the person who has mastered AI as a broker will definitely disintermediate your business. Are you going to blame AI? No. Blame your inefficiencies. Blame your choices. Blame your ability to take yourself as a sensible human being," he warned.
Muganga argued that the insurance industry has an opportunity to use AI to transform the way brokers handle paperwork, quotations, renewals, reports, customer communication and other repetitive processes.
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He said brokers spend too much of their time on administrative tasks at the expense of the professional advice and customer relationships for which they are ultimately employed.
"How often do you do that? Because you are taken up by so much paperwork -- too many emails, quotations, comparing this, reading through this, sending the meetings. So when do you have time to add advice?" he asked.
"Seventy percent of your time, you are doing all those things. But I can guarantee you that if you adopted, embraced and learned artificial intelligence, you can save that time -- 70 percent of your time -- and use it to do actually what you are supposed to be paid to do."
Muganga used examples from the history of technology to challenge what he described as excessive caution towards new innovations.
He cited the early scepticism surrounding the telephone, electric light, television, computers and artificial intelligence, arguing that technologies that were once dismissed as impractical eventually became part of everyday life.
He also referred to the development of AI, pointing to the work of computer scientist Alan Turing and AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton as examples of ideas that were initially met with scepticism but later became influential.
"So do you want us to talk about you like that? Fifty years, 20 years -- yours is not going to be 40 years, don't worry. Even three years, we can talk about you like that," Muganga said.
"Don't become sensible people. At least play ignorant with the yearning to know."
He said businesses that embrace AI early could gain more time to focus on growth, customer service and new opportunities.
Muganga encouraged CEOs to think beyond using AI simply as a chatbot and instead explore AI assistants and automated systems capable of carrying out multiple business processes.
He said AI could be deployed to read and organise information, prepare reports, create presentations, monitor deadlines and support research.
"All of you think AI is simply ask ChatGPT this, ChatGPT this and that. No. That is 0.01 percent of what AI is all about," he said.
"Learn how to ask the questions. Learn how to automate these things. Learn how to make things happen."
Muganga said companies could start by identifying their most repetitive and time-consuming processes and testing whether AI could automate them.
"Pick the most painful and repetitive process in your company. Give it to maybe different people and ask them to automate it and see how that works. Then also try, in a full year, to train everyone. Not the IT person."
He said companies could also bring in AI specialists in the same way they hire plumbers, electricians or IT professionals to solve specific problems.
"The same way you bring in an electrician, the same way you bring in an IT person, this is the same way this is going to really unfold," he said. "You bring in an AI expert to help you automate your business. You will thank me tomorrow."
Muganga linked AI adoption directly to the industry's ability to reduce operating costs and reach more Ugandans.
He argued that lower administrative costs could create room for brokers and insurers to offer more accessible products to customers, particularly in an economy where insurance penetration remains low.
He also pointed to opportunities in microinsurance and the potential for technology to help the industry develop products that are better suited to underserved populations.
"The market is still huge. But you can gain your freedom by simply welcoming what Madam Chair called an intern. Welcome a partner in your life. Welcome an expert in your life," he said.
He said insurance products are sometimes marketed through messages centred on death and loss, which can make customers uncomfortable, particularly in cultures where discussions about death are sensitive.
"Sometimes the packaging is a problem. How we send our messages to these people," he said. "The moment we are telling them, 'Buy this insurance because tomorrow you may not be there,' who told you? I didn't."
He argued that the industry should find more appropriate ways of presenting insurance as a tool for financial protection, planning and opportunity rather than relying heavily on fear.
IBAU Chairperson Ritah Mutesi Kabayiza agreed that AI could support insurance businesses but emphasised that technology should not remove the human element of leadership.
Kabayiza described AI as an "intern" within an organisation -- capable of carrying out important tasks but still requiring supervision, review and direction from a human leader.
"At the end of the day, as leaders, especially in this room, because this is a CEO's breakfast, even with AI, you remain a steward of your people," Kabayiza said.
"You cannot use AI to manage your people. You have to remain a steward of your people."
She said AI could help executives identify problems within their organisations, particularly around data and information management, but argued that identifying a problem and solving it are two different things.
"AI is both a mirror and a magnifying glass," she said. "I will use AI to get to know the problems in my organisation. I have problems around data. I have problems around how we store things. AI could do that."
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"But if I have a poor culture, for example, AI will help me to know that there is a poor culture in the organisation, but it will not help me to fix it. I, the individual, the person, the real human being, will have to fix the poor culture."
Kabayiza said the technology should therefore complement rather than replace human leadership.
"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."
Human oversight remains critical
Muganga also stressed that AI-generated work must remain subject to human review.
He advised CEOs to maintain control over information and ensure that important documents, communications and decisions are reviewed and approved by authorised people before they are released.
"The human being should control everything. That signature should be yours," he said.
"You are the signing authority that has reviewed, examined everything that goes out. Don't trust the machine. We haven't reached there yet."
For Muganga, the future of insurance will therefore not be about choosing between people and AI, but about combining human expertise with increasingly capable digital tools.
"AI is like a baby," he said. "We just need to embrace this child, nurture it and grow it. It will become an adult that we want to associate with."
He urged insurance CEOs to begin experimenting with AI now rather than waiting for the technology to become fully mature.
