Lemonade says AI is already reshaping insurance from sales to claims
Lemonade COO Adina Eckstein said the company, built on AI since its founding a decade ago, is using artificial intelligence to drive growth rather than shrink it. Speaking during Calcalist and Google’s AI Week, she said the technology is accelerating the insurer, not slowing it down, and argued that insurance, unlike SaaS, is not threatened by AI because Lemonade is a technology company that builds insurance products. She added that the insurance industry is worth trillions of dollars and is unlikely to disappear, while a software-only startup would struggle to enter because of capital requirements, guarantees and regulation.
Eckstein said Lemonade is growing by more than 30% and expects even faster growth next year, partly by getting more output from its current workforce. On operations, she said AI is central to the business because lower variable costs can translate into lower prices for customers. According to her, 98% of the company’s products are sold by AI, more than 60% of claims are resolved by AI, and all new code is written by AI. The company also uses AI in human resources, finance and other functions.
Addressing employee fears about AI, Eckstein said it is unrealistic to promise people that their jobs will still exist in 10 years. Instead, she urged workers to try new technologies and be among the first to experiment. She said roles are shifting away from routine tasks toward architecture, strategy, oversight, training and coaching, and that those able to adapt will succeed.
Eckstein said no industry fits AI better than insurance, because it is fundamentally a statistical model for pricing risk, and more data makes pricing more accurate. She said Lemonade uses telematics to move beyond basic factors like age and gender in auto insurance and to price based on actual driving behavior. Young drivers, for example, can get rates based on how they drive rather than on stereotypes, which she said improves speed, accuracy and trust in a sector she described as widely disliked. She also said Lemonade has launched a partnership with Tesla offering 50% off insurance for Tesla FSD drivers. In that case, she said, the company is insuring software rather than a person, and only an AI-built insurance product can insure AI itself. When Tesla releases a new FSD version, Lemonade can reprice and insure it again. She said the company is already seeing customers file claims through their own AI agents, a development she said could transform the industry.
