What China is doing with Artificial Intelligence: A case study of Ping An Technology

Ping An Insurance is the second-largest insurance provider in the world after Berkshire Hathaway, with offshoot investments into artificial intelligence technology underlying healthcare and startups. 

Artificial Intelligence: “Making predictions under uncertainty so that humans don’t have to, that previously only humans could do.”

In China’s technological playing field of multi-billion conglomerates, Ping An competes with technology giants Alibaba’s Ant Financial and Tencent’s WeChat. Yet Ping An’s insurance scale gives it a significant edge over its competitors. They can develop their tech while simultaneously applying it to their use-cases in different scenarios. Immediate revision allows Ping An to refine their tech while keeping it relevant to their customers. Ping An’s entire Smart City ecosystem includes healthcare, education, and automobiles.

Their healthcare applications include using AI and big data to diagnose hand foot mouth disease, and determine if one has influenza or not. As pioneers of these techniques in the healthcare industry, Ping An has healthcare and finance as its core pillars. Medically, AI enhances the doctors and facilitates efficiency. They report the highest accuracy in detecting lung nodules from X-ray imagery, allowing doctors to scan through lots of imagery in a much shorter duration.

The second function is forecasting for preventative measures. AI modelling crunches big data, where transmissible diseases can be forecast to alert authorities like the health department.

References:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/ai-is-absolutely-critical-for-us-ping-an-technology-ceo.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/shuchingjeanchen/2018/06/06/chinese-giant-ping-an-looks-beyond-insurance-to-a-fintech-future/#215c018348f3