RBC Insurance says its AI underwriting and fraud detection technology saved it $2.4 million in fraudulent claims during fiscal 2025, which ended Oct. 31, 2025.
Clara — for claims lifecycle automated recommendation assistant — determines which claims are legitimate more quickly and efficiently than people can, said Vik Luthra, the insurer’s chief digital, data and strategy officer in an interview.
Complex disability claims, for example, can involve several medical professionals and pages of medical paperwork, Luthra said. AI is better at catching fraud, and it can do so at about 10-times the speed of human claims specialists.
Increasingly, fraudsters are using AI to generate forged doctor’s notes. With Clara, RBC Insurance is fighting fire with fire.
“We have target profitability that we want to achieve,” Luthra said. “Anything that we’re able to achieve in terms of efficiencies or productivity beyond that allows us to affect our pricing models, which have a long-term impact on premiums.”
Clara also helps underwrite term life policies up to $3 million for applicants under age 55. It can determine whether a policy application should be approved instantly or if an underwriter needs to ask for more information, Luthra said. This allows underwriters to focus on complex cases.
“We have to answer to shareholders,” Luthra said. “We scale that volume in a sustainable way that protects us from a business and earnings perspective.”
RBC Insurance plans to expand Clara’s underwriting capabilities to all insurance products, Luthra added.
The integration of AI required a technology system overhaul at RBC Insurance. Like other financial institutions with long histories, the company has multiple legacy systems as a result of multiple acquisitions. Some date back four decades, Luthra said.
RBC Insurance’s new centralized client data storage allows applications to talk to each other and organizes data in an AI-readable manner.
In the next five years, Luthra said he expects AI to provide benefits in the nine-figure range for RBC Insurance. “That’s going to translate to providing better advice, being more productive in our business and delivering more competitive price points to clients,” he said.