How AI helps your critical illness coverage

Critical illness is one of the most vital forms of insurance coverage, next to hospitalisation and life insurance. However, critical illness coverage can also be complex: not everyone faces the same risk, when it comes to conditions like heart attack, cancer, stroke, etc. Everything from lifestyle to genetic factors play a role. To top it off, the “correct” amount of critical illness coverage to buy isn’t easy to determine: it varies from person-to-person, and also includes other factors like income and age. Here’s how AI is making your critical illness coverage better:

1. More personalised and accurate risk assessment
At the moment, insurers make risk assessments based on health check-ups. AI can take this a step further. For example, it can provide real-time health monitoring and assessments: Continuous tracking of health metrics allows AI to adjust recommendations over time. This means that if you improve your health (e.g., quit smoking, drop to a healthy weight, etc.) AI may suggest lower premiums or policy adjustments.

This might be especially important in Singapore, where one-in-three people are at risk of diabetes. At the moment, having diabetes might prevent you from getting certain forms of coverage, as diabetes and many critical illnesses (e.g., heart attack and stroke) are interlinked. 

2. Predictive modelling for future risks
AI can adjust premiums based on the probability of future risks (and update you accordingly.) Most people think of this as predicting the likelihood of cancer, or other such critical illnesses, based on factors like genetics, environment, diet, etc. While this is part of what AI can do, it can also go one step further:

AI can also use predictive models to factor in financial aspects like income, savings, and even the rising cost of healthcare over time. This helps to minimise the guesswork in buying sufficient coverage. If you manage to stay healthy and active, for instance, AI tracking may be able to inform you’ve become over-insured.

Predictive models can even take account likely changes based on age and family situation, such as if you have another child to look after, or if your children are now independent.

3. More effective dementia screening
On 4th February 2025, NTU launched an AI-driven dementia screening test. Taking just around 15 minutes, the app can be run on a tablet. All it takes is for the user to complete a series of tasks, such as memorising grocery lists, to diagnose pre-dementia with around 90 per cent accuracy.

Prior to this, dementia screening was a slow and involved process, which often required clinical appointments (which also carried higher costs.) Dementia is covered under critical illness insurance policies, so such tests will help policy holders make claims as appropriate.

4. A national genetic testing programme
There’s still much more to come, with the Ministry of Health (MOH) injecting around $200 million into AI-related healthcare technology. One of the earliest manifestations of this will be a genetic testing programme for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), an inherited condition which can raise the risk of heart disease.

Depending on the success of this, future tests for critical illnesses such as breast cancer screenings can also be executed through AI. This can significantly cut down on waiting times in clinics, and it means we can identify and treat such illnesses sooner.

While the AI revolution is poised to change critical illness insurance for the better, there’s still one thing it can’t do yet: that’s to craft innovative policies, with features that add value. One example of this are insurance policies that can protect you again, if a critical illness recurs; such as if a cancer recurs. You can also consider customisable term insurance plans to complement this, to ensure your family is protected if the worst happens. So it’s a good idea to search for an insurer that’s innovative, in both adopting AI and in crafting flexible policies.