Expanding insurance responsibly in the AI era
Uganda's insurance sector is growing, yet formal insurance penetration remains low relative to the size and needs of the economy. AI is helping insurers understand customers better, improve product discovery and reach underserved segments. It also introduces new regulatory questions around fairness, transparency, data use, cybersecurity and accountability.
The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda engaged Otic to examine both sides of this equation: how AI could support customer acquisition and market development and how the sector could govern the technology responsibly.
Across functional regulatory engagement
The programme brought together more than 10 participants from regulatory and information technology functions, alongside members of the regulatory sandbox team and the authority's AI committee. The principal business use case was customer acquisition. Participants explored how AI could support segmentation, engagement, and service design without enabling unfair exclusion, opaque decision making, or misuse of personal information.
The governance framework
Otic developed a formal AI governance framework specifically for IRA. The framework addressed areas including: Risk classification and proportional control; Defined human oversight and accountability; Privacy and lawful data handling; Fairness and protection against discriminatory outcomes; Explainability and documentation; Cybersecurity and access control; Auditability and monitoring; Consumer protection; Responsible experimentation within regulatory structures.
This engagement linked innovation with regulation from the beginning rather than treating governance as a barrier introduced after deployment. IRA explored how clear safeguards can enable responsible experimentation, strengthen trust, and support sustainable market development.
About the Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda
The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Uganda regulates, supervises, and supports the development of Uganda's insurance industry. Its mandate includes protecting policyholders, promoting sound market conduct, supporting sector stability, and encouraging responsible innovation and market growth.
About Otic
Otic is an enterprise AI company helping organisations build, govern, and scale practical artificial intelligence. We combine local industry knowledge with enterprise technology to develop AI agents, intelligent platforms, responsible AI frameworks, and workforce capability across financial services, government, education, and industry. Our work connects strategy, people, data, and infrastructure so that AI moves beyond experimentation into secure measurable institutional value.