Insurance carriers spend 7% of AI deployment costs on tokens and API fees. The other 93% goes to engineering, infrastructure, human validation, compliance oversight, and exception handling. This brief introduces the AI Cost Iceberg framework, maps the hidden layers for a representative claims-triage deployment, and shows why exception rate — not token volume — predicts total cost and financial viability. For carriers modeling year-one ROI alone, the business case looks marginal; year two tells a different story once build costs are recovered. Strategic recommendations cover stage-gate financial governance, pre-AI baselines for cost-per-outcome metrics, and why centralized AI cost governance pays for itself.
Clients of Datos Insights’ Life, Annuities, & Benefits and Property & Casualty services can download this report.
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