Two of Britain’s biggest price comparison websites have become the latest firms to see share prices fall over fears that an AI-based rival could upend their business models.
Shares in Mony Group, which owns MoneySuperMarket, and Future, the media company behind Go Compare, dropped on Tuesday after an American company launched an app that uses ChatGPT to help customers find better car insurance deals.
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The sell-off was the latest triggered by fears over how artificial intelligence could affect various industries. Last week more than $1 trillion was wiped off the value of the world’s biggest technology and software companies amid mounting concern over the scale of investments pledged by the likes of Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft.
A new tool developed by Insurify, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, enables users to access rates tailored to their location, driving history, age and credit.
Shares in Mony were trading down more than 13 per cent by midday in London before closing down 14½p, or 8.6 per cent, at 152.8p. Future, which bought Go Compare for £594 million in 2021, closed down 13¾p, or 3 per cent, on 443.6p.
Snejina Zacharia, the founder and chief executive of Insurify, said it was “redefining the insurance shopping experience by making it feel as simple as having a conversation”.
She added: “Drivers can ask questions in plain language, explore personalised quotes, and review real customer feedback, all in one place.”
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In London last week shares in Relx, the FTSE 100 group formerly known as Reed Elsevier, fell 17 per cent over several days after the US start-up Anthropic launched a product which can help to automate work in the legal industry, one of Relx’s key markets.
Sage, the software provider, fell 12 per cent in the same timeframe while the London Stock Exchange Group was down 8 per cent.
Future, which was also caught in the crossfire, is one of the most shorted stocks in the UK.
Shares in Relx and Sage have failed to recover since last week’s falls while those in LSEG have fallen another 1.8 per cent.
Insurify’s app had already sparked a rout in US insurance stocks, with Willis Towers Watson closing down 12 per cent on Monday, Arthur J Gallagher down 9.9 per cent and Aon falling 9.3 per cent.
The Insurify tool combines its database of nearly 200 million car insurance quotes with tens of thousands of customer reviews. It lets shoppers compare options side-by-side and weigh up differences in price, transparency and customer service.
In a note on Tuesday, however, analysts at RBC Capital suggested the sell-off in Britain may be premature. “Actionable price-discovery has existed in the UK since the dawn of the price comparison website market. Insurify at the headline level represents a change to a domestic market, not a global phenomenon,” the note said.
“Insurify will only have its own way until other US competitors create the same proposition — is that materially different versus the current market structure in the UK between MoneySuperMarket, Go Compare and Compare the Market, save for the greater AI enablement?”
The analysts said UK players may even be “best placed” to layer AI tools and a large language model app on top of their existing propositions against a new market entrant.