This paper explores how machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the life insurance industry, focusing on their impact on consumer behavior and decision making, and on insurer strategies. The digital transformation, driven by technologies like generative AI, has reshaped consumer expectations for personalization, convenience, and transparency. AI and ML are being applied to traditional operations like risk underwriting, fraud detection, and premium pricing, as well as to new consumer-centric applications. These technologies enable highly personalized experiences, dynamic pricing, and targeted customer acquisition and retention strategies through tools like chatbots and recommendation systems. While offering significant benefits, their adoption also presents major challenges. These include issues of data privacy, algorithmic bias and discrimination, and the need for greater model explainability and transparency to build consumer trust. The future of the industry will likely involve hybrid models that combine AI with human oversight to balance efficiency with ethical considerations and consumer confidence.